Poutine is elementary: just French fries, cheese curds, and gravy. First observed in Quebec in the 1950s and named because poutine is slang for mess, it was long thought of as déclassé fare dished out at drive-ins and snack bars. It still is that, but it also has become a point of pride in Canada, something like a national dish. While there are vague cognates in the U.S.A.—New Jersey’s disco fries, Aroostook County’s fry mix in Maine, chili-cheese fries everywhere—real poutine is rare below the International Boundary.
It is rare because cheese curds are not appreciated in the States except in Wisconsin (“America’s Dairyland” according to its license plates), where they are a barroom beer companion. In America’s Deep South, dairy farming is not so exalted, and menus almost never offer cheese curds, let alone poutine. However, you can eat them in the town of Dearing (population: 529) in McDuffie County, Georgia, at the Deep South Cheese & Grill. The restaurant’s slogan is: “Bringing cheese curds and poutine to the South.”
