Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 224

Poutine: Today's new food was totally unplanned, which is always a good thing. Aside from the thrill of surprise, it also means that I can postpone my shopping for one more day. Keeping this blog going isn't exactly easy, so every new food that I don't have to shop for helps. Anyway, me and the GF decided to try Hobnob for dinner tonight, which recently opened in the Virginia Highlands area of Atlanta. Their menu mainly featured standard-issue pub food (burgers, pizzas, etc.), but one item in the starter section caught my eye: poutine. I'd heard of it several times, but never seen it on any local menus, so we decided to give it a try.

If you've never heard of poutine, it's a dish that originated in Canada that consists of french fries covered in brown gravy and cheese curds. I love all those components independently, so I was curious to find out how they all worked together. I'm not sure what type of cheese is typically used, but Hobnob's version included mozzarella curds. I wasn't even sure what "curds" were, but that's what I'm here for, right?
Our dish arrived shortly after ordering, and it looked pretty much exactly how I expected it to look. The fries were layered on the bottom, the cheese curds in the middle, and the gravy on top. We dug in, and it tasted like, well, fries covered in brown gravy and melted cheese. The gravy had a peppery bite, and the cheese curds didn't seem much different from melted mozzarella, to be honest. Good, but it was basically heavy, dense drunk/stoner food probably best enjoyed after a night of partying. The portion was huge, so I'm glad the GF was with me to share.

So, what are cheese curds, exactly? According to Wikipedia, they are the "solid parts of soured milk." The pictures I found online of the cheese curds in poutine didn't look like what I had at all (more like cottage cheese), so maybe the mozzarella ones look different?

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