Fries, gravy and cheese curds: these three ingredients create an iconic Canadian dish.

Valentine, a Quebec-based fast-food chain, has launched a formal bid to have poutine digitized in the form of an emoji.

The restaurant chain has sent a request to Unicode Consortium, the company responsible for approving each of the almost 3,000 emojis in existence.

The idea of creating a poutine emoji was part of an effort to facilitate the marketing of one of Valentine’s most popular products.

“It’s quite frustrating and it might seem trivial, but there is only a fries emoji. There is no cheese curds and no gravy,” said LG2 digital strategist Catherine Dorion.

She argues that although Valentine would benefit directly from the creation, many Montrealers would use it as well.

READMORE: World Emoji Day — What icon do Canadians use most?

“Not just in Quebec but Canada. Poutine is gaining a lot of traction internationally so we figured it’s fun and pertinent,” Dorion said.

The Quebec fast-food chain also opened up its proposal to the public by launching an online petition.

Within 24 hours, Valentine had reached its goal of 1,500 signatures.

Dorion says it will take time before emoji users are be able to send their friends digital versions of the greasy gravy goodness, as Valentine is still in the early stages of its request.

The fast-food chain hopes the proposed image sent to Unicode will pass the initial approval process by the end of March.

Unicode Consortium updates and releases new emojis once a year.

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