The Only Thing You Need to Know about Old Orchard Beach.

So I'm driving home from class tonight and thinking about what I'm going to write about for tonight's blog. I'm figuring it has to be something extra awesome since I haven't had time to give you the goods for three whole days--I'm failure, I know. Anyway, I'm writing an essay about a place for a creative non-fiction class that requires me to do a little research. That lead me to Old Orchard Beach. Which lead me to the history of OOB; namely, the pier. I'm thinking all about what I'd like to know about the pier when one word pops into my head that sums up pretty much all you need to know about Old Orchard Beach:

poutine

Who doesn't love a good poutine?! Everyone loves poutine. Fries, gravy, cheese curds! What's not to love!? POUTINE. A dish so delicious that it's even got it's own domain.

That lead me to wondering who the hell came up with poutine? A question I am going to set out to answer for you all. Maybe you already know the history of poutine, but bear with me. I'm not sure what I'll find since, like many great culinary creations, poutine may very well have started out as someones garbage plate.

Maybe it was born from a particularly sloppy bucket of bus-tub buffet? Maybe a five-star French-Canadian chef put french fries on a plate, drowned them in gravy, and said, "It's missing something!" then covered it with cheese and kissed his fingers? Maybe somebody just got downright weird and started the trend? Who knows? Well, the internet, of course. I'm hoping.

Poutine is a French thing, tres, tres French. Which explains why it runs rampant throughout the Biddeford/Old Orchard region. And basically anywhere in Maine.  According to the Montreal Poutine's website, there are many claims to poutine-invention-fame. The earliest claim, however, goes to Fernand LaChance, when in 1957 a gentleman walked into his restaurant, Lutin Qui Rit, and ordered french fries and cheese curds in the same bag. Swearing at the man that he would make a damned mess, "ça va faire une maudite poutine!" he obliged. 

Fries n' cheese caught fire but the gravy train supposedly didn't come along until 1964 when a man named Jean-Paul Roy laid stake to the claim that he invented poutine as we know it today--fries, cheese, gravy and all. According to him, he noticed customers adding his special potato sauce to LaChance's cheese fries and decided to deliver the world poutine.

And offer the world poutine he did! Look at his menu; 20 different types of poutine! TWENTY! And you know they're all good because they're Quebecois.

To the restauranteers of OOB: I beg of you, please, please, learn how to make amazing poutine. There is some debate about messing with the original, but I say if you're French, or if your great-grandmother's cousin owned a French Bulldog, or if you watched a French cooking show one time, and you can create amazing cuisine--because poutine is cuisine-- then throw it at me! I've never met a poutine I didn't like.