Now, when it comes to French-Canadian comfort food, it doesn’t get more comfortable than tourtière…especially if you put it on top of a poutine. Hey, I actually did that once, and it wasn’t so bad. But that was just a frozen tourtière from the grocery store, bro! Here’s we’re talking a real-deal, made-from-scratch meat pie that you take home and bake yourself. They even give you directions…
So, Bannock is this real-deal funky joint on Bay Street serving up all kinds of Canadian cuisine. I’ve been there a couple times before, and the food’s pretty legit. When they make tourtière, you know they’re making it right, with Ontario venison and pork shoulder. It even comes with au jus on the side, son!
The only problem I had with the directions is they said to wrap it in foil. Unfortunately, I was all out of aluminum foil after singing karaoke with Weird Al, so I had to improvise a bit. Hey, if you put an aluminum pan on top, it’s sorta the same thing, right? But hey, it actually turned out alright:
OK, so the pie didn’t poof up like it was supposed to, but it was still super tasty. You’ve got the richness of the ground venison, a flaky, chewy crust, and some hunka-hunka huge chunks of pork. And then you pour the hot, steamy jus all over it—it’s like a taste explosion in my mouth, son!
I could probably pound four or five of these pies, easy, but at 12 bucks a pop…maybe I’ll just eat three. Although you can get a full-sized tourtière that supposedly feeds six—you just gotta call ahead so the chef can make it for ya. Might be worth trying next time?
Burgers, Bacon & Beer 
