Let's Go To The Ex Pt. 2: The Food Building

In today's coverage of the Canadian National Exhibition, I'm going to talk a little bit about everyone's favourite part of the CNE: stuffing yourself stupid in the food building.  Yes, The Ex has a whole building dedicated to nothing but food.  Indeed, everyone who I spoke to about going to The Ex had the same goal in mind, "to eat all of the fried things".  Word.  For.  Word.  ALL  of the fried things.  Friends, that's a goal we can achieve, but the biggest obstacle to overcome is the daunting task of having to choose from the extraordinary amount of variety of deliciousness that shouts at you from every possible vantage point.

To illustrate how insane the food building is, I present to you, a panoramic shot of roughly 1/6 of the food building.  Open this puppy full size, and just let that all sink in.  You too can eat this much (if not this WELL) at the CNE.

This was my first panorama attempt, and except for Oriental Express and the now headless guy in front of PULL'D, I'd say it came out smashingly!

 

It really is a tough choice to make, though there are no bad decisions here (well, relatively speaking.  EPIC Burgers and Waffles did give dozens of people food poisoning with their cronut burger, and none of the food in this building is likely any good for you whatsoever.  Tread lighly, dear friends.  Pace yourself).  Personally, I opted for a couple veggie samosas from Ghazale, while Ephraim enjoyed a lobster roll.  I refused a blooming onion at the time, and I have regretted it every day since the fair.  Next time, I'll wear my eating pants, and not a high waisted skirt.  How foolish of me!

For dessert, we enjoyed the carnival staple, funnel cake.  If you're not familiar with funnel cake, I'm so sorry, and this is what it looks like:

It's basically deep fried dough with some sort of "fruit" topping, and icecream.  Funny story about funnel cake, years ago my family went to Canada's Wonderland (an amusement park, that has nothing to do with Canada at all) and ordered funnel cake with strawberry topping.  My step mother asked the man at the funnel cake stand if it was made with fresh strawberries.  We all laughed at her. I mean, all of us.  My dad, my brother, myself, the guy running the booth, we all just laughed.  You do not eat funnel cake for the fruit.  You eat funnel cake for the high you get from cheating death when you finish the thing and you haven't had a heart attack yet.  

And really, that's what the food building at The Ex is all about: eating really, really badly for a day, and loving every minute of it.  Enjoy all of the fried things, and feel accomplished when you manage to eat more than you thought humanly possible.  Because the CNE happens but once a year, and you aren't braving these lines twice.

--Erin