Alexa Bernabo, Centretown News
Green Papaya’s food truck on Sparks Street features Pad Thai and Thai curry poutine.Sparks Street’s fall Poutine Fest has come and gone, but some customers to Centretown restaurant owner Vincent Gobuyan’s Green Papaya poutine truck will not forget the vendors’ Thai twist on the classic fries-and-gravy dish.
Looking to get involved with the expanding poutine market, Gobuyan has also crossed cultural boundaries with his mixture of Thai and French-Canadian flavors.
Poutine Fest on Sparks Street allows a variety of restaurants and food trucks to participate in a three-day festival featuring classic and unique poutine styles.
The Green Papaya is the only vendor at the festival that does not offer any style of poutine on its regular menu. Gobuyan started the Thai food poutine truck so that Green Papaya could have a place outside of the restaurant to feature its unique French-Canadian and Thai-infused recipes.
The Thai food poutine truck competed against 13 other vendors in the Poutine Fest Forkoff competition earlier this year and won first place for Ottawa’s best poutine. Gobuyan says Green Papaya’s previous victory and his overall experience with the Oct. 24-26 festival has been great.
“The festival has impacted the name of our business obviously and we have even started making tacos and just added a Thai twist to everything. So it has actually created a lot of buzz for promoting the Thai flavors,” says Gobuyan.
Gobuyan was accepted into Poutine Fest as a vendor last year with his own recipe for Pad Thai Poutine. His Thai poutine truck menu has grown to include other options specifically for the festival like Thai Curry Poutine and Spring Roll Poutine. Gobuyan says he is always excited to include new Thai poutine creations because of the benefits Poutine Fest brings to his business. “It is basically a billboard for us to promote our food,” says Gobuyan about the festival.
Keith Goodwin, assistant general manager of D’Arcy McGee’s on Sparks Street, says taking part in the festivities with an out-of-the-box poutine menu is great for business.
“Well, Poutine Fest is on the street so we decided to put our own little thing on the menu. Already we have our Irish breakfast poutine so it was a no brainer,” says Goodwin.
Ottawa resident Katie Nelson, a customer at this year’s October Poutine Fest says that she looks forward to new ethnic restaurants joining in on the festivities and introducing their own versions of the original gravy and cheese curd poutine.
“Obviously, poutine is Canadian so I think that all these different ethnicities and what not coming out with different poutiness is a good idea because we have so many ethnicities here that it’s good to cater to everybody and try different foods,” says Nelson.
Although Gobuyan is hesitant in putting his Thai poutine creations on Green Papaya’s regular menu in order to maintain a traditional Thai restaurant atmosphere, he says he may have to change his mind.
“People are inquiring, maybe we could do it for lunch or for specials on certain days,” says Gobuyan.