WASHINGTON — It’s a wintry working day in the U.S. capital and the city’s famous food trucks are out in force, offering everything from fried chicken to curry, Cuban sandwiches, Maine lobster rolls and slabs of fresh-baked pie to hungry D.C. office workers.
But the peckish are lined up at one truck in particular, Eat Wonky, parked by one of the busiest downtown subway stations in the city. They’re clamouring for that quintessential Canadian comfort food — poutine, the Quebecois mess of french fries, cheese curds and brown gravy.
“It’s nice on a cold day, actually, to have gravy,” Andrea Purse, 30, a Pittsburgh native who’s expecting her second child next month.
Purse, who works at the Center for American Progress think tank in D.C., was waiting in line recently behind about a dozen others, eager to chow down for the third time on poutine.
“Anything salty is also more than welcome when you’re pregnant,” she said, adding she finds the combination of salty curds, gravy and fries “awesome.”
In a city better known for its politics and power-brokers, poutine is catching on with appreciative Americans thanks to Minas Kaloosian and Jeff Kelley, childhood pals originally from southern California who were introduced to the concoction by Canadian friends last year.
Washington, D.C., is a street food aficionado’s delight, with dozens of roaming food trucks setting up shop all over the downtown core every day to serve the lunch crowd and, later, the late-night throngs spilling out of clubs or sporting events.
Knowing the competition was fierce, Kaloosian and Kelley hoped to offer up something unique when they opened their own food truck.
On a visit to Canadian friends last year, they asked their Calgary pals for ideas. Soon enough, “Wonky fries” were born.
“We wanted to do something really distinctive and we asked them what was distinctive about Canadian food,” Kelley, 35, remembers.
“So they took us out, we grabbed some and we just fell in love with it, and we said: ’Wow, we have got to do this.’ They showed us how to do it right and we spent a lot of time making sure we were doing it in an authentic way.”
That means importing a vegetarian brown gravy mix from Canada and almost 25 kilograms of cheese curds — called “squeaky cheese” on the Eat Wonky menu board — from upstate New York each week.
The pair also upped the cardiac arrest factor, creating the “Wonky dog,” an all-beef hotdog piled high with poutine. It was inspired in part by Pittsburgh’s Primanti Brothers sandwiches, a longtime culinary tradition in the city featuring grilled meat on Italian bread with French fries, cole slaw and tomato nestled within.
The Eat Wonky truck also offers up a sandwich — grilled cheese with cheese curd on a panini, with gravy on the side.
Poutine is a rarity in D.C., with only a handful of eateries in the region offering it on their menus, including two pubs in downtown neighbourhoods: Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan and ChurchKey in Logan Circle.
Elsewhere in the U.S., variations of poutine can be found in states bordering Canada, particularly Quebec and New Brunswick. New Jersey also boasts something called “disco fries” — a combination of fries, gravy and cheese.
Kelley is politely dismissive of the New Jersey version of poutine, also known as “Elvis fries.”
“They’re using typically just regular cheddar cheese, shredded cheese that you melt on top, but we’re using real cheese curd,” he said. “That’s the difference, and it’s a big one.”
Kelley and Kaloosian keep their growing fan base of poutine-lovers updated on their truck’s whereabouts every day via Twitter and Facebook.
“A ton” of Canadians either living in or visiting D.C. often show up at the truck, Kelley added, to give them the thumbs-up — something particularly gratifying considered the Eat Wonky team has endeavoured to ensure their poutine is as authentic as possible.
“We love it when we get Canadians at the truck and they give us the stamp of their approval,” he said. “We really appreciate it. It means we’ve done it right.”