Poutine through the eyes of Follow Me Foodie!

Whenever people start asking about truly Canadian dishes, things you can get here and nowhere else, poutine always seems to come up. Originating in Quebec, this is a popular dish consisting of french fries smothered - and I mean smothered - in cheese curds and gravy, as well as other optional ingredients.

This is something that international visitors should definitely try, and something I feel obligated to recommend as part of my coverage of cheap, good Canadian food. Unfortunately, there's a mild snag... I don't personally like poutine. I have a rather unfortunate aversion to any cheese except mozzarella, so as a result I've never been able to really appreciate poutine the way it should be.

But never fear! A fellow foodie blogger has leapt to the rescue! Follow Me Foodie has a wonderful blog about Vancouver restaurants, but on top of that she has recently embarked on a series of video posts about some of the best places to get poutine in the city. She was also nice enough to give me permission to repost them here. Ain't she awesome?

Again, these are not my videos. They are from Follow Me Foodie. All praise and questions therefore go to her. Check out her video channel if you're interested in further installments!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Thanks so much to Follow Me Foodie!

More great Vancouver food bloggers and sites

Time for another post extolling the virtues of Vancouver restaurant and food blogs that aren't me! ;-) 

Cheap Appetite is definitely a must-see blog for anyone looking for budget food in Vancouver. Like me, the author has been making a point of covering cheap but delicious food in Vancouver (and occasionally further afield!), for everything from fast food to international cuisine (we share a love of sushi, it seems!) 

Vancouver Food and Wine focuses mainly on local food and "locavore" trends, so anyone looking for fresh produce, wine and ingredients that come from the Vancouver area specifically would do well to check it out. I particularly like their guide to Olympic eating here. They've even crossposted some of my own articles!

Eat Me Here in Vancouver is another great restaurant blog with a cute and quirky method of reviewing (using adorable smiley/frowny faces instead of number scores). It's an amazing looking blog too, with easy navigation and fantastic pictures of the food in question!

There are also some non-blog websites that international Olympic visitors may find handy:

Food Vancouver serves as a sort of database for Vancouver restaurants, with each restaurant page having a list of quick facts such as price range, opening times, etc. 

Urbanspoon is an invaluable resource for visitors, foodies and food bloggers alike. Like Food Vancouver, it serves as a database for almost every restaurant in Vancouver, but trades off comprehensive information for more polish and user input. Many restaurants have professional and blog reviews listed as well as user-submitted comments.  I highly recommend this site.

Visit Vancouver's dining site is nowhere near as comprehensive as others, but if you are looking for a short quick list of some recommended locations, it's not a bad selection.

Other great Vancouver food bloggers and sites

Hello readers! I hope you have all enjoyed this blog so far, whether you're a prospective Olympic visitor or just an interested local. My goal in writing this blog has been to share some of my favorite cheap places to eat in Vancouver, and that's all well and good. Having said that, there are plenty of great food blogs that are worth checking out. Many of them are run by devoted and experienced foodies with an even wider range of tastes and favorites, and cover both budget and high-class dining. With that in mind, if you're perhaps looking for a place to splurge, or reviews of more exotic cuisine than I've covered, you should check out these blogs!

NOTE: Most of these blogs do not only cover budget dining; however, if you peruse the post labels you will usually find a tag for "budget" or for a specific price range.

Follow Me Foodie: A fantastic, indepth and extremely active blog of every kind of Vancouver dining. Each review covers the ambience, price, food quality and so on as well as info bites on the restaurant and a detailed review of some sample dishes. The writer is totally friendly and awesome as well!

Chow Times: This is more of a general food blog in that it also includes recipes as well, but there are plenty of sections on dining out in Vancouver. The blogger, Ben, manages to find all sorts of really good deals, and he tells it like it is.

Vancouver Slop: A very hip and trendy blog written by a group of Vancouver friends. I'll let them say it best: "This blog will review our regular spots, the hype spots that you have to wait in line for, and the gems that even the hipsters have not found out about. It will also diss the spots that have been getting undeserving hype." Very popular.

Vancouver Foodster: Another review blog, this time with a focus on more "quirky" establishments and dining options (e.g. a fondness for "Afternoon Tea") Especially worth a look at they, like me, are working on a series of posts on where to eat for the 2010 Olympics: see them here.

Dine Out Here Vancouver: Another excellent blog dedicated to Vancouver restaurants. One thing I like about this site is the quality of the photographs; while all the people listed so far take great photos, these seem to have a little something extra to them that makes the mouth water. NOTE: the categories for searching are at the bottom of the page.

Hungry Hank: A website covering restaurants all over Canada (link goes to their Vancouver section). This features user reviews of restaurants, so you can get a quick impression of a restaurant from other customers. The homepage also has their own recommendations of where to dine for the 2010 Olympics.

And lastly, a few "one off" posts:

Your Guide to the Vancouver/Whistler Olympics from The Cookbook Chronicles. A foodie's favorite places to go.

Some reviews of New Westminster restaurants from Bob Broughton. He also recommends the food court in the Crystal Mall (convenient as it's near Metrotown and the main Skytrain station) and the Latin Quarter on Commercial Drive.

Best Places to Eat during 2010 Olympics from wearetravelers.net.

And lastly, from user geoffmobile: