Poutine in Glasgow? This is getting serious!

OK, let me begin by saying that I think this post deserves being written as a seprate entry instead of being incorporated into a general Glasgow/food/other post. We’re talking about POUTINE here – what other justification does anyone need?

So here’s the deal. I was looking up restaurants in Glasgow that serve various types of cuisine – Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Belgian, and Korean, just to name a few. I know I know, so much for trying local food, right? Don’t worry, I’ll get to the haggis and the deep-fried Mars bar. Of course, I thought, I should look up some beloved food from the True North Strong and Free, and what better to represent the land of Canadia than…POUTINE! (What is poutine, you ask? To put it simply, poutine, pronounced pu-teen, is a Canadian dish of French fries with cheese curds and gravy, invented in Quebec. Let’s not try to think of the implications on health here…)

With anticipation I Googled “poutine in Glasgow”, completely ready to be disappointed. But what I found made me gasp for joy (and worry a little, for my health), for what do you know…there is indeed a place in the city centre that serves our cheese curd-topped, gravy-dripping, artery-clogging goodness. Bread Meats Bread – a clever name for a burger restaurant, isn’t it? My Canadian soul screamed, “GO TRY IT.” So I did.

The restaurant was quite busy when I arrived and I had to wait for a seat. One of the advantages of dining out alone is that you can take the odd seat instead of waiting for a proper table, which were all occupied. After about 2 minutes, the server led me over to a seat in the corner of the restaurant. It was the rightmost one in a horizontal row of three, and the two others have already been occupied, so naturally, the remaining seat would be perfect for me, a lone diner. The best part about this seat? It faced the street and I could see it right through the glass. It was a perfect time to people-watch as I waited for my food, and maybe I was being watched from the outside as well? Who knows 😛

Bread Meats Bread has a variety of burgers, sandwiches, and sides on the menu and I took a brief look before deciding what I wanted. I came for the poutine so of course I ordered that, along with a cheeseburger. As I waited, the server brought me a little bucket with cutlery and napkins. The anticipation was certainly building up and the lovely smell of burgers that filled the air accentuated it even more!

As you can see on the menu, the poutine costed 4 pounds (British currency, not weight) and the burger was 6. If I convert it into Canadian dollars, I would think it is quite expensive, but I ought to stop converting everything in my mind. Taking into account the relative cost of living and the fact that I am earning a salary in British pounds, it is not too bad. Of course, this will all depend on the quality of the food, but even in Canada, 7.5 dollars (an approximate equivalent to 4 British pounds) is within reasonable range, especially if you’re getting it at a restaurant. The wait continued…

And the moment of arrival was glorious and all I thought was – wow. The sight of the poutine, those CHEESE CURDS, in front of me made me wonder if I had been instantaneously teleported back to Canada. The size of that thing was probably what surprised me the most. And that burger was no small beast too. Did I over-order? I was totally sure that I was going to gain 20 pounds that very day, from eating this – in weight, of course, and not British pounds, unfortunately 😦 Then again, I would have to spend some “pounds” to gain some “pounds”. A fair trade? Net gain/loss of zero? If I could persuade myself into thinking that, then my waistline would be five times wider and my wallet would be five times lighter…

Can we just take a moment to appreciate this divine, ingenious, yet sinister creation? I am actually 100% convinced that poutine is mankind’s evilest invention. Focusing just on the poutine, it was actually a lot better than I had expected – just look at those gigantic chunks of cheese curds!! The only weakness was the gravy. If it were thicker, then it would be perfection, though if Glasgow does poutine better than Canada…then we’d have a problem. Side note: the portion of the poutine was so huge that I actually wasn’t able to finish it…and that says a lot because I RARELY leave food unfinished. To give you an idea of how large the plate/pan is, I’d say it was about 2 inches deep and 20-25 cm in diameter? Poutine 1, Annie 0.

Let’s also give some spotlight to the cheeseburger because that’s what Bread Meats Bread specializes in. You can’t see it clearly but there were onions and burger sauce below the meat, and of course those lovely pickles. I always prefer onion over lettuce and tomato on burgers, and when the onions are grilled, that adds many extra points. Oh, and the server asked how I wanted the beef to be cooked, so of course I said medium (the rarest you can get there, it seems). Every single bite was luxurious and juicy and the onions were just wonderful. I was so satisfied.

So, my first experience with poutine in Glasgow had been very positive. This Canadian girl approves of Bread Meats Bread 😀 I am actually trying to find out if there’s anywhere else in Glasgow that would happen to have poutine, since apparently “chips (fries) with cheese and gravy” is not too uncommon in the UK. Until then, bon appetit, and don’t indulge on poutine!