What to know
- The CNE is going all out on food this year, with wild mashups, deep-fried creations and unexpected sweet-and-savoury combinations.
- Some of the standouts include a butter chicken taquito, pickle cheesecake, cotton candy-topped jerk chicken hot dog and s’mores deep-fried pizza.
- There’s even a KD smoothie, blending Kraft Dinner cheese flavour with mango, pineapple juice, vanilla frozen yogurt and skim milk.
- The 147th annual CNE runs Aug. 21 to Sept. 7 at Exhibition Place in Toronto.
Lobster on a stick, popcorn falafel and s’mores fried pizza? If there’s one place in Toronto where the line between a snack and a stunt gets deliciously blurry, it’s the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE).
Every August, the CNE turns its food offerings into its own kind of spectacle, with vendors offering their wildest mashups, sky-high creations and decadently indulgent bites designed to be eaten, photographed and, in some cases, questioned.
CNE is known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to eats, and this year is no exception. At Wednesday’s media day, vendors offered a preview of the foods visitors can expect to encounter when the fair opens.
And while some are clever or comforting, others are downright chaotic. Here’s a look at some of the CNE’s most entertaining — and, occasionally, insidious — foods to seek out this season.
A little tame fusion never hurt anybody
Not every new CNE creation needs to be outrageous. Some vendors are taking a more measured approach to fusion, bringing together familiar flavours in innovative ways.
Look to none other than Punjabi-Canadian comfort food connoisseurs Ricks Good Eats for all things butter chicken embedded in your favourite eats. Masala-forward tacos, loaded fries, and sandwiches are typical each year at this spot, located within Food Truck Frenzy, but this season is all about the Footlong Butter Chicken Taquito. The $14.95 crispy, fried delicacy is packed with butter chicken, basmati rice, and served with a creamy butter chicken aioli.
“I have IV that you can hook up for more butter chicken, it’s like electrolytes,” Chef and creator Rick Matharu joked to Now Toronto. “I think it’s going to be the hottest thing this year.”
Keeping on the fusion flow, Supreme Pierogi offered something that feels so uniquely Toronto: the Jamaican Beef Patty Mini Pierogies. The name is pretty explanatory, filled with all the spices you’d find in your typical beef patty inside of the mini dumpling served with sour cream.
The owner says his Polish family moved to Toronto when he was only six years old, and that’s where he also eventually met his wife who’s from Tobago.
“A lot of Caribbean flavours are constantly going in our kitchen, it felt like a natural pairing of the two flavours,” he said. “It’s also a very nostalgic Toronto street food.”
The mini treat goes for $16 a plateful inside the Food Building.
Some sweet and savoury bites
The sweet-and-savoury divide is real at CNE this year, where salty, crispy, creamy and sugary ingredients are finding themselves sharing the same plate. For those who like a little contrast in every bite, this is where things get particularly interesting.
One poster that made us do a doubletake was the $18 Pickle Cheesecake Pop, offered by Mr. Pickle. This NY-style cheesecake on a stick is not only dipped in chocolate, but rolled in crunchy dill pickle potato chips — for balance, of course. “A lot of people try it and say, ‘Damn, that’s better than I thought it would be,’” said its inventor. “It’s wild and wacky, and it’s good.”
The Brie Cheese Deep Fried Oreos were another spectacle. It’s exactly what it sounds like – brie nestled between oreo cookies, golden as ever — topped with a strawberry balsamic glaze, Canadian maple syrup and rosemary. Sold in 4-packs for $22 at Sam’s Grill located at the Outdoor Concessions, the creator of the dish assured it contains “all the elevated elements we love and enjoy in Toronto.”
And to wash down the sweet-savoury goodness, how about the Sweetcorn Wasabi Lemonade from Alijandro’s Kitchen? The refresher mixes corn with the kick of wasabi and a tajin rim, and founder Samer Khatib describes the drink as a “summer vibe.”
“We’re very creative with our menu, we like to destroy the box, if you will,” Khatib joked.
The lemonade goes for $7.50 for a regular and $10 for large, and is available in the Food Truck Frenzy section.
Wild, wilder and absolute insanity
And then there are the foods that make you stop mid-scroll — or mid-bite — and wonder how they came to exist. These are the CNE creations built for maximum impact: towering, overloaded, extremely deep-fried, stuffed, sauced and unapologetically over the top.
First up is Jerk Dogs’ $17 Cotton Candy Waffelicious — a waffle-battered jerk chicken hot dog topped with blue cotton-candy cream, pink-and-white coconut crumb and fresh cotton candy, then finished with the brand-new CNE Sweet Heat Sauce. If that description alone isn’t a mouthful, founder Sean Burgess assures the hot dog itself is, summing it up with his mantra: “one bite, whole vibe.”
“We’re the new dogs in town,” he proudly exclaimed. “Premium ingredients made with a lot of love. Jamaican inspired, Canadian made!”
Pineapple on pizza may be one of the pizza world’s most enduring debates, but the CNE is taking the sweet-and-savoury conversation in a very different direction. Found at Pizza Pizza inside the Food Building, the $13.11 S’mores Deep Fried Slice takes a classic cheese pizza slice, dips it in batter and deep-fries it before coating it in graham cracker crumbs and topping it with marshmallow whip and a chocolate ganache. The result may look intimidating, but one Pizza Pizza employee insists it’s worth taking the plunge.
“There’s nothing to be scared of with a s’mores slice,” the representative said. “It’s that perfect sweet-savoury combination… it works perfectly.”
And finally, all eyes were on the KD Smoothie — yes, Kraft Dinner, in blended, fruity form.
Available at Booster Juice in the Food Building, the $6.69 snack size (or $10 for a large) creation combines KD Original Cheese flavour with mango, pineapple juice, vanilla frozen yogurt and skim milk, resulting in what the chain describes as a “refreshing” smoothie. While the combination may sound like a culinary fever dream, one Booster Juice employee said the public reaction so far has been surprisingly positive — and, perhaps most importantly, the cheesy flavour is actually quite subtle.
“It’s savoury, it’s sweet, it’s got a little bit of cheese in it. You kind of just got to try it for yourself!”
The 147th annual CNE and all its wacky flavours opens this Friday, Aug. 21 at Exhibition Place and runs throughout Sept. 7, and for more on its food offerings, visit the CNE website.
