What do you do when your late-night poutine order shows up… with a handful of Viagra at the bottom of the bag?
In this episode, we unpack one of the strangest food-adjacent crimes in Canadian history — a 2015 drug ring run out of an ordinary Québec poutine shop, where delivery drivers quietly offered cannabis, magic mushrooms, and pharmaceuticals alongside fries, gravy, and cheese curds.
But the story doesn’t start with the drug bust. To understand why this crime became an instant legend, we trace the tale back centuries — to the Indigenous nations along the St. Lawrence River, the arrival of the French in the 1500s, and the birth of a new identity that still defines Québec today.
We explore:
how French settlers became “Québécois,”
why Québec still sees itself as a nation within a nation,
how Indigenous history shaped the region long before colonization,
and how one messy comfort dish became a cultural symbol.
Then we settle the biggest question of all:
Where did poutine really come from?
Hear the three famous origin stories — Warwick’s “damn mess,” Drummondville’s first menu listing, and Victoriaville’s DIY fries-and-curds ritual — and how gravy eventually joined the party.
It’s crime, colonization, cuisine, and comfort food — all wrapped into one warm, chaotic bowl.
Primary Keywordspoutine historyQuébec historyQuébec culturepoutine origin storiespoutine crimefood crimesCanadian true crimeCanadian history podcastIndigenous history CanadaNew France historyDrug ring poutine storyWarwick Québec poutineDrummondville poutineVictoriaville poutine originsFrench colonization Canadapoutine documentary podcastcomfort food history podcast
(You can add all of these to Spotify/Apple show notes or hide them below a “More” fold.)
Eater Montréal summary of the 2015 case:
https://montreal.eater.com/2015/3/27/8300031/quebec-police-bust-restaurant-delivery-drug-ring
Overview of New France:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-france
Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759):
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/plains-of-abraham
Québec identity, culture, and history:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec
Indigenous peoples of the St. Lawrence region:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indigenous-peoples
CBC history of poutine:
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/a-cheesy-history-of-poutine
Warwick origin story / Fernand Lachance:
https://www.lesproducteursdelaitduquebec.qc.ca/en/blog/history-poutine/
Drummondville claim / Jean-Paul Roy:
https://www.lapresse.ca/vivre/cuisine/201904/19/01-5222567-jean-paul-roy-pere-de-la-poutine.php
Victoriaville DIY roots (VICE article):
https://www.vice.com/en/article/8q89aa/who-really-invented-poutine
What do backyard mole hunters, fat squirrels, and Thanksgiving sweet potatoes have in common? Marshmallows.
In this delightfully bizarre episode of True Crime Culinary, host Leah Llach uncovers a real-life backyard “mole war” sparked by an internet myth — and somehow connects it to the sweet, squishy history of marshmallows.
From ancient Egyptian medicine to French confectioners and early 20th-century marketing magic, this story traces how a swamp plant called Althaea officinalis became the modern marshmallow — and how one 1917 ad campaign made it a Thanksgiving staple.
Featuring “tactical marshmallow insertion failures,” conspiracy theories about squirrels, and a healthy dose of food history, this episode blends comedy, culture, and culinary storytelling in the sweetest possible way.
Highlights:
A three-month mole “battle” gone hilariously wrong
The ancient Egyptian origins of marshmallows
The French reinvention that made them a delicacy
References
“Killing Moles with Marshmallows” — Moles.org
“The History of Marshmallows” — Wikipedia
“How Marshmallows Went from Medicine to Candy” — ThoughtCo
“The Story of Campfire Marshmallows” — Campfire Marshmallows
“How Marshmallows Took Over Thanksgiving” — The Kitchn
“The Woman Who Put Marshmallows on Sweet Potatoes” — Saveur
“A Sweet Thanksgiving Tradition” — Smithsonian Magazine
“How Convenience Foods Took Over the 1950s Table” — Quartz
A murder mystery solved by… a sweet potato? In 2011, a bizarre clue at a Massachusetts crime scene went cold for over a decade — until DNA in 2023 cracked the case. We trace the sweet potato’s journey from Indigenous fields to Southern kitchens, exploring sweet potato pie, its pumpkin cousin, and even forgotten carrot pie along the way. Flavor, history, and true crime collide in the strangest ways.
Sources & Further Reading
ABC News — “Sweet potato helps solve Massachusetts cold case murder”
Oxygen True Crime — “DNA on sweet potato silencer links man to Cape Cod cold case”
Newsweek — “Devarus Hampton and the sweet-potato smoking gun”
KPBS — “The Great Pie Debate: Pumpkin vs. Sweet Potato”
Smithsonian Magazine — “A Brief History of Sweet Potatoes and Their Cultural Roots”
Encyclopedia of Food and Culture — “Sweet Potato” entry (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003)
A knock at the door. A bowl of candy. And one Halloween night in 1957 that turned deadly. In this episode, we unwrap the story of Peter and Betty Fabiano, the so-called “Trick-or-Treat Murder”, and trace how the sugary ritual behind it evolved from ancient offerings to candy corn.
Sources include:
Los Angeles Times archives (1957–1958)
True Crime Edition, “The Trick-or-Treat Murder”
Medium / @CrimeBeatChronicles, “Halloween Homicide: The Story of Peter and Betty Fabiano”
Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002
Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. University of Tennessee Press, 1994
Smithsonian Magazine, “How Trick-or-Treating Became a Halloween Tradition” (2021)
History.com Editors, “Trick-or-Treating: How Halloween’s Sweet Tradition Evolved” (updated 2023)
National Museum of Scotland, “Souling, Guising, and the Origins of Trick or Treat”
One man hiding from police in a California corn maze accidentally leads us down a different path—into the 9,000-year story of corn itself. Featuring Indigenous perspectives, culinary history, and a side of humor, this episode uncovers how one ancient grain shaped our plates, our past, and one very strange police report.
Sources include:
Ancient DNA Continues To Rewrite Corn’s 9,000-Year Society-Shaping History from the Smithsonian
Historical Indigenous Food Preparation Using Produce of the Three Sisters Intercropping System
When Aron Ralston was trapped by a boulder in Utah’s Bluejohn Canyon, two burritos became his last link to life. This episode dives into his 127-hour fight for survival—and the fascinating history of the burrito, from Mesoamerica to modern-day.
Sources include:
A prune cake. A smile. A string of poisoned husbands. Meet Nannie Doss — the “Giggling Granny” whose deadly dessert shocked America. In this episode of True Crime Culinary, Leah Llach unpacks the sweet, sinister story of love, arsenic, and domestic deception.
Sources include an article from all that’s interesting, an analysis from the YouTube show Observe, and our friend Wikipedia.