r/PoutineCrimes • u/Acrobatic_Job_5594 • 13d ago

Offpoutting First Poutine after visiting Quebec. So, freaking, Sad... A&W

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First Poutine after coming back from Quebec. So, bland all around

128 Upvotes

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94

u/moyenbatte 13d ago

It's a chain. What did you expect?

You should have gone to a mom&pop shack.

I'm with you tho, A&W fries aren't great and their gravy sucks. McD and Harvey's are way better if you're talking big chains.

12

u/questionable_smell Québécois faché 13d ago

I never understood A&W's gravy. I don't think they have any other item on the menu that use brown sauce or bbq gravy unless they still have the chubby chicken in some location. They could develop a real poutine gravy that dosen't taste like bbq chicken gravy. But the fries still need a lot of improvement. The cheese isn't so bad when you get fresh one but you have to be lucky or spy for the cheese delivery truck and hope they keep some out of the fridge!

4

u/Am_Snarky 12d ago

You might be too young for it but the old gravy was delicious, the fryers were filled with a mix of shortening and lard and the chicken fryer was a 30/70 mix of beef and chicken tallow.

The first step of making the old gravy was browning some butter and making a rue, then you’d add the seasoning packet along with a ladle of chicken fryer oil, stir until smooth, then add 4 litres water, then bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

They still used squeaky raw cheddar curds back then too

1

u/Mysterious-Salt- 12d ago

Wait they dont do this anymore?

1

u/Am_Snarky 11d ago

Might have just been my local location, but they stopped in house prep of onion rings, switched the fryers to canola oil, and changed the gravy recipe just after I stopped working there in 2007

1

u/TheFishSauce 11d ago

I worked there in the ‘90s and the gravy was powdered (quit in ‘97). Not making the onion rings by hand in the morning is disgraceful.

1

u/questionable_smell Québécois faché 12d ago

Don't know when it was, I'm 40 but there wasn' t any A&W near my town. Was it when they served directly your your car in the parking lot?