where jess ate

From extreme bacon concoctions to deep fried butter, extreme artery-clogging food has been the theme at the Ex’s food scene in recent years. Thankfully, this time of indulgence only comes once a year!

I’ll be honest, when I go to the Ex, I spend the majority of my time in the food building or eating something on the Midway. You’ll rarely find me without some food in my hand.

Our first stop was Epic Burgers to try the Cronut Burger ($10) which has generated a ton of buzz since the public was first made aware of it. Today, they’ve received some bad press after a number of people fell ill at the CNE (source unknown at the moment). For the record, Mike and I were fine.

Anyway, if you recall, the Krispy Kreme burger brought Epic Burgers to fame and this Cronut burger was essentially the same idea. A patty with cheese is sandwiched between a cronut (made by Le Dolci) cut in half. The cronut, part croissant and part doughnut, was invented by Dominique Ansel a few months back and has been all the rage.

The cronut burger was significantly smaller than I expected and the cronut reminded me of a sugar donut. It wasn’t very croissant-like since it didn’t have all those nice layers I was expecting. I suspect the cronuts had been sitting around for too long in the humid food building. I’m curious to try Le Dolci’s cronut on its own though – fresh from the bakery.

The menu described the burger as “Part Croissant. Part Donut. All Epic.” How did I find it? Not bad…but not epic either.

Our next stop was Pull’d, which debuted at the CNE last summer. After debating amongst their pulled pork offerings, we decided on  Jack’d – pulled pork layered in between three thick red velvet pancakes buttered and doused in Jack Daniel’s infused syrup ($12). The pulled pork was decent but the whole thing just needed more sauce or more of that JD-infused syrup.

Can’t go to the Ex without spending a fortune on some Fresh Lemonade ($6)!

One of the favourite things I ate at the Ex was the Deep Fried Pickle ($4.25) from Pickles Deli which was served with ranch dipping sauce.  Simple but oh-so-satisfying. A must-order for pickle fans! They have non-deep fried pickles too but if I’m at the Ex, I’m going to get it deep fried.

Just Cone It has also generated a lot of buzz this year for their “Spice Cream Cone” which consists of vanilla soft serve in a pizza cone topped with bacon, chili peppers and nutella. I was in the mood for something savoury and passed on the Spice Cream Cone.

We ordered the Philly Cone – braised beef, green peppers, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and cheese ($8.50). It was pretty tasty and made for a nice snack but I preferred their pulled pork cone which I tried last year.

As we made our way to Bandshell Park to watch the New Pornographers, we realized that the Ex had a Rib Fest. I couldn’t resist and ordered some Pork Ribs ($13 for 1/3 rack) from Gator BBQ. I liked the sauce but wish they were a little more tender and saucy.

At this point, we were done with the savoury and moved onto the sweets starting with a Deep Fried Mars Bar – wrapped in bacon ($8)…one slice of bacon. Food is expensive at the Ex, eh? I love deep fried Mars bars and you really can’t go wrong with adding a bit of bacon to your sweets.

Whenever I go to the Ex, I have to get a Hot Ice Cream Waffle Sandwich ($3.75). Hot waffles sandwiching a thick slab of vanilla ice cream…it’s a classic that never disappoints!

Something new this year are Panini Gelatos ($7.50) from Sweet Escapes which consist of fresh gelato sealed within a warm brioche bun.

Maybe it was talked up a little too much but I didn’t think it was anything extraordinary (especially at the steep price tag). It was definitely tasty but nothing special in my opinion. I later realized, it’s probably because I ordered it with plain chocolate gelato. I hear the hazelnut gelato is the way to go!

It was quite the day of indulgence, to say the least… Until next year!