Montreal's week-long poutine festival starts today

Hopefully, that new year diet is working out because the world’s largest poutine festival is about to kick off in Montreal and you might want to find the stretchiest pants you have.

The ninth edition of La Poutine Week returns to Montreal from today until February 7. A variety of Montreal restaurants will create their own signature poutine-dish, vying to become the city-wide champion, voted by restaurant patrons.

So yes, things are about to get greasy.

• See also:
  • Kraft Dinner launches pink candy-flavoured mac and cheese for Valentine’s Day
  • Some of the biggest sculptures from Montreal’s snowman competition (PHOTOS)
  • 12 Black-owned restaurants and food businesses to support around Montreal

Some spots stick to the classic trifecta and others veer off the traditional poutine path.

“La Poutine Week is an interactive food festival where restaurants across the world are carefully selected to create a unique poutine for the event,” reads the event’s website.

“Participants engage with the festival by eating original poutines, sharing their experiences on social media, and voting using the La Poutine Week website.”

Dunn’s Famous/La Poutine Week

La Poutine Week is held across Canada and the US — but it’s no secret that Montreal’s poutine comes out on top, just like those cheese curds.

This year, La Poutine Week has 56 participating restaurants across Montreal (with over 250 across Quebec and over 700 across Canada).

The tasty festival will be giving back to the community this year by giving one dollar for every poutine sold across Canada to Anorexia and Bulimia Québec (ANEB), an organization that guarantees free, immediate, and specialized help to people with an eating disorder and their loved ones.

Ranging from $6.50 to $30, here are all of this year’s greasy pooters and the restaurants that are dishing them out: