The Snack, a snack
Where I grew up, Montreal, Quebec, we sometimes gave into comfort food cravings and had poutine (french fries or chips with melted cheese curds and brown gravy). Yes, it sounds gross. But is is sooooo good when it's made right. And of course you need to eat it pretty darn fast because, well, because it congeals when it cools off.
In Iqaluit there was a great diner style restaurant called The Snack that was run by Quebecois and was open twenty four hours a day. During blizzards, they'd still deliver take out food by snowmobile. When we were in Iqaluit October 2006, we headed to The Snack for poutine and cola (what else would you wash down poutine with???) It was ridiculously satisfying.
Early in 2007 The Snack burned to the ground. RIP The Snack. Hopefully the owners, who've had the place burn down before, will re-build.
Comfort food and its associations with home is, I suppose, a whole other blog.
But for now,since I seem to be thinking of Montreal, for anyone familiar with the city (and not just it's stellar culinary masterpieces and haute cuisine...) I'll cite: Steamies (steamed hot dogs. If you got them at the old Montreal Forum where the Montreal Canadiens played hockey on home ice you'd sometimes get them with a nice paper napkin somehow sandwiched in between the bun and the mustard/relish); Triple baggers, best from a take out stand--can't remember its name--under the overpass in Verdun (These are/were french fries that were so--no positive way to spin it--greasy that they had to be triple bagged to keep the oil from soaking right through the paper); Smoked meat from either the highly hyped Schwartz's or according to my own preference, from The Main directly across the street from Schwartz's, both ensconced on la rue St Laurent.
You know, I'm not sure why I'm nostalgic about poutine.