Chien Chaud (hot dogs in Quebec), Smoked Meat Sandwich, Poutine

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POUTINE, (continued)

   I didn't find "poutine" in my reading of Quebec cuisine in the 1950s,
1960s, and early 1970s.  A Google search claims that it all began in 1957.
Search for Fernand Lachance.  There are several articles in the early 1980s
on the Dow Jones database from the GLOBE AND MAIL.  A 12-27-1982 article
indicates that the author had first encountered poutine two years ago.  A
7-18-1984 article declared poutine "The newest fast food fad in Quebec."

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CHIEN CHAUD, SMOKED MEAT SANDWICH (continued)

August 1954, HOLIDAY, pg. 15, col. 2:
   ...Ben's on Burnside near Metcalfe Street.  Here the specialty is a
smoked-meat sandwich more than an inch thick that has become famous from
Miami to Hollywood through visiting actors.  (...)  The sandwich with dill
pickle and coffee costs 75c.

September 1959, HOLIDAY, pg. 52, col. 1:
   In a restaurant named _Le Roi des Frites_, we sat down to French fries and
an excellent local meat pie called _tourtiere_.  Above us a sign read:
_Chiens Chauds_--_Hot Dogs_.  I was falling in love.

15 June 1960, LIBRARY JOURNAL, "Canadian Mecca of French Cuisine: A gourmet's
guide to Montreal," by Jules Bazin, Chief Librarian, Montreal City Library.
Pg. 2342, col. 2:  I regret to say that it is next to impossible to enjoy a
good, hearty French-Canadian meal because, to my knowledge, no restaurant in
Montreal is wholly dedicated to our _habitant_ cuisine.  You may have pea
soup, some _pattes de cochon_, _tourtiere_ and some other dishes in season,
at the Queen's and the New Carlton hotels and elsewhere, but I must confess
that our national dishes are a little heavy for the modern stomach.
  Pg. 2343, col. 2:  Smoked-meat is quite a fad in Montreal, but the only
important Kosher restaurant in this region is BENS DE LUXE DELICATESSEN, 1001
Burnside, behind the Sheraton-Mount Royal.

August 1961, HOLIDAY, "Dining out in Montreal."
Pg. 75, col. 1:  However, even today, the local classified telephone
directory contains twenty-five columns under the heading "Restaurants," and
while most of these remain shrines to _le chien chaud_ (hot dog), _les
patates frites_ and _le poulet Bar-B-Q_, Montreal, in my not-altogether
unbiased opinion, can now claim a larger share of good restaurants than any
other city of its size in North America.
Pg. 78, col. 1 (Moishe's):  Fresh-chopped liver to start and perhaps a side
order or _karnatzle_, a Rumanian dish of minced beef boiled with salt, pepper
and garlic.  Verenikos_ go well with the steak; they are mashed potatoes and
fried onions calted and peppered, wrapped in dough, boiled in water like
five-minute eggs, then served with melted chicken fat.
Pg. 79, col. 4:  Desjardins is the Montreal shocase of the _Malpeque_ oyster,
a large, chewy bivalve which connoisseurs rate above its American
counterpart, and the restaurant has its own plant for shipping oysters,
lobsters and clams from Sunnyside, Prince Edward Island, battling Canada's
stern winters to bring fresh sea food to local tables.
(Desjardins began in 1892; OED has _Malpeque_ from 1901--ed.)
Pg. 80, col. 3:  BEN'S, _1001 Burnside Street_.  Montreal's most famous (and
Canada's largest) delicatessen.  Brisk service, worth a visit for local
specialty of smoked meat, a superior pastrami made from brisket of beef which
takes eighteen months to smoke.

12 May 1967, SATURDAY REVIEW, pg. 71, col. 3:
   It doesn't mean that the Montreal Metro has entirely skirted the scourge
of the billboards.  Indeed, there are exhortations to the French-speaking
population which arrest one with slogans as: "_On ne dit pas hot dog, on dit
Hygrade_."

May 1967, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, pg. 607, col. 2:
   French Canadians also struggle against Americanization of their tongue.
They don't go downtown for "_le shopping_" as Parisians do, but "_pour faire
le magasinage_."  They call a hot dog "_un chien chaud_"--the literal
translation--although this seems a losing battle in the face of ubiquitous
sandwich-shop signs proclaiming "_hot dogs steames_."

22 March 1967, SATURDAY REVIEW, pg. 47, col. 1:
   Most good nights in Montreal ended as ours did, at Ben's, a downtown
delicatessen.  Late-hour revelers straggle in to sample the house
specialties--sandwiches of corned beef and what Shanks insisted on calling
smoked beef.  As the scent wafted into range, I knew it to be something else.
 "Pastrami!" I cried, biting in.  Shanks, the gastronomer, puzzled by my
discovery, called Ben into the picture.  "You're both right," said the owner,
who then began to discourse on the comparative preparation of corned beef and
pastrami smoked beef, while Shanks engaged in a culinary act I had not
observed in delicatessens below the border, that of downing a side order of
french fries with the smoked meat.  If the combination failed to assault the
palate of a French-Canadian, it must be worth a try.

8 January 1977, SATURDAY REVIEW (article by Mordecai Richler).
Pg. 24, col. 1:  Ours is the city that has given Canada, and the rest of the
world...a butcher shop called Notre Dame de Grace Kosher Meat Mart; the
smoked-meat sandwich, a delicacy not to be confused with pastrami;...
Pg. 24, col. 2:  Another favorite restaurant on hockey night is Chex Pauze,
closer to the Forum, on St. Catherine Street, where you can fortify yourself
against the cold with Winnipeg Goldeye or Malpeque oysters.  After the game,
others will repair to Schwatz's, on the Main, where the best smoked-meat
sandwiches in town are available.