CNE Food Stuff (Corn on the cob)

A quick tip, if you are at the CNE, avoid the corn on the cob guys on the midway, they are charging $6.00 for corn and a pop.

Instead get into the food building and right beside the corn dog place I had previously mentioned there is a sausage place with corn on the cob for only $2.00 AND they baste it in a great herbed butter.

CNE Food Stuff (Hotdog)

I can't remember what company it was that started the yellow booth in the food building selling cheap chicken dogs, but whoever it was seems to have long ago given up on it, and now the booth seems to be run independantly.

I have been going there for years for their cheap hot dogs, and (questionable) back bacon on a bun (I say questionable since there were a few times I would have called their back bacon more of a warm ham sandwich).

Over the years their prices have gone up, and they have in the last few years eliminated their small hot dogs and only sell the jumbo dog now.

This year the jumbo dog is priced at $1.25 and the bacon on a bun is $3.00

I could be wrong, but I think the dog was $1.00 last year.

Either way, the dogs have never been great, if anything they have been a vehicle for ketchup and mustard, and this has not changed, they are still rather bland, but the cheap price makes up for them.

The back bacon was not bad at all (they seem to be using real back bacon this year) my only complaint is the shoddy little hamburger bun they serve it on, if they used a kaiser or any kind of a real bun I think they would have line ups.

Anyways, back to the hot dogs, I have found a new place for them, actually several new places.

In the Food Building, and at 2 different trailers on the CNE grounds Maple Lodge Farms are selling some fantastic grilled chicken hot dogs for $2.00

They have a few other sandwiches and wraps available, but it's the hot dog that I like best.

My girlfriend wont eat beef (she thinks cows are too cute) so the fact that MLF sells a chicken weiner is even better.

Oh, and to make it even better for her, they will cover the dog in a really tasty chicken chili for an extra $1.00.

We will be back at the ex this weekend, and the MLF booth will be a for sure on out places to go list.

CNE Food Stuff (Corndog)

So a bit of a rundown on what I have sampled down at the ex.

Was craving a corndog, and was lucky to find a booth in the food building that sold a footlong corn dog for $5.00

Far better deal than the ones on the midway that were going for $8.00

And another thing that made it a better corndog than those on the midway was that it was made when I ordered it.

Sure I had to wait a few minutes for it, but I always wonder how long the corndogs on the midway have been sitting around.

So, if you are headed to the ex for the final weekend be sure to look for the corn dog booth in the Northeast corner of the Food Building (it is across from Mamma's who are selling the pizza on a stick).

CNE

So I spent the entire weekend at the CNE.

I love the ex, I've been going since I was old enough to walk (except for one year when I was in the hospital) so I have tonnes of great memories from there.
My mom and grandmother (Both now passed on) would take my brother and I, so giong back now kind of allows me to relive some of those memories.

One memory that really lives on is eating at the CNE lol.
When we were kids my mom would give my brother and I $20.00 to spend however we liked in the food building, and man did we ever stretch that $20.00.

One of the best things I remember trying was from the booths that used to be outside the food building, the were called "Around The World" and each booth would feature food from a different part of the world.
I went to the France booth and tried the cheesiest looking thing I could find, they called it cheese fondue, but looking back all it was is pizza on a french stick, but man when I was a kid it was so exotic (it was a french stick halved and basted with some tomato sauce a few pepperonis and a bunch of cheese)

The days of exotic food at the CNE are pretty well gone now.
The food building is nothing like it once was, it's pretty much just a big food court now.

I think a great idea would be for the CNE to stop selling the booths in there to the highest bidder and instead try and get some smaller mom and pop restaurants in there, hit up the big food manufacturers to set up some sampling booths in there, and let them all set up shop at a reduced cost, if they started offering something you can't get at any mall in the GTA people would start looking forward to going in there again, rather than going because they need to eat people would go because they were excited about what was inside.

Angry with Quizno's

Awwww Quizno's, I loved you because you launched the $5.00 after 5:00 promotion and unlike Subway Sandwiches, all of your locations were actually participating.

I was really excited about the Subway $5.00 sub promo until I realized that there was only one location I could find in the entire city that was participating (Bloor & Dufferin) it was at that point I started my Subway boycott (and the girlfriend and I had been going very regularly to Subway)

Soon after, Quizno's launched their 5 after 5 promo, I was very excited because EVERY Quizno's I passed had signage in he window for he promotion.

