War in Ukraine: a poutine restaurant in France receives death threats

A poutine.

The restaurant La Maison de la Poutine in Paris had to recall that it was not linked to the Russian regime after receiving threats and calls for insults. Eh yes.

In the note published on social networks on Thursday and which quickly became viral, the French establishment considered it necessary “to recall that La Maison de la Poutine is not linked to the Russian regime and its leader”.

“Our dish was born in Quebec in the 1950s. And there are many stories to tell about its origin. But one thing is certain: the poutine was created by passionate cooks who wanted to bring joy and comfort to their customers,” it says.

The company concludes by saying that it gives its “heartfelt support to the Ukrainian people who are courageously fighting for their freedom, against the tyrannical Russian regime”.

Poutine Course 101

No, Quebec has not decided to name its national dish in honor of the Russian president.

C is that English and French have a different alphabet from Russian, which uses the Cyrillic form. We must therefore use a phonetic transcription (transliteration) that respects the original pronunciation.

English and French do not sound the same, however, and that is why we avoid using the English version of the name (“Putin”) in the language of Molière.

If we talk about the dish, we must know that it was (indeed) invented 50 years before the first term of the president …and 6390 km from the city of Moscow.

Furthermore, the term “poutine” would derive from the word “pudding”… or simply from a Quebec slang meaning “mess” or “bazaar”.