[Event] CNE 2015 – Canadian National Exhibition

Event: CNE – Canadian National Exhibition
Location: 210 Princes’ Blvd, Toronto, ON M6K 3C3

Ok before I begin, I just want to say I’m still a newbie at guide/event coverage…. Of course I had to forget to take picture of certain things, or my pictures just somehow turn out to be blurry (shaky hands, maybe I’m getting old physically..). Anyhow, please forgive me as I’m still trying to get better at this :(.

CNE, or the Canadian National Exhibition have became an iconic event in Toronto for years now, and though the same attractions and crazy food remained the same (sort of), each and every “Torontonian” must at least have gone here once in their lifetime. It had really became the spot for highschoolers looking for a part-time job before school starts, or if you are like me, I detested it because it meant school was starting again.

Initially I wasn’t going to CNE this year, however Karen (stenoodie) invited me to join with her friends and we had a blast! By the way, I strongly recommend everyone to get here by TTC as parking was extremely hard to find and pricey!

We all knew which outrageous food we wanted to get, but sadly most were all located in the Food Building and well, inside that building was like an Asian market. Long lineups, sweats, humidity, rude & swearing people who have gone crazy because of the heat – you know it.

While on the subject, someone should seriously create a mobile application that display the vendors who are located in and outside of the building. Some of us had a hard time finding the vendors and we were unable to try some items, like the deep fried cheese cake. No the paper map doesn’t work, it didn’t show the food stalls that were located outside the food building. There, I presented the idea, now someone execute it.

1. Bacon Nation:

The line for Bacon Nation was probably the longest one in the food building. I remember passing through the shop multiple times and each time, there were roughly around 20 to 30 people in line.

We all decided to share the bacon wrapped grilled cheese at Bacon Nation, and uh.. for $12.85 it was pretty small. Surprisingly it was amazingly delicious and it was one of the best item we had that day. Bacon was not too dry nor too crispy, and the cheese itself was still warm and melted nicely so it wasn’t an explosive mess when I took a bite. The bacon was salty but there was no seasoning on the bread and cheese, so the sandwich itself had a right amount of saltiness. The grilled cheese also came with a chipotle ketchup sauce, which gave a nice hint of spicy and smokiness to the sandwich.

2. Coco’s fried chicken:

Karen’s friend got the cocoa infused fried chicken at Coco’s fried chicken, and it wasn’t really my favourite. Though the chicken was still somewhat juicy, I could barely tasted the cocoa. There was also a peach (?) and mango sauce to dip the chicken in, weird combinations but somehow worked..

3. Eative:

Karen and I passed by Eative, a frozen treat shops that make fresh gelato and sorbet with liquid nitrogen. Both of us were on a mission to find the Jamaican beef burger so we didn’t want ice cream, however we got a sample and it was delicious!

The store is actually located in Kensington Market, which is pretty much around my area so I will visit on another day :).

4. Bub’s Bad@ss Burger:

Instead of the ice cream, this was another crazy new food at CNE that we wanted to get! Although the line up was long, it moved pretty quickly and the wait was only around 15-20 mins.

I think Patois also offer a burger similar to this where it’s a beef burger sandwiched between Jamaican patties. The burger was packed with flavors, and the patties acting as the “buns” held up really well when we tried to eat.

5. Chicken waffle on a stick:

This stand is located near the Press Building and it was one of the new food to try out for this year’s CNE.

Karen’s friend got the chicken waffle dipped in chocolate and dusted with powdered sugar. For sauces the stand offer either hot sauce or maple syrup, or you can go plain as well. Karen’s friend said the dipped chocolate version was just overly sweetened and he ended up throwing it away.

I opted for the chicken waffle on a stick with no sauce instead, and all of us agreed that this was pretty bad…

The chicken was dry and tough, and you can see on the above picture, there was more waffle than chicken. The waffle was also plain as well, so the overall skewer was just a pain to swallow….. They could have flavored the chicken a bit and it would have been nice, and we all agreed a gravy sauce would have been a good choice to flavor the skewer a bit. In the end, most of us threw away the skewers as it was just a tasteless piece of meat.

Other than the food that I took pictures of, everyone also got other food and let the foodies try as well :). I tried the Dutch Frites and poutine balls from Vienna and both were amazing, especially the gravy on the poutine balls :D.

Of course it’s not CNE without playing any games. With that said, I chose not to play because I remember that horrible experience where my ex-boyfriend spent a lot of $$, yet he couldn’t get the minion for me lol.

*Pro Tip: If you are have superior genes and look really young, try the guessing your age/height game near the Food Building. I’m short and depends on what I wear, I can look like a highschooler and 90% of the time, people will guess my age wrong lol. That’s probably one of the easiest game to win a prize.

As usual the minion and pikachu are the two most popular stuffed toys for the prizes this year. However this year the sriracha plush toy debuted and yes, I wanted it but just didn’t want to play any games. Here let me help you guys and find the same toy on eBAY for cheaper.

Thank me later <3.

Honestly for me the games are usually a scam, and most people know it, because they need to rig the games to make money, right? With that said, I think you should play something anyways for the CNE experience, and know when to stop (very important!!).

I admit I always make fun of how CNE and sky ride is for highschool couples, yet I actually really like the sky ride lol. Future husband, we can go to CNE and just let me sit on the skyride, you can eat or play whatever you want.

It was hard to capture, but those white dots on the pictures were actually bubbles! Someone was sitting on the sky ride and they started blowing the bubbles, it was quite a sight to see.

I’m not sure if I will go back to CNE next year. Ok no I lied, maybe I will if someone ask me. I think CNE is more enjoyable if you go with a lot of people. Although the type of games and prizes remain the same throughout the years, there will always be something different and it is always worth it to go once if you live in Toronto.