Poutine, Dutch Mess, Steame, Guedille, Mae West, Screetch, et al. (1985)

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"Gourmet Poutine" by Barry Lazar
http://www.montrealfood.com/poutine.html

   In Boston, gravy is poured on top of french fries and the dish is called
"wets."  But only in Quebec did the three essential ingredients--fries,
cheese, and sauce--come together to make poutine.

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ACROSS THE TABLE:
AN INDULGENT LOOK AT FOOD IN CANADA
by Cynthia Berney Wine
Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall Canada, Inc.
1985

   "Poutrine" is not in the OED.  Almost none of the Canadian food terms that
follow can be found in the OED.  This is not good.
   This book is cited in the "poutine" entry in THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FOOD.  Some of these terms, like "poutine," should make the OXFORD
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD (2004), if only for the sake of comparison.

Pg. 15:  In Newfoundland where they combine salt cod and potatoes to make
fish 'n brewis (pronounced "bruise") they know nothing of Dutch Mess, a dish
of the same ingredients that tastes completely different when it's made in
Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.

Pg. 15:  Middle-eastern donairs (pita stuffed with shaved meat and topped...
(Pg. 16 not copied--ed.)

Pg. 25:  The best of Atlantic food is a mystery to the rest of us.  It even
sounds foreign--figgy-duff, scrunchions, Dutch Mess, hodge podge.

Pg. 26:  Commercial attempts at Dutch Mess (a sumptuous concotion of salt
cod, cream ,potatoes, and crunchy scrunchions) are as disappointing as
overcooked corporate clams.
   Hodge podge is one of the best examples of an Atlantic Canada dish that
you can only get in homes.

Pg. 29:  When a superior questioned the odd behaviour of his men, he was
told, "It's that drink, sir.  We drink it, walk a block, run a block and then
screetch a block."

Pg. 36:  A sampling of the better bake sales might bring molasses cookies,
molasses cakes (called lassy cakes in Newfoundland) and potato fudge (grated
potatoes instead of flour makes for creamy candy).

Pg. 54:  ...Calvabec (Quebec's answer to Calvados brandy)...

Pg. 55:  The cipaille (pronounced sea-pie and thought to be derived either
from six-pates or from the English sea-pie which was made with the fish) is
three layers of pastry which enclose various types of game and gravies.

Pg. 55:  Tourtiere is the more famous Quebec meat pie, so famous that along
with pea soup, it has become the cliche of Quebecois cuisine, often served
when Canadian specialties are expected.
(OED has it from 1953!  One Canadian food term!--ed.)

Pg. 57:  Quebeckers' love of sweetness is legendary.  (The joke about the
most popular breakfast being Pepsi and Mae West--a large chocolate cookie
filled with cream--is not a complete fabrication.)
(Called a "classic line" in soc.culture.canada, 12-14-1992.  "Mae West" is in
the revised OED, but only as a life preserver--ed.)

Pg. 66:  In Montreal there are the traditional _steames_, found mostly in the
pool halls along St. Lawrence Avenue.  A _steame_ consists of a hot dog
steamed in its bun, something like ball park hot dogs, so that the dog and
blanket become as one.  Just before the pool hall owner wipes his hands on
his apron and hands the dog to you, he adds a large splat of cole slaw and
some chopped onions.

Pg. 67:  On my last trip, there were morenos--stewy black beans and cheese on
a tostada, found in a Guatemalan restaurant in the east end.  And there is
always innovation: a (Pg. 68--ed.)  few years ago, Montrealers began to flock
to pizzerias that prepare the pies in wood-fired ovens.
   But you have to know where to find most of these foods.  I once searched
Montreal for days for the _poutine_, an amazing concoction of French fries,
cheese and gravy which I first sampled in Vancouver, where some Quebec
expatriates were selling it and _steames_ to curious Vancouverites.  They
filled a Styrofoam dish with freshly made French fries, sprinkled the fries
with lumps of white Cheddar cheese curds, then poured a slightly spicy hot
gravy over the curds.  The gravy causes the curds to melt and so cements the
three layers of potatoes, cheese and sauce into one.  It is good and
satisfying in the way only those kinds of things can be.
   On subsequent visits, I have encountered the _poutine_ many times outside
of Montreal.  At a country fair oputside Quebec City a number of years ago, I
discovered the _guedille_, a handheld version (and even possible forerunner)
of the _poutine_.  It was a hot dog bun filled with gravy-covered French
fries.  (Actually, the gravy was optional.  Some of tehm, perhaps simply in a
move toward some vegetable accompaniment, were covered only in ketchup.)  The
hot dog bun is different from the one with which most of us are familiar.  It
is flat-bottomed at the hinge, so that it can rest flat on the table, and it
also holds more, almost like a boat.

