Deep-fry party!

Bianca had the genius idea of having a deep-fry party. And yes, it was as unhealthy as it sounds: crispy and delicious. Everything was thrown in the freezer to chill before frying. Jenny provided the batter, and I think she said it was a mix of milk, eggs, flour, and baking soda.

Deep-fried Oreos

Deep-fried bananas

I think these were my favourite since they weren't killing me with sweetness.

Deep-fried Twinkie with some canned whipped cream

There were also deep-fried Mars bars, and deep-fried Kit Kat bars. I didn't try the Kit Kat bars, but from what I had I liked the bananas and Mars bars the best. Julie measured the difference in oil (before and after), and noted that between the eight or nine of us, we consumed 500mL of oil. 

Cheers to Bianca for setting this up, and to everyone for coming together and bringing deep fryers and stuff to fry! I think we should have a vegetable party next.

CNE

Canadian National Exhibition

End of August means end of summer and two weeks of the Ex. For me, that means trying out whatever disgusting concoction of food combination they've come up with this year. The big craze this time was bacon, but I wasn't sold. The Bacon Nation offerings didn't seem that exciting to me, or maybe I just couldn't see the full menu. I decided for pulled pork business from Pull'd instead.

 The Jack'd ($13.56 after tax)

Pulled pork in between layers of red velvet pancakes... with a square of salted butter on top. It looked like something I'd make out of leftovers in rez. The pancakes were more orange than red, but surprisingly went okay with the meat. The meat wasn't all pulled apart, and could've used more sauce - Jack Daniel's sauce. The butter was good at moistening things up. It was kind of pricey and alright. 

 This is what it looked like after hacking.

We saw this sign that me and Renée found hilarious, but Jo didn't get it. 

CNE

Canadian National Exhibition (Food Building, Princes' Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario)

It's almost the end of summer, and that means the Ex is back for another year of rickety rides, rigged games, and all the food you shouldn't eat. 

The first attraction we hit was the Food Building. Andrew had a list of about ten things to eat, and they were all deep-fried except for the donut burger.

Deep-fried cola. It's more expensive than the deep-fried slushie and deep-fried Kool-Aid.

I noted that the pieces sticking out of the cup looked like tentacles. It's basically a broken funnel cake topped with syrup, whipped cream, and cherries. Andrew said that he tasted the cola flavour, but it was like "weird Coke". 

Epic Burgers & Waffles.

There was a bit of a line for this place, as it sold the infamous doughnut burger. There was also the behemoth burger (grilled cheese sandwich as the bun of the burger).

Krispy Kreme burger ($8-something). Approximately 1500 calories.

It's a thick burger with processed cheese, lettuce, and tomato slices sandwiched in between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The vegetables were crispy and necessary to cut some of the sweetness away. The icing on the doughnuts were partially melted from the heat of the burger. I thought the actual meat was okay, but I could've done without the Krispy Kremes. They were way too sweet and didn't really do their job in holding the burger together. Andrew seemed to enjoy it though.

There's an option to make it "epic" by adding bacon and an egg, but that seemed like a death wish. 

 Mac & Cheesery. This was the place I was excited for. 

They offered different variations of mac and cheese, but I went there for the deep-fried mac n cheese. They also had deep-fried cheese curds, but they looked a bit dried up and not very exciting. They sort of reminded me of popcorn chicken.

 Deep-fried macaroni and cheese.

Andrew's batch had round chunks, whereas three of mine were shaped like rectangular prisms. They looked like fried tofu. My first bite into the crispy shell revealed a hot, gooey, and cheesy interior. It was good, but it needed salt or more seasoning. I went back to get some of their Frank's RedHot sauce and that made it taste more complete. It was deep-fried kid food, and I liked it.

Deep Fried Mars Bars (and Vachon cakes, and Pop tarts, and Oreos, and Twinkies).

The deep-fried Mars bar isn't a new idea, but deep-fried Vachon cakes sounded interesting. ($5) Got the Jos Louis, but the Ah Caramel! might've been a better order.

It might've been a good idea in theory, but it was a mess to eat. The Jos Louis was too big and soft to be held up by the stick. The batter was thin, but a bit soggy. That might've been because we waited a little while before eating it, though. I think the deep-frying ruined the snack, which was a perfectly fine thing to begin with. The extra chocolate sauce also seemed unnecessary. 

Deep-fried Mars bar.

Andrew said this was much better (and easier to eat).

I think the deep-frying melted the cream in between the two cake layers in the Jos Louis.

Steak & Cheese

Spicy fries and Sprite ($5-something, but it should've been $3.50 + tax.) I got ripped off.

They tasted like McCain fries. Again, I got ripped off, and I was left feeling very displeased.

Would I return? Probably. The deep-fried mac and cheese wasn't bad, I couldn't find the deep-fried butter, and I might try the deep-fried cheese curds and grilled cheese burger. Plus, it's not every day that I get to feast on fair food... just two weeks out of the year.

Admission to the CNE is $5 after 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. General admission is $16 otherwise.

Total damage: 876543456787654 calories.

Related articles:

Toronto Star article about the doughnut cheeseburger

BlogTO piece on how to get fat at the CNE

Toronto Life's summary of deep-fried Ex food

My previous visit to the Ex

KFC

I saw a commercial for KFC's new hot wings, and the craving wouldn't go away. Damn marketing. 

Of course, it was disappointing.

