Food for the hungry expat

My English readers will have recognised on the picture on the left a sheperd's pie/cottage pie. It is, but not quite. In fact, it is a pâté chinois (literally a Chinese pie), the Québec version of the dish. And no, it is not the same. Seriously, it is not. The single difference is that we add sweet corn (creamed corn in this case, which I prefer, the other corn imakes it too dry). I said single difference, but the creamed corn is the little thing that makes ALL the difference here, it turns the pie from a borrowed English dish into something Quebecker, and quite different in terms of taste.. On the side, we have beetroots, to add to the exotism (well, to my non-Quebec readers, the exotism, for Quebeckers there is nothing more plain than a pâté chinois).

So I had this on my first supper in Chicoutimi. With a slice of chocolate cake. I don't think I ever ate one that was that good. When you are homesick, this is what I dream of. And tonightwe eat tourtière. I will blog more about it, and the experience.