Let's Eat at the EX

It's the end of the first weekend of the Canadian National Exhibition and I am finally getting to writing this post about Opening Day at the CNE.  I try to go to the Ex at least once a year to check out the food and sometimes the music artists.  I skip the stomach wrenching rides and the money burning games and head straight for the Food Building to see what's new in food weirdness.

This year only had a couple of weird things and a few sort of new ideas.

This year some of the New Food Items were:

1.  Cocoa Fried Chicken - (Coco fried chicken) this one doesn't sound right to me, although people put honey on fried chicken and waffles but for some reason this one doesn't appeal to me even though I love fried chicken and chocolate.

2.  Smore's BAO - (Far East Taco) I kind of get this one and might of tried it if I had more room in my stomach.  It's a white steamed Bao bun filled with Smore's fixings like Marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers.  I guess it just makes it portable because I am not sure the Bao is really necessary.  To me a case of if it's not broke why add a Bao bun?

3.  Butter Coffee - (Hula Girl Espresso) I did try a small sample of this one and didn't really find anything weird about it.  It was from Hula Girl.

4.  Crowbar - (Hula Girl Espresso) This is this year's (Cronut)  it's basically a new version of Pain au Chocolate, it's a chocolate bar stuck in a croissant.  I tried the Caramilk bar Crowbar.  This was also from Hula Girl.  It was good but I think the basic Dark Chocolate Pain au Chocolate is a lot better.

5.  Thanksgiving Waffle - (Fran's) This is one that I really wanted to try but it was massive and if I would have had this I probably wouldn't have been able to eat anything else.  Although it really smelled good and I would love to go back just to try it another time.  It consists of a stuffing waffle with turkey on top with gravy and cranberry relish.  This one makes sense to me but I would probably want it more if it wasn't supposed to be summer right now.  This one is from Fran's, it was there first year ever at the CNE.

6. Elvis Grilled Cheese (Coffee Zone) - I didn't see this one but it's located in the Midway section.  A grilled cheese with Bacon and peanut butter and I think it has banana in it too.  Not so original as Elvis was eating them years ago but I guess new to the Midway of the Ex.

7. Spicy Peanut Butter Sriracha Rolls (Fran's Restaurant) - I was curious to try this one but wasn't too sure and thought I might go back to try it but didn't.  

Ok, so I only tried a couple of things out of this new foods list and I liked them but wasn't blown away by them.

What else did I eat?  I went for the not so well known Dutch Frites, I met the guys behind the Dutch Frites booth at the TOFoodFest where they told me they were going to be at the CNE this year so I hit up their booth first thing before I got too stuffed on other things.  I sampled their frites at the TOFoodFest and decided to get a full, although it was a small order of Frites with a side of the garlic mayo.  I was going to get the Poutine but thought it would have done me in for other food but I would recommend that if you want to try the full on flavours.  Dutch frites are twice cooked fries.  They fry them twice to make them crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  The ones I had at the TOFoodFest seemed to be cooked a bit better than the ones at the CNE though but if you like good fries it's worth a try.  

These frites filled me up but I continued on my Carb loading and had the Crowbar after these and then I was fully carbed out and wandered around the buildings where I stumbled on the Cheese Tasting seminars.  Can't walk passed cheese without having some so I sat in on a cooking demo one, although it was more of an assembling demo.  They made an appetizer of an endive leaf with beets, a piece of cheese and a radish slice.  I went back for the cheese demo where they sample 6 different kinds of cheese.  They also had cheese samples outside of the booth where they were selling some of the cheeses.  So I stuffed my face on some really tasty cheese.  My favourite was the 5 year old cheddar.  I really wanted to buy some but didn't want to carry cheese around the EX.   I did win a Black Cheese Apron for answering one of their trivia questions but I would rather carry around an apron than Cheese.

So after having my carb load at the Food Building and then some cheese loading at one of the other buildings it was time to continue wandering.  I really wanted to try some more food but only had room for one more of my traditional food stops at the CNE.  Yes the classic ICE CREAM WAFFLE.  It's such a simple thing but the combination of a fresh hot waffle and some cold Vanilla Ice Cream just seems to work and I was ok with the ice cream melting down my arm while I was eating it because the taste is simply good.



I would have loved to get a bunch of things to go to try the next day.  Maybe they should have a take out section next year.  I would be into that.  I did take home one thing though.  When I started wandering around the Food Building I saw a great fudge booth with a bunch of different flavours.  I picked up this delicious piece of fudge that I have been nibbling on for the past few days but I forget what this flavour was called but I can tell you it's yummy.

One of the other Carb heavy foods that entices you as you wander around the midway is the smell of the roasted corn.  I like my corn roasted without the husk but the smell of the corn roasting makes you salivate for one.  I skipped it but I suppose it's one of the healthier carb options at the EX.  

I guess there isn't much of a demand for salads at the EX because they don't have smells that waft through out the walk around the CNE grounds

One of the other attention grabbing foods that I spotted while walking around were these Flinstone sized Turkey legs.  They brushed them with BBQ sauce.  I guess they are catering to the Big Meaty guys with this one.  Although it was a woman that I saw purchasing one.  Can you imagine a woman chomping on a turkey leg while wandering down the Midway.
They did look good though.


The last thing that I had was a bit of a disappointment.  It was this large lemonade.  I love having ice cold lemonade in the summer but this stand gave me sugar water.  I could barely taste any lemon and pretty much tasted a spoonful of sugar in a little water and ice.  I think I just picked the wrong lemonade vendor because I have had lemonade at these big yellow lemon stands before and it was great.  This one not so much.

