Parkdale Villager

Bacon is big.

Whether it’s wrapped around a Mars bar and deep fried or layered with Nutella to make the ultimate bblt sandwich, bacon is big when it comes to food offerings at the CNE this year.

A sampling of some of the newest (and most outrageous) offerings were made available to the media Wednesday morning, including a Bacon Nation approved funnel cake and a “dirty bacon cone” from Just Cone It.

“Bacon is huge and tasty,” said Ike Smirnis, of Just Cone It.

It’s one of the new food vendors featuring not just bacon and Nutella in a “dirty cone,” but also a pizza cone, a shepherd’s pie cone, a Philly cheese steak cone, and the Olympus cone – the healthy option – of mostly salad.

“It’s easy. You can walk around with it and it’s not messy,” Smirnis said. “And it’s tasty.”

Bacon Nation upped the deep fried Mars bar by wrapping the chocolate in bacon before coating it in batter and dipping it in the fryer. It also features the Nutella bblt, which includes two pieces of back bacon, eight strips of bacon, lettuce and tomato on two pieces of bread smothered in hazelnut spread. Also, deep fried bacon covered hot dogs, bacon parfaits, bacon chips, and anything else one could think to do with bacon. It’s also given its stamp of approval to the bacon funnel cake that will be featured at the funnel cake vendor – in addition to the traditional fried dough it includes bacon strips, ice cream, and real bacon bits topped with caramel and chocolate sauce.

Red velvet is also a flavour offering that can be found in many forms ranging from the traditional cupcake to a twist on funnel cake with a red velvet dough topped with cream cheese frosting. There’s also the more unusual red velvet pancake being offered at Pull’d as a base for slow roasted pulled meat (pork, beef or chicken) and topped with Jack Daniels infused syrup to round out the sandwich offered by the new vendor.

“It’s a toss between breakfast and lunch, or dinner. It’s kind of the best of both worlds,” said Christian Reilly.

Pull’d also features pulled meat on a pretzel bun, pulled nachos and pulled parfait. It can be found next to Epic Burger, which once again is back with the burger on a Krispy Kreme donut “bun”.

If those aren’t enough indulgent options deep fried butter is back, there are deep fried apple fritters at Big Apple Fritters, and this year Northwest Fudge Factory is offering deep fried fudge.

“Don’t think deep fried food, think of a fresh hot donut with a creamy melted fudge centre,” said David Kurtis.

Of course, fudge topped with bacon is also available.

The CNE kicks off Friday, Aug. 17 and closes its gates Labour Day, Sept. 3. For a full list of attractions and times, visit www.theex.com