One thing CNE-goers look forward to every year (or look forward to avoiding) is the adventurous food combinations dotting the menus. And the Ex has had its fair share of hits and misses over the years:
Hit: The Krispy Kreme burger
This burger, by Epic Burgers and Waffles, made its CNE debut in 2011 and consists of a beef patty, American cheddar cheese, tomato and lettuce housed between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. For an extra couple dollars, you could add a fried egg and bacon.
According to the Toronto Sun, the fully-loaded version has 1,550 calories – that’s about five-and-a-half chocolate glazed doughnuts from Tim Horton’s.
Hit: Deep-fried butter
Deep-fried butter made its Ex debut in 2010 at the Sweet Treats stand. The butter balls are dipped in funnel cake batter before hitting the deep fryer, and are finished off with a drizzle of flavoured syrup and icing sugar. Sweet Treats has its own secret method, but an average deep-fried butter ball has 114 calories. (They are, however, sold as a four pack.)
Hit: Bacon-wrapped deep-fried Mars bars
As if deep-fried Mars bars weren’t bad enough: Bacon reigned supreme at the Ex in 2012, and one stand-out item was the bacon-wrapped deep-fried Mars bar from Bacon Nation. According to BlogTO, a bacon-free version still has 400 calories. A single slice of bacon has about 43 calories. You do the math.
Miss: The Cronut burger
The Cronut, a doughnut-croissant hybrid, swelled in popularity in 2013 and a burger with the pastry in lieu of the standard bun appeared at the CNE that same year. The offering, a beef patty and cheese between two cinnamon-sugar Cronuts and topped with maple bacon jam, was controversial from the start because of its use of a trademarked name. But then more than 200 people became sick after having one at the Ex and it was removed from the menu at EPIC Burgers and Waffles. In the end, the illnesses were linked to the jam.
The Cronut’s creator, New York chef Dominique Ansel, won’t reveal how many calories his treat contains. But common sense dictates that a cheeseburger merged with a Cronut is an indulgence, to say the least.
Miss: Jack'd
Jack’d, from Pull’d, sounds good in theory: pulled pork, placed between three red-velvet pancakes, and all of it covered in a Jack Daniels’ infused syrup with a lump of butter on top. But the sandwich was panned by both Toronto Life and Torontoist.