By James MacFarlane

Those who attended last week’s May Day and persevered through the A Day-esque weather were rewarded with a delicious assortment of fine cuisine.

The most popular food of choice was the poutine. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of Smoke’s Poutinerie. I never had much of a taste for poutine in the past, which was probably a result of subpar cooking (my only poutine experience had been out of a sketchy wooden shack in the small northern town of Mattice). Little did I know that I was about to be pleasantly surprised.

I approached the poutine truck, helplessly scanning the menu. Recognizing my dilemma, Head Steward Ryan Manucha and his posse began to shout suggestions in my direction. All I could remember hearing was, “Pulled pork! Pulled pork!” I’m not much of a pork guy, so I went with the chili.

While chili poutine would make an excellent EpicMealTime creation, the ingredients simply don’t gel. Chili and poutine are both wonderful dishes in their own right, but combining the two is a bit overwhelming. I applaud Smoke’s for their boldness, despite the mediocre final product.

After my chili poutine, I began picking pieces from other people’s dishes. I started with Smoke’s absolutely overloaded bacon, which looks enticing but is painfully dry. Next I expected the regular poutine to be plain and boring, but was wowed by the dish’s delicious simplicity.

My final poutine tasting of the day was the well-reviewed pulled pork (nobody ordered the sausage). The flavour hit me instantly. The taste was so profound that I’m having trouble putting it into words. One bite of the pulled pork singlehandedly made up for the chili and bacon abominations.

Other snacks included hot dogs and ice cream, which were also delicious. (You know what they taste like. If you don’t, you should get out more).

After today, I consider myself a poutine fanatic. In fact, it downright angers me that Spell-Check doesn’t recognize poutine as a word (my review is now covered in red squiggly lines). The best advice that I can give all the poutine-haters out there is to go to Smoke’s for a royal chow-down.

(Photo by Rajbir Ahluwalia)