Now go eat some poutine!

It’s official: Poutine is a global player.

The world poutine-eating championships being held Saturday in Toronto – as a high-cal appetizer to a Toronto FC soccer game – are as good a sign as any that Quebec’s down-home artery clogger has finally arrived on the international stage.

Chicago, San Francisco, and of course New York; you can find poutine in more and more places throughout the world. And Portlanders may have more poutine choices than any other city not in Canada. I spoke to Mr. Allemang about my, and Portland’s, poutine obsession for the article.

In Portland, Ore., there are at least a dozen locales that play to poutine cravings, including the Potato Champion, which boasts of being the city’s only late-night French-fries cart and tempts homebound drinkers with vegetarian and even vegan poutine, as well as the standard version made with free-range chicken stock and artisanal curds.

How does an Oregon city come to be a force in the dish’s globalization? “There’s a big foodie culture here,” says software engineer David Strom, author of the Portland Poutine website. “There’s also an irony addiction in Portland. In the end, poutine’s the perfect junk food. … You’ve got gravy, you’ve got French fries, you’ve got cheese – what’s not to like?”

Mr. Strom traces his passion for poutine to a visit he made to Montreal in 2005: The motto of his website is “We have much to learn from Canada.” Montreal’s reputation as a lively tourist destination is in large part responsible for poutine’s rise in the food world.

Read the rest of the article for more on poutine’s march around the world.

Join Smoke’s Poutinerie and some of Major League Eating’s Top Professional Eaters from around the world to see who can set the world record of Poutine eating. Hosted live on May 22nd at BMO Field, you will have opportunities to win prizes by participating or simply predicting how much Poutine will be eaten.

This would be a good weekend for a trip to Canada.

[Québécois] Poutine vs. [Acadian] Poutine

Makes me want to visit Montreal again . . . Ma-Am-M Bolduc, in particular!