The combo looked so dinky. The wings were slightly mild... much like mini versions of their large spicy chicken pieces. At least the meat wasn't dry. The outside was crunchy on certain bites. Fries were regular KFC blah. I was so sad when Lorne's 2 toonie (actually $2-seventy-something) Tuesday meals were still cheaper than my one combo. His chicken pieces were so much larger. 

Total damage: $8.46. I should have just gone for some cheapo Asian food. Or the Tuesday deal.

Ice Cream!

Sometimes you just have to say, "Everyone can EAT IT! I'm having ice cream!"

With banana slices. :)

Jos Louis Bar

Jos Louis bars

I'm not a fan of the packaging that tries to be cool. 

 Who's that guy? 

 Tastes like a regular Jos Louis... but without the thicker chocolate aggregations at the sides. 

It also has some chocolate filling in addition to the trademark white cream inside. It made it a bit too sweet for me. I think I prefer the original ones better, or at least the half-sized moons when I'm on a diet. 

In-N-Out Burger

In-N-Out Burger (San Jose, California, USA)

The meat is kind of small and a bit tasteless. I was impressed with how toasted the bun was. It had a nice crunch to it that I initially thought was from the meat. It was a bit too shiny for my liking though. Fries were weird tasting. 

The milkshake was super thick and actually quite filling.

Would I return? Hm... maybe. The good: cheap, super cheap. The toasty bun was nice. The bad: it's not really fast for 'fast food'. It took about ten minutes to get our food. It's really not in and out. Fries tasted weird.

Total damage for the burgers, fries and milkshake: approximately $10.

McDevil Fail

McDonald's (420 Highway 7 East, Richmond Hill, Ontario)

Wanting to satisfy my late night craving for salty goodness, me and Josie took a stroll to McDonald's. 

Medium fries and crispy ranch snack wrap.

This is the first time in my life that I've ever wanted more salt for the fries at McDonald's. I get McDonald's fries becaure they're salty. I was so disappointed. Furthermore, when Josie asked for salt and pepper, she was given one small packet of each. That may have been enough for ten fries, but I ordered a medium!

Something is wrong with the world when McDonald's fries are not salty enough. 

Total damage: $4.84.

Première Moisson

Première moisson (895 De la Guachetière Street West, Montreal, Quebec)

I saw this spiked, little chocolate thing a couple of years ago but I didn't get it then. Every subsequent trip to Montreal, I tried looking for it, but I had forgotten where I had seen it. Several years later, I realized it was at the Première Moisson by the train station (Gare centrale).

I had this dessert a long time ago, so I don't remember what it tasted like, but I do remember that it was delicious! And that it was difficult for me to find the seating area in that weird hall thing. That may have been because I have invisible horse blinders around my face.

Would I return? I'd go back and try other stuff. That's especially considering the items I tried at their other location in Jean-Talon Market were very tasty.

Naked Chocolate Cupcakes!

When we can't think of what else to do, we bake. 

This recipe is courtesy of joyofbaking.com. Check it out here.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water

11/3cups(175 grams) all purposeflour

2 teaspoonsbaking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated whitesugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons purevanillaextract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a handmixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter andbakeforabout 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.

I think they turned out pretty well for the most part...

The ingredients are simple enough, and the cupcakes turned out soft and moist enough. The recipe was supposed to make about 16, but I managed to shove the batter into 12 cupcakes.

So, we didn't exactly cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and as a result, we got uniquely marbled cupcakes. :p Electric mixers are recommended for this recipe.

[Edit: I think the white spots are actually flour clumps.]

Also, it wasn't the smartest idea to let Renée butter the muffin tin with tissue paper. Half of the cupcakes ended up with little scraps and fibres of tissue paper on their outsides.

Would I bake this again? Yeah, the recipe is pretty good, and maybe I'll try the frosting next time too. I'll just have to get a KitchenAid mixer first.

Much thanks to Sheila and Renée for helping out!

McDevil

I can't always eat bling food. When I'm on the go and need a lot of calories, I go for McDonald's.

I'm a sucker for breakfast combo #2: Sausage egg McMuffin combo with apple juice.

Filet-o-fish combo.

Why is it now a half slice of processed cheese?

That hash brown was deep fried for too long.

This is the colour that hash browns should be.

Random Food Post

Dinner at Berta's.

Berta's mom made these cool lotus wheeled meat sandwiches. 

I liked the combination of the crunchy lotus with the savoury meat.

Saw these animal crackers at Loblaws and I was immediately amused by the differences in the chocolate and vanilla versions.

Sad chocolate bear thing.

Happy vanilla camel.

Harvey's had a two burgers for $5 special.

The meat tastes a bit like rubber... and yet, I still don't mind it.

Tried their poutine while I was at it. Thumbs down for not using real cheese curds.

When I have to have frozen pizza, I get Delissio.

Usually not a fan of the thick crust, their rising crust is pretty good.

Chocolate chip banana bread by Sheila. 

Sheila has been going on weird baking sprees ever since she got a working oven. I was lucky to have been a benefactor of this. The banana bread was good! Not too dry.

Andrew insisted on buying a box of Krispy Kreme donuts after Applebee's.

The translucent coating reminded me of congealed fat and I was a bit too disgusted to try one.

I really like the Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil Triscuit crackers.

They're pretty flavourful (much of which is salty) and I like their crosshatched crunchy fibres. Some (weaklings) may find the cracked pepper part to be too tingly on their tongues, but I like it. This is usually my snack of choice for long car road trips.