That was it for my food adventure at the EX.  The only other thing I had was a Tim Horton's Ice Cap while walking around in the sun in the afternoon.  The one thing to note is they don't sell small sizes at the EX so I had to get the medium size which contributed to me not having room in my stomach to try more foods.  If I go back again before the end of this season I will try and have a lot more variety of foods although I think the CNE foods tend to be super Carb heavy.   Cheap, easy, filling and addictive.   Not a great place for someone that is on a low carb diet.  

It was the perfect day to go to the EX.  It's was the Opening Day on a friday when it was only $8 for admission.  The regular price is $18.   It was also not super jam packed so it was comfortable to walk around and not get run over by strollers or people carrying large stuffed animals.  There were also no long lineups for food and other things which was amazing.  I have never been there on opening day before and really found it great.

Here are some other pics that I took at the EX that day.  I really love all the colors and lights.

The Ex - Food Heaven or Hell?

The Ex not a great place to look for healthy food.

I have been feeling sick for the past few days so I haven't been in the mood to do any cooking or other heavy duty household duties.   But I was getting stir crazy at home and wanted to go down to the Ex today because it was the last day of the Food Truck Frenzy and the same day that my favourite Food Network Chef Chuck Hughes (Chuck's Day/Week Off) was doing a food demo... well more like chatting while his restaurant chef was doing some cooking.  I am starting to feel like I am stalking him at this point since I was sitting in the audience and listening to him talk and then all of a sudden he says "Hi" and looks in my direction.  I didn't even realize he was talking to me... so out of it still from being sick and just kind of didn't expect him to stop mid sentence and say hi.  So I had a 30 second delayed reaction and then all I did was wave... still out of it... he says "she doesn't look happy to see me"...  of course I was...   he was my diversion for the day so that I didn't sit at home being sick and feeling miserable.   Going to see Chuck is more like going to see a stand up comedian lately.   He spends the whole time telling stories, cracking jokes and answering questions.    I have been trying to arrange an interview with him for my documentary and finally met his publicist face to face.   I always find it weird to email someone you haven't met and ask for something when they have no clue who you are and if you are legit or not.   So now she knows who she has been emailing so that made the trip down to the Ex worth it.    I had to think about going today because it is getting really expensive to go to the EX these days unless you go after 5 which I have been doing the past couple of years.   But since it was the last food truck day and only day for Chuck Hughes I forked out the $16 admission price and because I wasn't feeling 100% I drove down and then had to dish out another $25 for parking.   Paying for parking was well worth it when I finally left and didn't have to wait for a packed bus to the station because by that time I had just left the FOOD Building Oven and was so hot I just wanted to drive up the parkway with the windows open.

I went into the Food Building to see what Bacon Nation was all about.  Bacon on a stick, bacon wrapped hot dogs and some other concoction with Nutella which just thinking about it makes you want to toss your cookies.

I was also on the lookout for other weird foods new to the Ex this year.  I walked by this booth and saw this picture of a hot dog in a chocolate eclair.  I used to love chocolate eclairs when I was a kid but this one I don't think so.

Then I spot this food vendor selling food in a cone.  I suppose this makes sense since there isn't really enough seats to sit down and eat your food properly in the Food Building and since it's a million degrees in there anyway it's always better to hand hold your food while walking out of the building.  They had Sheppard's Pie in a cone and some chicken thing and a few others savoury things I can't even remember now.

So it made me wonder if this was Foodie Heaven or Hell?  Most things were either stuffed in a bun, deep fried, with bacon,  sweet and savoury mix or all of the above as in the case of the krispy kreme hamburger or the eclair dog.   All I kept thinking about is all the people with The Ex Food hangover that had to go and buy some pepto bismol or tums to get through their day.   All the sick little kids hurling all over the place and the parents saying "never again" but then doing it again the next year.

What about the people who are Vegan, Vegetarian, eat only Kosher or Halal or Raw food diets.   I guess the Ex would be Hell for them.
Is it Heaven or Hell for a foodie or food blogger?  It was kind of a mix of both for me.

The Heaven this year was the lineup of Food Truck Frenzy where I picked up some Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos from the Gourmet Gringos food truck.  Even though the fish was fried it had a nice light fresh batter with some crunchy slaw to balance the hot/cold/greasy/fresh taco.   One of my other favourite food trucks Buster's Sea Cove who had their Lobster Roll and Shrimp and Fish Tacos had a huge lineup.  I would have gone for that but decided to try one of the other trucks to see how it compares.  It was good but Buster's is still my fav.

A couple of hours later I went back to the food trucks but wasn't in the mood for the mostly brisket and pulled pork and taco options that the trucks had so I ventured into the Food building to see what I could get.

I managed to find a baked potato vendor and had a mexican baked potato.  There you go... something not deep fried.   Only one person in the line ahead of me.   The big lineups were for all the deep fried, greasy, heart stopping foods you could find at the Ex.  So I suppose it's like a license to eat whatever you wouldn't normally eat when you  go to the Ex.




One of my All Time favourite things I almost always get when I go to the Ex is the Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich.   The Hot Waffle sandwiched between the cold ice cream hits all the sensory spots.  Cool and refreshing and also warm and comforting.   A friend of mine just went to the Ex and had almost the same things to eat as I did.   So there is food for everyone there.   You just have to do a little searching to find it.

The Food at the Ex.. Heaven or Hell?  
You Decide.