The Pinky Bowl consists of cheese curds, popcorn chicken, french fries, corn and gravy. Photo by Aimsel Ponti

I’ll never understand why it took me decades to try the popular Quebec dish poutine.

Pinky D’s Poutine Factory food truck erased the errors of my ways in grand fashion, and I’m now a fan for life. After all, I may look Italian, but I do have some French Canadian blood in my veins on my mother’s side.

Poutine is a dish with three basic components: french fries, cheese curds and gravy.

I adore comfort food (perhaps a bit too much) and wow, what I ordered from Pinky D’s – while at the season-closing Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge concert in Sidney – checked many boxes at once.

First of all, cheese curds are magnificent. The consistency of these little bundles of joy enabled my teeth to do a chewy “sink-in” before they essentially melted away in satisfying fashion. Cheese curds are to cheese what gnocchi is to pasta, similar and yet not.

Back to that concert.

Before the mad rush of gates opening, I had been jotting down notes for a story and realized I had best figure out dinner. I saw that Pinky D’s was ready to serve, and after I scanned the menu, my decision was made. Not only was I going to have poutine for the first time of my life, I was going to go for the gold and order the version with popcorn chicken in the mix.

I told you I don’t fool around when it comes to my comfort food.

Pinky D’s Poutine Factory food truck. Photo courtesy of Pinky D’s Poutine Factory

A few minutes later I was handed a formidable container of food and retreated to a high-top to feast as the sound check was wrapping up.

The Pinky Bowl ($15) was enough food for a small army, or at the very least, a spirited band of rebels. This translates to me eating about two-thirds of it with no regrets.

When I raised that first forkful to my lips, I made sure to get a bite of all four ingredients at once. I was open to the possibility that maybe the fries or the chicken might be weak links because you never know, right? I was wrong. So very wrong. The fries were hot and crisp, the chicken surprisingly tender. Both more than kept up their end of the bargain and stood proudly as two of the four pillars of the dish.

I’m pretty sure I sighed audibly after that first bite and as the meal progressed I was, to quote the Indigo Girls, closer to fine.

The Pinky Bowl, $15, Pinky D’s Poutine Factory. The food truck is open all year round. Find them on Facebook and Instagram.