The Ex

Date: Thursday, August 28, 2014
Location: Fran's & Coco's Deep Fried Chicken at The Ex Food Building
Website: http://theex.com/
Cuisine: Various
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
The Ex is one of the most highly anticipated (end of) summer events for me, and this year was no exception, with the some novel yet strange foods making an appearance in true The Ex fashion.

I came on the last day for discounted admission, which is $6 after 5pm, and the lineup for ticket purchases was absolutely insane! There was easily over a thousand people waiting to get in hardly discernible lines. I was in line for an hour and a half! I definitely learned my lesson to not go on the last cheap day for admission.

Anyway, once I got in, I made a beeline for the food building (my second favourite place at The Ex - the first being the animal building). While I waited for the others to join me, I canvassed my options and wound up in line at Fran's for the Thanksgiving Waffle ($10) based on the fact that the line was very long.

The Thanksgiving Waffle is exactly what one would expect: a Thanksgiving meal - complete with roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy - stuffed inside a waffle. I'll admit that I had pretty high expectations because I thought that this dish had a lot of promise with all that is involved in a turkey meal and a waffle. I have always loved savoury crepes and waffles because I love the contrast between sweet and savoury. But alas, this was a complete disappointment! The waffle tasted like PLAIN bread and the turkey like, well, nothing. In other words, it was a whole lotta blah.

Later, when the rest of the party arrived, we got the Cocoa-Infused Deep Fried Chicken (~$3 a piece + another $2-3 to add fries). I was already pretty stuffed, but my dad, whose curiosity was piqued based on the length of the line, insisted that we go through the trouble of lining up. It was a good 20-25 minute wait, but in the end, it was well worth the wait. I was very surprised. The batter was unbelievably crispy - probably one of the crispiest I've ever had - for both fries and chicken. Also, the cocoa was very subtle - so subtle that if I were to do a taste test, I don't think I would be able to identify what it was. Dee-lish!

As an aside, we did a bit of shopping but didn't have time to check out the animal building. Too bad. I look forward to coming back next year!