I made my own version of Vietnamese Poutine while visiting a local restaurant. First, let’s remember how I got to this idea.
I was inspired on a recent trip a Vietnamese Restaurant in Seattle by their Pho Fries. This was at Lotus Pond in Seattle (reviewed here), and the French fries were super enhanced by a brown gravy dipping sauce seasoned with pho spices. The star anise, cinnamon, and other aromatics made the gravy a unique fry accompaniment, but I had a couple of small criticisms that I thought could have been improved on.
First, the fries that tried a couple months back were plain (unbattered) fries. This means that they were smooth and did not have as much of a crust as other fries that I really enjoy. It’s a personal preference, but I love a little bit of crunchy texture on the exterior of my fries, and ordering a “battered” variety from a food supplier is the easiest way to achieve this. I was really happy to see that they had changed the fries on my subsequent visit and they were now a lightly battered variety. I found the fries to be perfectly crispy, a much more attractive deep golden color, and a slightly rough texture that was perfect for capturing gravy.
Second, the gravy was slightly thin on my first visit. The taste was phenomenal, but it didn’t adhere to the fries very well. This was partly due to the fries’ texture, but it was also due to the consistency of the gravy. As I mentioned above, they improved the fries, but they also improved the gravy. It had a lot more body than I documented in the previous post, and now it was perfect as a fry accompaniment.
When I wrote about this back in December I mentioned that it would be interesting to take these fries to the next level and create a Vietnamese version of poutine. The pho gravy was already available, so we were only an ingredient or two away from something clever. They didn’t have any cheese whatsoever on the menu, so I knew I’d have to provide this myself. I also didn’t want to stop at just gravy and cheese, so I planned on ordering a bowl of pho so that I could use the meat and other accoutrement to garnish and flavor the dish.
The result was spectacular. I’ve seen some other people online call this “Photine”, or “Phoutine”. Vietnamese Poutine, or Pho Poutine would also work. For the cheese, I decided to use something that was a bit more connected to Vietnam and smuggled in some “The Laughing Cow” cheese. I learned that this has strong cultural connections to Vietnam due to the influence of the French colonizers during the early 20th century. I also added the steak and meatball from my bowl of pho, and then further flavored it with the pho gravy, chile garlic sauce, hoisin sauce, lime juice, jalapeño, bean sprouts, and Thai basil. As you’d expect, the poutine tasted a lot like pho, and it was delicious. I’d love to see them add this to the menu, especially since the restaurant is located a block away from the only dedicated curling rink in the Seattle area. I’m not going to advocate for others to copy me and Frankenstein their own meals at the restaurant, but Lotus Pond is doing a great job and I would love to see them get more business.
By the way, I made a video of the experiment, and I’d love for you to watch it on YouTube. Go ahead and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already. I’m having a great time learning more about video editing and creating this type of content. Your likes and comments really help me get noticed out there.
Sodafry 