Burger King "Poutine" In Korea

Last week, Mel and I got a mad poutine craving right around midnight (as you do). With most restaurants closed for the night, we made a really ghetto poutine of McDonald's fries, a mozzarella string cheese stick and a gravy packet we'd brought from home. It was heaven.

So today, I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted "poutine fries" on the menu at my local Burger King. Poutine! Really? At a major restaurant chain in Korea? I double checked the Hangul and it said "poo-teen hu-lies". A small picture confirmed it: a bowl of fries covered in brown deliciousness. Yum! I promptly forgot about my planned order and picked up a poutine for take out.

From a distance I could see my poutine being prepared. When I saw two different sauces being squeezed onto my fries from ketchup and mustard bottles I knew something was awry, but I waited until I got home to examine my meal. At first, everything looked right, but then I took a bite.

The first thing that was off was that I bit into an onion ring instead of a french fry! The "gravy" was actually a sort-of spicy BBQ sauce. The "cheese" was mayonnaise. Some fries were buried underneath and were thankfully untouched by the glutinous sauce that congealed on the top level of onion rings.

Thankfully, we can still get decent poutine at New York Fries and Big Rock. It's not something that I need to eat very often and we're lucky to be living halfway around the world and still live near places that serve poutine at all. BUT. COME ON, Burger King! it was like someone saw a picture of poutine, guessed at the ingredients and tried to make a dish that looked like the photo.

Mayo? Really? Somewhere, a maple tree has lost a leaf...


****UPDATE***

Unfortunately, I have another disappointing poutine-related update! Today, we shared an order of poutine from the New York Fries at the COEX mall. We've had their poutine probably more than 5 times in the past year, and while it's not that special, it's always tasted okay. Well, New York Fries has recently done something to their gravy and by "something" I mean they poured a bag of sugar in it. It's absolutely inedible. I would say that the Burger King poutine may have actually tasted better.

Today, somewhere in Canada, a forest of maple trees has fallen down. It's been a sad week for cheese and gravy-based meals.