Trader Joe’s Poutine

A number of years ago a friend introduced me to the deliciousness that is Poutine. If you’re not familiar poutine is a Canadian dish that originated out of Quebec. The dish itself is a combination of French fries, brown gravy and cheese curds. There are only 2 places in my local area that sell the dish … so when I spotted the Trader Joe’s Poutine in the grocery freezer section, I was excited.

I knew going into this, it could go either way … it could be exceptionally delicious or it could be a complete fail.  I followed the package directions and baked the French fries off in the oven and put the gravy and cheese curd pouch in a pan of water and put it on a low flame to heat through.  When everything was done, I assembled the poutine and dished up a serving for myself.

Sadly… this was a total fail. The French fries were mediocre, the gravy was a bit on the plainer side and was in some serious need of seasonings and the cheese curds (admittedly not the worst thing) were so rubbery and chewy (far more than fresh cheese curd). If someone had never had poutine in the past, perhaps this would be a passable dish … but if you’ve ever had the real deal this more than likely wouldn’t even come close. The general consensus across the board from all those that tried it were pretty much the same.

A serving size is 16 fries with sauce and cheese (120 grams), which runs 200 calories or 5 points plus values.