Oh, you think you're a #poutine lover? Well, let's see if you truly have what it takes to be a certified poutine expert! You might be surprised to learn that there's more to this greasy goodness than meets the eye. 🍟🧀🇨🇦

A friend in Vietnam sends me a photo of this monstrosity — “Photine”

Which one?

!!!!

This looks worthy.

The Best Poutine in Maine Respect the Curds: The Poutine Expert Knows Maine's Best https://t.co/Y3A06cDUCg

THIS IS POUTINE.

Overall, the festival showed that sticking to poutine’s traditional elements – great fries, squeaky curds, and rich gravy – is still the winning formula. Congrats to all who participated! 👏 @PoutineExpert #PoutineFest2024 #Poutine #PoutineExpert

The festival proved that a well-balanced poutine with high scores across fries, cheese curds, and gravy is key to success. Nosh emerged as the overall winner due to its solid scores across all categories, while Pinky’s Poutine Factory took the prize for best fries, and Po Boys

1st Place: Nosh (7.73/10) (@noshingportland) Fries: 6.3/10 Cheese Curds: 8.6/10 Gravy: 8.3/10 Excellent curds & gravy, but frozen fries held them back from true greatness. Homemade fries could turn this into a world-class level of poutine! Still the easy winner for me at the

2nd Place: Pinky’s Poutine Factory (7.27/10) Fries: 9.5/10 Cheese Curds: 3.8/10 Gravy & Toppings: 8.5/10 Best fries of the day and well-thought-out toppings (nice work with the pulled pork and pickled veggies), but still need more cheese curds needed to claim the top spot. I'd

3rd Place: Blaze Burgers (7.03/10) Fries: 6.6/10 Cheese Curds: 7.7/10 Gravy: 6.8/10 Solid effort with tasty, salty fries & traditional poutine elements. Just a bit too salty and I wish the curds were thicker, squeakier.👏 #PoutineFest #Poutine @PoutineFest #PortlandME

4th Place: Po Boys Pickles (6.63/10) Fries: 6.7/10 Cheese Curds: 5.0/10 Gravy: 8.2/10 Best nontraditional gravy of the day (New Orleans inspired sausage gravy?), but they could have scored higher with thicker, squeakier curds! I ate every bite, though!🎶🧀 @PoutineFest

5th Place: Duck Fat (6.27/10) (@duckfatmaine) Fries: 8.1/10 Cheese Curds: 6.3/10 Gravy: 4.4/10 Great fries, pretty tasty curds, but gravy didn't hit the mark. More flavor, please! The duck confit was nice, but didn't really complement the poutine flavors for me.🍂 #Poutine

6th Place: Flux (5.17/10) Fries: 4.8/10 Cheese Curds: 6.6/10 Gravy: 4.1/10 One of the most interesting attempts at poutine I've ever tasted, but the flavors didn’t quite come together. Close, but not quite there. @PoutineFest #PoutineFest #Poutine #MaineEats

7th Place: The Fries Shop (3.87/10) Fries: 2.9/10 Cheese Curds: 5.6/10 Gravy: 3.1/10 Frozen fries and bland gravy… not a great combo. Curds were okay tasting, but far too limp. @PoutineFest #PoutineFest #Poutine #MaineFood

9/ 8th Place: Norway Brewing Co. (2.60/10) Fries: 4.6/10 Cheese Curds: 1.1/10 Gravy: 2.1/10 Ranch dressing and chicken gravy on top of frozen fries? Not for me. Not for me at all. @PoutineFest #PoutineFail #PoutineFest #Poutine

9th Place: Portland Lobster Company (1.60/10) Fries: 2.6/10 Cheese Curds: 1.2/10 Gravy: 1/10 Another Lobster poutine. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work. 😕 @PoutineFest #PoutineFest #Poutine #PortlandEats

10th Place: Johnny Shucks (1.27/10) Fries: 2.1/10 Cheese Curds: 0/10 Gravy: 1.7/10 Waffle fries and no curds? Lobster Poutine is interesting in theory, but doesn't work in practice (and I'm also a lobster eating expert) It just doesn't work here, unfortunately. 🙅‍♂️ #PoutineFest

11th Place: Big Rick’s (0.37/10) Fries: 1/10 Cheese Curds: 0/10 Gravy: 0.1/10 Sweet potato fries, mozzarella, and maple syrup? The worst poutine of the day, maybe ever. @PoutineFest #PoutineFail #PoutineFest #Poutine #EpicFail

Just got back from the inaugural Maine PoutineFest, and I'm ready to share the rankings! 🍟 As someone who’s spent a lifetime tasting poutine across Quebec, Ontario and the world, here’s my rankings, scores, and feedback of the best (and worst) from the day. #PoutineFest