Let me make it clear right away; I did not try the deep fried butter balls nor will you find any photos of them on here. I understand the fascination of being able to fry a ball of fat within fat but the idea makes my stomach churn.
Fried butter balls aside, the CNE always dishes out some amazing food choices yearly. We’ve now come to expect the beaver tail, the tiny tom donuts, and now the hamburger in a bag to tickle our taste buds at the end of every summer. An interesting new addition (though not necessarily new to this year) is the taco in a bag, which much like the hamburger in a bag, is ground beef, tomatoes, salsa and other taco condiments mixed around in a bag of doritos.
The Food building itself has a lot of history within it’s walls. It’s one of the few buildings that has been around for decades which hasn’t changed too much. It’s a practical use of space, but at the same time, you’ll spend almost as much time trying to find a seat to sit than you will figuring out what to eat from the dozens of food vendors in there.
The most interesting addition to the Food building this year is the Mac & Cheesery. For less than $8, you’re given 5 different choices of how you want to eat your mac & cheese, from a breakfast plate with eggs and bacon up to an interesting but classic hot doc mac. Not to out perform the deep fried butter balls, the Mac & Cheesery also offers Deep Fried Mac “N” Cheese for just $5 bucks. And if you’re like my good friend Ashley who raves for a good grilled cheese, they also offer a few different Grilled Cheese platters starting at $6 bucks. Sadly, they only offer potato chips with the grilled cheeses as opposed to actual fries.
Aside from the Mac & Cheesery, all our old favorites are there from the Montreal smoked meat delis to the chinese food options. Bouchards Poutinery has returned (though I can’t remember if they were under a different name last year) with all their interesting poutine options. I do have to say that I miss the big chocolate and candy stand they used to have in the centre of the food building where for a mere $8, you could get a bag full of your favorite convenience store candies worth about $20.
One interesting thing I’ve been noticing over the years is the prominence of Coca-Cola’s branding over the fair grounds. It seems like all the food vendors have to agree to only sell Coke products which is too bad because I’m more of a Pepsi guy.
Outside of the food building, there are a few great and interesting options around the fair grounds. Most of them appear to be inside the trade buildings with my personal favorite being the British food stand. They always seem to have the most interesting potato chips there.. Prawn Cocktail chips, anyone?
One interesting stand that I found would have to be the Animal Fudge Apple stand which contained a huge case filled with different fudge coated candy apples shaped in some of our favorite animals such as pandas, pigs, frogs, and monkeys.
If you’ve been to the CNE last year, then I can’t say you’ll be seeing anything different and new this year. Though I head to the CNE yearly to try and recapture a piece of nostalgia, the fact is it’s changed from what it was 20, 30, even 80 years ago, and many of my fellow peers agree that it will never be what it used to be.
Made to keep your kids warm and safe at night? Um, no.
Thankfully though, a lot of my nostalgia of the CNE revolves around such foods as the Tiny Tom Donuts, and I’m grateful that they will always be there year after year (even if I didn’t buy them this year). If you haven’t been to the CNE before, then it might be worth your $15 to go and check it out, otherwise I’d spend the entrance fee on a good meal at Kensington Market which has more cultural market appeal without the admission cost.
dammit! i read this just to see if you tried the deep fried butter balls.
you already went, but FYI for anyone who reads this, admission is $5 mon-thurs after 5pm excluding labour day.