Poutine is Canada's most famous comfort food: hot chips topped with fresh cheese curds, all drowned in gravy. That's the answer to Traveller's latest travel quiz question — and honestly, it's a dish simple enough to remember but surprisingly easy to get wrong if you're ordering it outside Quebec.

The classic version comes from rural Quebec in the 1950s, and locals will tell you the details matter. The chips should be thick and crisp. The cheese curds need to be fresh — the kind that squeak against your teeth when you bite them, a sign they're only a day or so old. And the gravy is traditionally a light, savoury chicken-veal stock rather than a heavy beef pour. Swap the curds for shredded mozzarella and, to purists, you've made a different dish entirely.

Montreal is the natural pilgrimage point. La Banquise on Rue Rachel keeps its doors open around the clock and lists more than 30 topping combinations, from smoked meat to pickle-topped versions. Casse-Croûte 23 on the Plateau is a tiny spot with a big reputation for doing the basics right. Further afield, Quebec City and the drumming-and-diner town of Drummondville — often credited as a birthplace of the dish — have their own claims on the recipe.

The good news for visitors is that poutine has spread across the whole country. You'll find creditable versions in Toronto, Vancouver and even at ski resorts in Alberta and British Columbia, where it doubles as the perfect post-slope calorie bomb. But the Quebec originals are cheaper and better: expect to pay roughly CA$10–16 for a generous serving at a casse-croûte or diner, versus inflated tourist-strip prices elsewhere.

Why does this matter for a holiday? Because Canada trips are usually built around mountains, coastlines or city breaks — and poutine is the glue that fits all of them. It's a cheap, filling lunch on a Montreal walking day, a late-night snack after a gig, or a warming stop on a winter ski itinerary. Food-focused travellers can even build a whole weekend around it: Montreal's Jean-Talon Market for ingredients-turned-inspiration, a diner crawl on the Plateau, then a day trip to Quebec City for the old town and more gravy.

For everyone else, it's a low-effort, high-reward introduction to Québécois food culture — a province that takes its diners, snack bars and comfort food as seriously as its festivals. Order it once, learn what squeaky curds taste like, and you'll never accept a sad mozzarella-topped imposter again.