But part of the problem was I did not have a local quizno's and whenever I passed one in my travels they would be closed (they seem to all close at 9:00)

But I tried for weeks to get to a Quizno's if for no other reason to support this promotion, but I could never get to one.

But then Tuesday I was set to meet the girlfriend after work, and she passes a Quizno's on the way home from work.

She is not a fan of the toasted sub (in her mind the veggies should not be heated) but she decided to try and get me one of the $5.00 subs, and the promotion had ended.

Oh well, back to making my own sandwiches.

Pacific Mall

So as mentioned we went to visit taste of the Danforth on Friday, well in years past that would have been a weekend long event, however since the crowds and their SUV baby strollers took over, one visit is plenty for me.

So with that thought, and the bad weather, we decided to head to Pacific Mall http://www.pacificmalltoronto.com/

I had no idea how easy it was to get there until a guy at work told me it was as easy as getting on the Kennedy bus from Kennedy Station, but it's exactly that easy.

We were there (obviously to get some bootleg dvd's) to have a bit of a better look around (since the last time we were there we just kind of breezed through.
The mall is quite big, and is surrounded by other malls that I'm sure popped up to try and take some of their customer run off.

We started on the outskirts of the mall where we stopped into a bakery and picked up some Chinese Buns, they were ok, but the selection was lacking since we got there late in the day.

Then we wandered the mall for a while, picked up some weird Chinese Kit Kat bars (strawbetty, green tea) and eventually ended up upstairs in the food court.

There are actually several food courts upstairs, the area we ended up was a jumble of about 5-6 little places and each one had a picture of every dish they served.
This was great because half the time I have no clue what some places are serving, but pictures did do some justice.
There was some weird combos too, ramen noodles and hot dog in soup lol.

We werent starving so we just ordered some snacks, had some spring rolls with fried won tons and some really good dumplings.

Soon after it was getting late so we headed to the dvd store, got our movies then headed home.

Taste of the Danforth

So this weekend was the 15th annual Taste of the Danforth Festival.

We went Friday night, and I must say it was the smallest Friday night crowd I have ever seen at this festival.

I'm thinking it had a whole lot to do with the weather (which was very cool Friday night) but turned to rain for the rest of the weekend, so seems Friday night was the best time to have been there.

With the giant propane fire all over the news http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/475968 I'm not sure how much media attention was on the Danforth, but I am willing to bet that had it been a slow news weekend we would have heard of the low numbers at this years festival.

I have always said to friends, the only time to even bother going to Taste of the Danforth is during a rainstorm, as normally it is too busy to even attempt to walk through, the festival has become a victim of it's own success.

The festival idea came from the Taste of Chicago Festival http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Taste+of+Chicago&entityNameEnumValue=166(in Chicago of course) and there, once the festival outgrew the area it was held, it was moved to a nearby park.

There is no reason that TotD shouldn't do the same thing, I mean on a busy day, you really can not even get from one side of the street to the other in less that 20 minutes, so you may as well forget about the food.

After a block or two of this I have always given up and gotten back on the subway.

Anyways, as for Friday night, it went well, we had some good (if not really overpriced) food.

I'll go again, but I have to say it saddens me that every year it's getting more and more expensive.

I mean we went to Kalyvia (we have been going there every year for as long as I remember)

http://www.kalyvia.com/

We started off eating there one time just by chance (pretty much means there was no lineup there) and we were wowed, the meat was generous, the pita was fresh, and they drizzed some sort of olive oil and lemon over it before serving.

It has gotten worse every year, Friday I paid $10.00 for 2 chicken on a pitas, there was maybe 3 little pieces of meat on each pita (the pitas were dried out) and the sauce was the tiniest drizzle.

I mean isn't the thought of this festival to wow people so they will come back after the festival for more?

But year after year it has just become a bigger and bigger cash grab.

Most of the restaurants tick me off enough that I wouldn't go back when the festival is not on (and I spend a lot of time on the Danforth).

The organizers don't even hire any good bands anymore, I remember seeing some great shows at this festival (Jim Cuddy, Crashtest Dummies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) So even if the food was overpriced there was a reason for me to go there anyway.

Well, here is hoping that next year will see a better set up.