Pg. 90:  Pasta alla puttanesca is prepared "whore's style," purportedly
because its quickie preparation using tomatoes, garlic and anchovies required
little lost time between engagements, or because its heady aroma lured
prospective clients.

Pg. 92:  There were rice puddings and that particularly Portuguese dessert
called Flan--sometimes also called "365" after the number of days it is
served in Portguese restaurants.

Pg. 116:  ...the invewntiveness of Alberta shooters like the Dirty Cowboy or
Test Tube Baby, nor can they know the lilting joy of a gulp or beer and
tomato juice, the popular Red-eye.

Pg. 144:
   FLAPPER PIE
You don't see that much of this heaping custard-meringue pie anymore.  It was
a specialty of the Salisbury House chain and part of life for anyone who ate
their wonderful nips and ended an already heavy meal withj its three layers
of Graham cracker crust, custard filling and meringue topping.

Pg. 133:  And if the drink is ordinary, the name, whether it be the Barley
Sandwich (a glass of beer) or the Red-eye (a glass of beer with tomato
juice), isn't.  (...)  The Alberta Restaurant and Food Association, in fact,
claims that the Bloody Caesar was invented at the Calgary Inn.

Pg. 133:  There's the Dirty Cowboy made up of tequila, kahlua and cream; the
Blue Monkey of creme de banana, parfait d'amour and vodka.  Skid Row is
anisette, grenadine and tequila.  The B-52, made with kahlua, Grand Marnier
and Irish creme, is by far the most popular shooter on the Prairies and has
the flavour so well loved that patrons of Hopkins Dining Room in Moose Jaw,
Saskatchewan, happily eat it in the restaurant's specialty--B-52 pie.  Of
course, there are dozens of other shooters, some of which, like the one
called Orgasm, won't be described here.

Pg. 124:  Most of these concoctions sound as if they have been named by
three-year-olds.  Hello Dollies are a mixture of chocolate chips, nuts and
coconut; Yum Yums are made with Graham wafers, chocolate chips, walnuts and
condensed milk; Pineapple Delights are egg whites, vanilla and canned
pineapple cubes.  My personal favourites were Melting Moments, which are
nothing more than a bite of egg white meringue with an almond in the centre.
They do,in fact, melt in your mouth in a moment, (Pg. 125--ed.) leaving time
and appetite for Roly Poly, amde with Turkish Delight, nuts, jam, coconut,
and icing sugar.
(See "Melting Moments" in ADS-L archives--ed.)

Pg. 157:  The Nanaimo Bar, a cookie so sweet that it makes your ears ring, is
said to come from Nanaimo, a legend to which the Nanaimo Chambe of Commerce
clings with some tenacity, though there is constant controversy over the
origin of this famous cookie.  Averill Winestock of Victoria, whose plan it
is one day to open a pub in Nanaimo and call it the Nanaimo Bar, knew them as
a child as Auntie Reenie Bars.  I have heard them called Saskatoon Bars and
New York Bars.  Whatever their name, they are eaten everywhere in Canada,
including in St. John's, Newfoundland, where I once saw them advertised in a
restaurant as Nameeno (sic) Bars.
(I'm not familiar with these as "New York Bars."  A recipe is on pages
176-177--ed.)

Pg. 192:  But he also makes soursough bread, so indigenous to the North that
people who have lived there all their lives are called "sourdoughs."  (People
who have not yet spent a winter are called "cheesecakes," which has a
slightly different connotation in the North than it has in the South.)