Street Food Review – Canadian Invasion with Gravy Train Poutinerie

It started with the Poutine Truck, then later MO Eggrolls entered the LA scene.  Most recently, the Gravy Train Poutinerie entered the streets and I’m beginning to think that the Canadians like LA weather and want to gather a foothold in our beloved SoCal.

So what is poutine?  Candian comfort food that originated in Quebec Canada.  In the basic recipe for poutine, French fries are topped with fresh cheese curds, and covered with brown gravy or sauce. The French fries are of medium thickness, and fried so that the inside stays soft, while the outside is crunchy.

I was a bit hesitant to try food from Gravy Train truck because I’ve had poutine before and I wasn’t that fond of it.  The fries and the cheese curds were just ok which made me wonder how this became comfort food for Canadians.

I had the opportunity to speak with one of their chefs, Liana French.  Fortunately, she had the night off and was at South Bay DinDinAGoGo to network.

Liana is a delightful person and a perfect representative for the Gravy Train truck.  In chatting with her, I discovered that she’s a student at the Cordon Bleu and she expects to  graduate in May.  Her true passion is baking and she hopes to offer desserts on the truck in the near future.

Liana mentioned that they truck has been on the road for “two weeks and two days”.  After questioning her on what was so special about their poutine, she assured me that Gravy Train’s poutine was indeed authentic.  In fact, the owners, Tum Cohl and Evan Goldberg are from Vancouver and Toronto respectively.  They ended up connecting in Montreal and later moved to LA.

Tum and Even took time working with the recipes to ensure that it would be well received.  They tried out several potatoes and ended up with Idaho russets mostly for their excellent flavor.  While I didn’t find out their source for cheese, I can vouch that it is of a very high quality.  In fact, one of the chefs on-board was a student of the University of Wisconsin.

While I didn’t order the truffle fries, I was intrigued by Liana’s comment that they use black truffle salt which she said is absolutely delicious.  Next time, I’ll have to try it.

Like many other trucks, they use Hawaiian sweet buns for their sliders.  The meat is of very high quality and cooked with a nice charred finish.  They steam the cheese on the top so that it melts over the meat.  Finally, they add some fries beneath the meat and add their signature brown gravy on top of the melted cheese.

They don’t have a schedule posted but Liana mentioned that they are at Sheddy’s Public Parlor each Wednesday.  She added that Wednesday night at Sheddy’s is Canada Night because they feature all things Canadian.

Gravy Train Poutinerie

Web: http://www.gravytrainpoutinerie.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gravytrainpoutinerie

Twitter: @gravytrainla