The Fair at the PNE is back this year with their deep-fried to the add-bacon-to-anything school of cooking and that means it’s time for my annual preview of the hottest eats at the fair. This year at the PNE 30% of the vendors are new, but rest assured the classic treats and longtime vendors are still around.
The Maple Bacon Donut Burger from the Fried Veggies Stand. This is one of the new vendors for this year, but the Stremmel family has been in the Fair business for two generations. Based out of Kansas and working primarily in the United States, their creations are some the wackiest at the year’s Fair. Instead of using one donut for this and slicing it in half for the burger they use a donut each for the top and bottom bun and they get they fresh daily from Nuffins Donuts. Personally I like the concept but for me I found the burger to be dry and overall with the two donuts things were on the too sweet side for me.
Next up is a vendor celebrating their 35th year at the Fair, the Kainth family of Curry-In-A-Hurry is similar to many of the ethnic food vendors who started in the Fair business to augment their year-round restaurant business. Their special menu item this year is the Vegetable Kathi Roll which is a completely vegetarian creation. The roll or wrap uses tofu for the bulk of the filling with fresh peppers and cucumbers bulking things up and added some needed texture and they did a great job seasoning things without adding a ton of heat.
Perry and Suzanne Pourier have been a part of the PNE Fair family for the past 14 years. The pair have introduced some of the most famous foods to hit the Fair circuit in recent years, including deep-fried Oreo’s, deep-fried jelly beans, deep-fried Pop Tarts, and an assortment of funnel cakes. This year the pair are debuting the Jurassic Pork Mac and Cheese (featuring pulled pork) at their Reel Mac and Cheese Truck and Red Velvet Chicken Strips across the way at their Pub Grub stand. I’m a fan of the Reel Mac and Cheese truck and their mac and cheese so it’s safe to say the Jurassic Pork is a must try dish at the Fair but for me the chicken strips were a big fail, they were crisp but I found them overly greasy and quite honestly red velvet and chicken don’t belong together.
For 73 years legendary pitchman, carnie and concessionaire Jack Hunter was part of the PNE family (he’s the guy who introduced the Food Long Hot Dog to the PNE when I was a kid). Jack sadly passed away this year in April, after turning over his legendary booth to his son Jason (who I had the privilege of judging ribs with last year) to carry on the family legacy. Jason, his sister Nicole, and their mother Fatima are working a number of food booths on the site, including the Super Foot Long Hot Dog booth, corn dog stand, and cotton candy stand. Besides the classic bacon-wrapped food long they’ve introduced a food long Bacon Wrapped Pepperoni Pizza Dog. I’ve been a fan of this booth for a long time, besides being gargantuan it’s a delicious hot dog that is made at a local butcher custom for them. They did a great job creating a classic pizza dog with lots of melted cheese on top of a great dog smothered pizza sauce that has a bit of sweetness to it.
Initially designed on Salt Spring Island, Karly and Scott Dennis feature a number of different noodle boxes in their concession. They have added a special box for debut at the Fair at the PNE, the Maple Bacon Box, which is a nice addition to the menu which includes their two most popular boxes, the Malaysian Peanut and the Maple Syrup Teriyaki Chicken. I got where they were going with the maple bacon box, both the maple and bacon flavors were there, but I did find the box on the sweet side and would have liked a bit of soy used. What they did nail was the portion size and cook on the noodles, both were great.
A first-time concessionaire at the PNE, Rocky Point Ice Cream is owned by husband and wife team Jamie and Yvette Cuthbert of Port Moody. They specialize in small batch hand-churned ice cream in a wide variety of flavors. For their first appearance, the pair wanted something extra special so they created the ‘Fat Elvis‘. Yvette and Jamie say the grilled brioche bun filled with ice cream, banana and chocolate sauce is a tribute to the King of Rock and Roll’s 1957 appearance at the Fair at the PNE, one of the only three dates Elvis ever played outside of the United States. Let’s just get this out-of-the-way, the Fat Elvis was DELICIOUS! The classic combination of peanut butter and banana with ice cream encased in warm buttery brioche bun is a genius idea, it was just like eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich in icy treat form.
This is a new booth for the 2015 Fair, and is the creation of the PNE’s Director of Food and Beverage, Steve Bain. A riff on the American staple chicken and waffles, the Waffles with Benefits booth features a combo that’s already becoming a Fair food experience staple. They have created a bunch of different combinations with the waffle being the base but we tried the Chicken and Waffles as well as the Bacon and S’mores Waffle. Both creations were good, the fried chicken had a real crispy breading on it and the Bacon S’mores waffle was the perfect combination of sweet and salty.
For 12 years the Jones family have owned and operated some of the Fair at the PNE’s most popular booths, Three years ago they debuted the Gourmet Burgers stand featuring highly unusual items such as the Python Burger,the Alligator Burger, and the Camel Burger. For 2015, Brian Jones is particularly proud of their newest burger, one he personally developed the flavor profile on-the Cactus Burger. A veggie option, the Cactus Burger is already developing into a roster staple for the Jones family. Flavor wise this burger was bright and smoky with the roasted red peppers and grilled onions, the cactus isn’t very dominant in the flavor department but it does have a slight tang to it and its great texture wise.
Last but not least is a twist on the classic mini donuts. The Mini Donut Factory is a new booth at the Fair and feature the classic flavors of red velvet cake with cream cheese icing in mini donut form. Unfortunately these didn’t work for me, I found the cream cheese glaze odd taste wise and the combination of donut and glaze was way to sweet.
It was great to get to check out this years picks for must try eats and treats at the Fair at the PNE, while some of the items didn’t work for me it still is one of my favorite tastings of the year to attend. My must try items are the Vegetable Kathi Roll, Jurassic Pork Mac and Cheese, any of the Super Foot Long Hot Dogs, the Fat Elvis Crispy Ice Cream Sandwich and Bacon S’mores Waffle.
**Disclosure–I was a guest of The Fair at the PNE, my admission and food was courtesy of The PNE. I am not receiving any compensation for writing about my experiences and all opinions are 100% my own. The Fair at the PNE has not reviewed this post before publication.**