Eat Here: Fromagerie Lemaire Restaurant

What's going on with me? I had never tried poutine up until a few years ago (and this – even though I lived in Montreal for four years), yet suddenly can’t get enough of the stuff. I’ve had it high (Martin Picard and Jamie Kennedy’s versions) and low (Harvey’s). I’ve had it here, in Calgary, just last night at Charcut Roast House, a great new restaurant in the great new Le Germain hotel, and there, in Quebec City.

There’s an honest-to-goodness poutine boom going on in Toronto, as this “fries as a meal” dish appears on most restaurant menus, in chip trucks and even at standalone poutine haunts such as Smoke’s Poutinerie and Poutini’s House of Poutine.

What is poutine? Fresh cut french fries, chicken gravy, cheese curd. Those are the basics. I find the rest of it – foie gras and shredded shortribs, lobster and béarnaise sauce, pulled pork and curried chicken – to be silly, superfluous stuff.

After all, a classic is always timely.

Which brings us to Fromagerie Lemaire Restaurant in Drummondville, Quebec. See how the word fromagerie is right in the title of the restaurant? That’s because they make their own cheese on the premises, including the freshest, saltiest, squeakiest cheese curds you’ve ever tasted.

Heaven on a cafeteria tray.