Poutine: The dish that's being boycotted due to its name
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The classic dish originating from Canada's French province is being cut from French restaurants for its name that sounds like the Russian President.
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Poutine....or Putin? (AFP)
A famous Canadian dish has been at the receiving end of some animosity due to its name.
Poutine - the dish that originated in the Province of Quebec in the 1950s - shares a name with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Following Putin's ongoing military operation in Ukraine, a French restaurant, Maison de la Poutine, has reportedly received threats and insults.
The company which serves the popular dish in its locations in Paris and Toulouse, tweeted a response, saying “Our dish was born in Quebec in the 1950s. And the stories to tell its origin are numerous. But one thing is certain: poutine was created by passionate cooks who wanted to bring joy and comfort to their customers."
— La Maison de la Poutine (@MaisonPoutine) March 3, 2022
“The House of Poutine has worked since its first day to perpetuate these values and today brings its most sincere support to the Ukrainian people who are courageously fighting for their freedom against the tyrannical Russian regime.”
In Quebec, a diner eliminated the name from its menu.
Le Roy Jucep, which claims to be the originator of poutine in the 1950s, has distanced itself from the appellation, characterizing itself instead as "the inventor of the fries-cheese-gravy."
It posted on Facebook that "the Jucep team decided to temporarily retire the word P**tine from its trademark in order to express, in its own way, its profound dismay over the situation in Ukraine."
The dish's name is usually assumed to be derived from a French-Canadian pronunciation of the English word "pudding" to describe the mushy mix.
Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the West has been on a massive propaganda campaign, including banning Russian-owned cats from competing in FIfe, a Paris-based organization that creates over 700 events a year where over 200,000 cats are shown.
The University of Milan Bicocca canceled lectures on Russian novelist and cultural icon Fyodor Dostoevsky for "political reasons" in light of the operation.
Additionally, international card giants Mastercard and Visa have stated that they would cease operations and withdraw all Russian banks from their payment networks following the sanctions imposed on Russia.
Both NATO and the United States have mounted a massive propaganda campaign to make Russia the enemy in the eyes of the West, American activist Phil Wilayto told Sputnik.
"I think the US and NATO have carefully carried out a massive propaganda campaign against Russia that has led most people in the West to unthinkingly accept the narrative that Russia is an enemy country run by a brutal dictator with expansionist ambitions," Wilayto, a co-founder of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and coordinator of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, said.
