This year, the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) opened on August 16th and it will close on Labor Day (Sept 2nd). This is probably the third time I’ve visited in a row, but I always look forward to going to see what there is to buy, and most of all the atmosphere.
I don’t know if it’s me, but I feel like there aren’t a lot of “fair” type events that occur in and around Toronto. There’s The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, but it’s an indoor even and it isn’t quite the same as the atmosphere the CNE gives off, just being able to walk around and look at the rides and games, the food trucks and other food vendors and the masses of people walking around is really relaxing for me.
About 3 weeks before the CNE I save up money to buy food and anything that I particularly would like to have. In the past, it was a shawl, earrings or some other thing. But in the two years since, the only things I look forward to is trying the “limited edition” food, and getting my usual. Every year, different food vendors at the CNE will have what I call “limited edition” foods that you can only get during that year’s CNE run.
Some previous creations were: the $50 gold burger, the cotton candy chill, the m&m iced Capp, gold ice cream, the breakfast bowl, charcoal lemonade, deep fried cheesecake and bacon wrapped grilled cheese. This year’s type of limited edition foods are: pickle pizza, pickle lemonade, rainbow grilled cheese and frozen cookie dough spaghetti, to name a few.
I don’t really like pickles so I opted to try the grilled cheese, and the general custard sundae. I’ll have a gallery of the food I bought somewhere below. Other than the food I also purchased some things, the first thing I purchased was my usual beef jerky and I bought a small package of venison pepperoni to try. The shop I bought the Jerky and Pepperoni at was called Carmichael’s Smoked Meats and Summer Sausages, and for their pepperoni sticks they have a lot of different types like; venison, kangaroo, bison, duck, water buffalo and etc. I don’t know if I’ll try the rest though, but venison is pretty good.
Jerky is 3 for $5 and the pepperoni is $10.
I also visited the stall I bought my earrings at, the earrings are usually sitting in a silvery box and the stall is located right by the Arts and Craft build exit, closest to the Express Train stop by Dufferin Gate. Depending on the size of the earring, they vary in price anywhere between $9, $12 and $16 I believe. I usually opt for the $12 earrings because they’re the perfect size for my second piercing, and they come in a variety of colours. My favorite that they have is the ice blu (which I bought this time), a light purple and a dark blue.
This year I also bought a fragrance oil because we got a humidifier + diffuser in winter, and the only fragrance oil we had was rosemary. It ‘s best to change it up occasionally for my family and I, the smell of the lemon fragrance oil kind of reminds me of Vics though. I might purchase another scent next year, but I’m not 100% sure.
At the Enercare Centre, there were a few vendors that were selling succulent plants at different prices and sizes. I had thought about buying one but I wasn’t sure about it, the one I would probably get in the future would be the Mexican snow ball. It’s a succulent plant that looks like a slightly pointy flower.
In the end, it was a fun day at the CNE and I actually can’t wait until next year.
