From marshmallow fluff drizzling to mini-donuts frying to stuffed meat sizzling on the grill, the food at the Queen City Ex is a big part of the once-a-year experience.
The crop of new food offerings for 2019 doesn’t disappoint.
For a blast of sugar, there’s maple cotton candy stuffed into a fresh waffle in the shape of a taco, then drizzled with marshmallow fluff. It’s all then sprinkled with Oreo cookie crumbles and stuck with two Pocky sticks.
For dinner with a little kick, fair-goers can head over to the Flamin’ Cheetos corndogs. It’s a corndog rolled in jalapeno cheese sauce and then rolled again in Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Or there’s some fancier fare, with the crab-stuffed burger.
“The staple stuff is still here,” said Jason Au, who made the burgers on Wednesday. “But I think the media has taken it, and just I think (it’s) the wow factor.
“Everybody’s looking for something different, something you can’t find, right? And this is something you definitely can’t find anywhere.”
The burger is one of the more expensive items at the fair though, coming in at $17.99.
Vegetarians have a few new options at the fair this year, including the veggie corndog. It’s a soy-tofu dog covered in cornmeal batter.
For dessert, or just to cool down on a hot afternoon, there’s new Butterbeer soft serve.
Taken from the hit Harry Potter series, the soft serve is a mix of butterscotch and shortbread flavours.
Other new food offerings at the fair this year include white chocolate cheesecake mini-donuts, the snickel dog (a hot dog, pickle and Snickers bar wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried), the Mediterranean poutine, the Tokyo street dog, the King Spammy (a foot-long hot dog topped with cilantro, pineapple and seared crispy Spam), potato-less cheese curd poutine, lemon and lime fried artichoke hearts, and bacon-wrapped drumsticks.
The Queen City Ex runs from Wednesday through Sunday at Evraz Place.