Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Labour Day Weekend

Brant and James in Burlington
Wednesday September 4, 1:15 a.m.

On Labour Day, the Anime Court and I headed over to Burlington for the final Ribfest of the year. I'd never actually been to Burlington...I've only passed it en route to Niagara Falls. However, when we drove into the city, I was impressed at how very scenic it looked. Right by Lake Ontario, it almost looked like a resort town by the Mediterranean. And we couldn't have asked for a better day....sunny, reasonable temperatures and a nice breeze coming in off the lake. Perfect rib-noshing weather.


The Burlington Ribfest is purported to be the largest one of its kind in all of Canada. But to be honest, I didn't think it was any bigger or smaller than the other two Ribfests I visited in Etobicoke and Scarborough. It was located inside the lakeside park, so the view was definitely an improvement on the other two on that point. As usual, each of the rib stands had huge signs overhanging the grills and crews manning them. This time I went for the Blazin BBQ Ribhouse all the way from Chatham.



As usual, the bunch of us went to the different stands and brought over the ribs to be shared. Well, as for my contribution, I think it's fair to say that they were probably the least of a good bunch. The ribs didn't seem to have nearly as much meat as the others. The one thing different about this last Ribfest was that we weren't nearly as big a group as the last two times. It was just me, The Anime King, The Anime Bishop and The Anime Jester, and we all went for the half-racks instead. So we didn't end up stuffing ourselves to the danger point.


This, of course, meant that our stomachs were open enough to engage in that fine dessert accompaniment to any bunch of spareribs, the funnel cake. Not too long after we got our fill of charred protein, we all went down to the far end of the Fest and bought ourselves a good helping of deep-fried dough. My funnel cake had strawberries and whipped cream. Downing that pretty much fit the bill for us for our time.

We were also pretty lucky with the music, too. None of that karaoke stuff on the stage. There were professional bands there doing the slow rock. Very nice to chill out there.

As I said, grand weather for a BBQ and beach. We all took a walk along the shoreline to lose some of the calories in vain. And then it was back to the car for the 90-minute ride back to Toronto. So, my inaugural Ribfests since getting back from Japan were good ones. This year's experience will definitely whet my appetite for next year's big foodie festivals.