Toronto: An Extreme Food Experience
A couple of weeks ago, we spent an extra-long weekend in Toronto mainly to see our favourite band (Hey Rosetta!) perform for the 2nd time that week (the concerts alone deserve another post) but the weekend offered a lot more than what we expected. Our stay coincided with the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). The CNE is Canada’s largest annual fair and the seventh largest in North America. The fair consists of a variety of pavilions, exhibits, shows, concerts, carnival midway with rides, games and most importantly tons and tons of food stands/trucks. Fortunately we only stumbled upon this Toronto Star article after our trip. The article discusses five favourite CNE foods and analyzes their calorie and fat composition.
As a hard core Nutella fan, I had to try something from Spread Nutellerie! Honestly this food vendor must have been specifically designed for moi! I wasn’t quite ready to try a mix of savoury and sweet, such the Nutella-covered sweet potatoes fries, so I opted for the Bananza – deep fried banana smothered in Nutella, peanut butter, strawberries, marshmallows and icing sugar…which was just DIVINE (as you can tell by the smile on my face!). I’m not a big fan of peanut butter, but this dish had just the perfect amount and surprisingly it wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. This was probably one of my favourite Nutella dishes I’ve ever had, although my Nutella pie, Nutella cupcakes and Nutella cookies can definitely compete with this dish. As you can tell I didn’t leave much on the plate.
Spread Nutellerie in the CNE Food Building
The "Bananza" from Spread Nutellerie
The "Bananza" Aftermath (5 mins later)
Mike tried The Canuck Burger (aka the Pig Mac) from Bacon Nation which is a burger made with a ground bacon, topped with bacon strips, homemade bacon mayonnaise served on a bacon bun. Mike thought it was very greasy and overall a disappointment. The Toronto Star article highlights how unhealthy this burger is. He wished he’d picked the Colossal Onion instead (also featured in the article). The Colossal Onion is a large, deep-fried sweet onion served with a chipotle mayo dipping sauce. I discouraged him from getting it as he probably definitely ate more calories than his daily intake that day.
Bacon Nation Food Truck
The Canuck Burger
However, this didn’t prevent Mike from trying more extreme dishes. His next stop was Dutch Frites where he tried Dutch fries and Frikandellen. The hand-cut fresh potato fingers are double-fried and drenched in mayonnaise. He definitely enjoyed this more than the Canuck Burger but mentioned that there was too much mayo. But this didn’t stop him for finishing a whole of cone of fries. The Frikandellen was a deep fried skinless sausage made with a combination of chicken, pork and beef. A cut is made through the middle to make room for the mayonnaise, curry ketchup and finely diced onions. It was a unique dish, very flavourful and best no-bun hot dog ever. This was Mike’s highlight of CNE food dishes.
Mike showing off his Dutch frites and Frikandellen
There were other exotic dishes that we wanted to try but couldn’t because EPIC Burgers and Waffles was closed down due to health reasons. This venue was home to the Cronut burger and Behemoth. The cronut burger is a hamburger with a croissant-donut mix for a bun, topped with a maple bacon-jam. More than 200 people fell sick after eating this burger so it was probably a good idea that we didn’t try it. The Behemoth is a massive ground beef patty nestled between two Texas-style grilled cheese sandwiches.
EPIC Burgers & Waffles at the CNE Food Building
The Cronut Burger and The Behemoth
Despite the fact that all these dishes almost equal to your daily calorie intake, you should definitely treat yourself at least once. Luckily the CNE involves a lot of walking so you will burn it off anyways and there are First Aid crews onsite!
Namaste,
M & M
