Poutine Survey: Who here has eaten it? Who here loves it?

Someone sent us right over the border into Clair, New Brunswick, to a restaurant called Maple Leaf. It's actually a Chinese-Canadian restaurant.

and the fries were soggy.

The squeak of a fresh cheese curd is as popular as it is elusive, it's gone after about a day after they're made. This makes obtaining squeaky cheese curds a matter of fortuitous timing.


Perfecting the squeak, however, requires more than just fresh curds. The secret is a technique called cheddaring that forms a curd held together with long, elastic proteins. Cheese scientists have discovered that it's these fresh, elongated protein strands rubbing against the enamel of your teeth that is the real source of a cheese curd's squeak.

Curds have another distinguishing feature: they squeak when you bite into them. Some people even call curds “squeaky cheese.” The fresher they are, the louder the squeal. At their freshest it may sound like you’re making balloon animals in your mouth, or that a tiny window-washer is squeegeeing your teeth. Alas, the effect is fleeting; within a few days of production the curds lose their musicality. So the only way to experience the phenomenon is to go somewhere where cheese is produced, or to make it yourself.

Native Wisconsinite Louisa Kamps explained in the New York Times a few years ago that the squeak comes from the fact that the binding proteins in the cheese are still “superelastic, like new rubberbands.” She describes the sound as like “two balloons trying to neck.”

Wisconsin, as the number-one cheese producer in the United States, is also the nation’s undisputed cheese curd capital. But as the third-biggest cheese-making state and the neighbor of fromage blanc–loving Quebec (like most things, cheese curds sound nicer in French), New York has its fair share of curds. Last weekend I bought some from a local farmer’s market; the Argyle Cheese Farmer had both plain and flavored varieties. I got plain and basil-garlic. Although they were only a couple of days old they had already lost their squeak, but they were still delicious—like mild cheddar, with a texture that reminded me of stringless string cheese (a little springy). Curds can also be made from other kinds of cheese; or rather, all kinds of cheese can be eaten at the curd stage.

Plus, the diversity and specialization of Toronto’s restaurants have Anthony enamored with, of all things, hipster Canadian disco fries? He explains, “I like the niche mentality here, that you’d have a place dedicated to porchetta or hipster poutine or a truly great tostada, I always like to see that.”