For the next nine days, shouting Hé Ho! in your home is encouraged.
While this year’s Festival du Voyageur (Feb. 12-21) will be an entirely virtual affair when it comes to entertainment, you can still stuff your face with French fare!
To serve as a side with these five ways you can enjoy Festival du Voyageur at home, we're dishing cozy cuisine that pairs perfectly with Canada’s greatest winter festival.
Pass that pea soup!
Let’s eat!
Whether you’ll be watching from your living room, a hotel suite, or in your outdoor ice castle (we’ve all had a little extra time on our hands lately), Promenade Café and Wine will keep your home full of hearty Francophone food. Creating limited edition FestTV Dinners, you can now enjoy traditional smoked trout, tourtière, or even tarts to-go on a tray.
We know you'll be missing the le Rendez-vous des chefs (Pea Soup Contest) this year, but Promenade has you covered when it comes to sipping soup and singing along. You can now order a four-pack pea soup sampler from their Promenade at Home line and even vote for your favourite soup during the festival. The set includes a traditional French Canadian Pea soup with ham, a curried version filled with lemongrass and coconut milk, a Southern Creole Turkey gumbo, and a split pea soup with a bannock persillade crumble and prosciutto ham.
Speaking of sipping, don’t forget the Caribou!
If you are drinking while dancing, you’ll want to keep your beverage on ice. Patent 5 will set you up with two reusable ice glasses and a bottle of a Festival cocktail of your choice: Bonfire Taffy or Boreal Punch.
Feast on French onion French fries… Le Garage, located in the heart of St. Boniface, is offering a second chance to try their La Poutine Week creation. Order a plate of the classic French onion fries made with house-made shoestrings, cheese curds, signature gravy, caramelized onions and cheese crostini.
For bistro fare and killer tourtière, place an order from Resto Gare & Train Bar. The famous pie will feed a whole family, and you can order it to bake at home or hot and ready.
SMITH Restaurant has you covered with take-out and even dine in, where you can order from a limited edition Festival du Voyageur menu including poutine, split pea soup, maple pecan pie and more!
After all that jigging, you deserve to treat yourself to something a little sweet. Winnipeg’s first bean-to-bar maker, Chocolatier Constance Popp, has chocolate shapes to fit the local theme while her spicy hot chocolate is as robust as the annual Beard Growing Contest (which is still happening, btw).
Another cup sure to warm you up is Café Postal's latté sucre à la crème. This Festival du Voyageur-inspired latté will keep you toasty while you explore the snow sculptures along Provencher.
If you’re a Franco-Foodie who prefers to do the cooking yourself, create your own Franco-Manitoban kitchen party in the comfort of your own home with Chef at Home (Chef Chez Soi), a French recipe kit by Bonjour Manitoba. The kit includes Manitoban recipes, instructional videos by local chefs and even a curated playlist with Franco-Manitoban artists.
Bon Festival!
