Sweet poo-teen!
The other day I was digging though my computer bag and ran across this:
Poutine is a hard word to say if you aren’t used to saying it. It tends to want to come out as Poo-tane. Time and again, even though you’re not trying to be funny. Even when you’re around a bunch of kids and the last thing you want to say is anything close to a word from a Ted Nugent song.
At one point in a conversation about Poutine I found myself apologizing for the way I might have made it sound. (And I want to make it clear it never sounded as if I’d put an “n” before the “t” or a hard “g” at the end. Still.) A member of the group, a younger woman, asked, “What do you mean?”
This led me to ask, “Are you familiar with any Ted Nugent songs?”
She said, “I know Ted Nugent is the older guy with the wild hair.” This made me feel really really old so I decided to give up trying to explain myself. (The younger woman was not that much younger; she was almost 40.)
Oh. This all happened when I visited Vancouver a while back. (Did Ted never tour Canada? It’s mostly outdoors! He loves the outdoors! There’s all kinds of shit to kill.)
Anyway, as part of the visit to Vancouver we had some Poutine at an A&W Root Beer place (Ted LOVES root beer!). It is, if you are unfamiliar with it, French fries and cheese curds with gravy poured on it. It has, if you are unfamiliar with it, fewer calories than Onion Rings (per the A&W tray liner)… this bummed me out; I thought onion rings were less calorically offensive than they are.
The first time I heard the word we were on our way to A&W when someone suggested we could get Poutine. Seconds later I asked what was in Poo-tane. We then had a conversation in which we discussed the pros and cons of putting several artery-clogging items in a single dish; Poutine seems to be a time-saver for those interested in bringing on immediate cardiac arrest.
Seated at A&W I said “I’ll have a burger and a giant Diet Root Beer. In addition to the Pootane… Putin.”
“Putin” caused the youngest member of the group (13) to laugh out loud.
The following photo made me laugh out loud just a few minutes ago.
I’m thinking Vlad might bring on cardiac arrest in the right circumstance. (I laughed at what I perceive to be the coincidence arising from my calling Poutine Putin when Poutine is what the French call Putin, especially as Poutine is a French-Canadian food item. I’m in no way laughing at Vladimir Putin; he is in charge of Russia, after all.)
French fries, cheese and gravy. What’s not to love? It’s pretty good stuff despite how it looks in the picture below.
Fast forward to when I’m back at work. Mikey dropped by my office while I was emptying my computer bag. When I came across the Poutine mix we giggled like 15-year old boys; not because of the gravy/cheese/fries thing.
Later in the day I stopped by Mike’s desk and picked up a donut. After taking a bite I said, “You know what would taste good on this? Poutine.”
This caused Scott, the engineer at the next desk to quickly turn and urgently whisper-exclaim, “What?”
Not because he loves gravy, cheese and fries. But because he, too, is a fan of The Nuge.
Oh, by the way, in Quebec they have a saying:
Translated you have:
Poutine, which is the fries/gravy/cheese concoction, followed by c’est or it is, and then bon which is, of course, half of bon bon or candy, giving you: Poutine, it’s almost candy.
(It’s good, but not that good.)
ROFL! I have laughed through this entire post! (Underneath this mop of blonde curls is the mind of a 12-year-old boy.)
Poor Putin can’t get a break with his name in any language, can he? *snicker* (However, if KGB happens to be monitoring WADLL, I am in no way snickering at Putin.)
I shall now go find my Nuge CD and listen to some “Wango Tango” (“Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” is just a bit too much for even me.)
It makes me sad that so many places around here make poutine incorrectly…gravy and shredded mozza is not the way it’s done.
Not that I’m allowed to eat that anymore. Le sigh. I miss french fries…
xo
I’m with Princess…
A&W doesn’t make poutine. Great poutine comes from the little chip wagon up the street.
Cheese and gravy… you are right, what’s not to love about that.
im reading subtext that goes like this….
seen that
ate that
bought the t-shirt
WANGO TANGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I nearly ordered poutine at a diner between Fairbanks and North Pole, Alaska last summer. It was the first time I had ever heard of it. I decided my arteries could not handle the poutine. Had this been 10 years ago, I’d have been all over it.
With all the stretches you made in this post, you won’t have to work out for a week
I’ll pass on Poutine, but I’ll take the Nuge any day.
Hysterical – absolutely hysterical… I stopped laughing halfway through and then read you comment about the “Nuge ” and lost it. You’re a funny guy Delmer
We have a place in Syracuse that has poutine and I always wanted to try it. Hmm.. interesting. lol
Does Poutine cause you to put people in a strangle hold and want to crush their face?
HAHAHAHA!!
This post gave me ‘Cat Scratch Fever’!!
Ginger: I wonder if it was the name that made him aspire for greater things.
Princess: I’d taken to substituting Onion Rings for French Fries … as that was the wrong way to go, I’m going to make the move back to Fries. Just smaller portions (and infrequent servings).
Nat: We have wagons like that in downtown Columbus — no Poutine, however. Just brats, dogs, burger, chips etc.
Marty: How is it American college kids have missed the boat on this. There’s nothing like a little beer to bring out inventive food mixing.
Marcia: What’s interesting (to me, anyway) is that 75% of the people responding to this post have eaten Poutine … a food many of the rest had never heard of before.
Sybil: I can tell by the way you wrote that that you applied the appropriate pronunciation to, “Wiiiing diiiing, sweet poo-teen.” I was afraid that was going to be lost on people.
Casey: I understand. The iron-ness of my belly, and the free-flowingness of my blood has been affected somewhat as I’ve aged.
Cap: Maybe you could ease into poutine eating while listening to the Nuge. He’s very nurturing.
Natalie: I wonder if your Poutine is a result of some Canadian bleed over. (It’s only fair. You get their snow.)
John: I’m guessing if you eat it with the proper finesse you might get that response from your dining partner.
Metalmom: It *was* Just What the Doctor Ordered.
I grew up near where Ted went to high school. I am quite a bit younger than he is, but when I was working, the secretary at the school asked me if I knew him. I don’t know why, but I said that he and I were best friends. She totally believed me and just when I was going to tell her I was totally kidding, a child came in with a bloody nose so we both ran over to take care of him. Then I didn’t know how to get out of what I had said because why would I have said that? What kind of freak says something like that and then doesn’t correct it right away? I didn’t have a chance at the time but I had meant for her to laugh and realize how ridiculous it sounded. The entire time I worked there, she asked me how Ted was even after I told her I was kidding. For the record, Ted is fine…I think. He was when I saw him in concert 13 years ago anyway.
Never before have I turned on you when you looked so good to me…your beady eyes nearly tore me in two….(Am I even close?)
Hey! so I’m sitting in my Effective Teaching class surfing the web because I’m not really sure what else I might be doing during this class and I read this blog and thought you might like a link.
Now I would create you a real link that you could just click on but this lab class has Mac computers and I’m just lost without the right click button, so you’ll have to follow the directions.
Go to youtube
search Goldfinger Ted Nugent
listen to the song
I think you’ll like it.
Love you!
Tori: I saw Ted on my birthday 10 years or so ago. He was still looking good. Wearing a loin cloth seems to keep a man young.
Darrell: That’s certainly close enough for The Blue Parrot. (Speaking of close enough … is that close to the name of the bar?)
Emily: Poor Ted.