In Belgium you can get your fritjes with stoofvlees/carbonade juice (they will also sell you the actual stew, of course), delicious, for me the Canadian addition of cheese would probably be de trop but chacun son truc.
Belgium chips are usually pretty goodâŚavec or sans.
Itâs the curdiness of the poutine cheese, squeaky + greasy + stodgy = far too solid in the gut. I imagine if you had been out all day chopping trees it would be wonderful. A bit like the British breakfast which I used to eat happily when working at a manual job, but now find far too fatty as a combination.
Canadian cheddar can be excellent.
Otherwise I largely agree with DrMarkH about North American cheese
Sorry to hear that Bonzo. We have them in our local supermarkets round here (L&G) though they are not very appetising. They tend to be flabby. Fresh off the vine - delicious. And I agree with you about the simple cooking - for me it also could be broccoli or cauliflower as the base.
Absolutely - far better! Used to buy it in Fenwicks in Newcastle (upon Tyne, not ONT.)
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I hope our local aligot never suffers the same fate!
Nor NSW 
It is every bit as disgusting as it sounds. A number of places in France have opened up in recent years and even, I understand, a few chains. I have tried it twice, in two different Canadian restaurants (neither part of a chain, or nt yet anyway) the second time to see if the first was an aberration. It was not.
Chips with cheese - OK sometimes. Chips with gravy, ditto. Chips with both - bleh!
Now if you want to go one step worse, travel to Porto and try a Francesinha - their âimprovementâ of a croque monsieur that adds sausage, beef and gravy. The things I do in the pursuit of âscience!â
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Youâve not lived until you have tried chips and curry sauce 
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Oh well, different class altogether, I admit.
Although these days I rather like them with Moules au Curry, or even better still Mouclade, but same principle.
Pretentious, moi?
Careful, youâre in danger of reigniting the great âFrench donât really understand curryâ debate.
It doesnât go back as far as Agincourt, mais pour les anglais, it may have been more passionate.
Or chips from a Chinese !
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I thank the chip van outside the studentâs union in Keele uni for my induction into the wonderful world of chips bathed in curry sauce.
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Well, maybe. But the kind of curry sauce you tend to have with chips is not at all unknown here in France. And I am not so sure I accept that the majority of Brits are that knowledgeable about Indian food (as opposed to âcurryâ which is of course a British construct). Even in that sentence Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Bangladeshiâs might object to the term âIndian.â Personally I love it all and it is one of the biggest losses from moving away from the UK. I guess that really does make me a âCitizen of nowhere!â
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