poutine the name used in Provence for both the sardine and the anchovy in their larval state. They are poutine nue (or poutina nuda) so long as they remain without scales, and poutine habillée (or poutina vestida) when the scales appear. These minute fish (hundreds to the pound) cannot legally be fished in other parts of France, but the Alpes-Maritimes is a region where the relatively permissive fishery regulations of Sardinia continued to apply for 100 years after the Comté de Nice was reincorporated in France in
1860. So the people of Nice and thereabouts could go on consuming large quantities of poutine when they appeared in the early part of the year. Since 1960 the fishery for poutine has been severely regulated but not eliminated.
