Pickle creations dominate at the 2019 Calgary Stampede

Rumour has is that people used to go to the Calgary Stampede for the midway, chuckwagon races and rodeo. Now some of us go just for the food. Not just ordinary fair food, mind you. The crazy concoctions that clever vendors come up with every year, like this year’s pickle cotton candy and frog legs smothered in crushed Cheetos.

Midway boss James Radke has been with the Stampede for 16 years and remembers when everything changed with the 2010 debut of cricket pizza during the era of TV show Fear Factor. The manager of retail attractions and midway operations says that “from there it escalated and got bigger and better.” Now he sees a revolving roster of new and unique foods and extreme foods competing with traditional and staple foods.

Traditional means classics like cotton candy, mini donuts and candy apples. Staples include hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries and pizza. Some foods that are new and unique for a few buzzy years (like deep-fried Oreos, Colossal Onions and turkey legs) become so well-loved they graduate into the traditional category. On the extreme front, there’s stuff like crickets, chicken feet and frog legs that usually have a short life.

While extreme food get all the media attention, Radke says traditional and staple foods still account for most of the actual sales.

Here’s what I ate before, during and after this year’s Stampede, which runs until July 14, 2019. You can look up all 90 new foods before you go, try 10 of them to win prizes, or sign up for new $79 guided food tours. At Stampede Park, ask for the “Food Map 2019” and the “New Food Map 2019.” And remember — there’s always chucks, rodeos, concerts and midway games if you find yourself with any spare time.

Pickle cotton candy could be grotesque green, but it’s white with only hints of green. [Jennifer Bain]

Pickle is the flavour of Stampede 2019. For reasons I can’t explain, it tastes best when it’s added to cotton candy. Ask the vendors at A Sweet Mind Candy Co. to make you a fresh cone — white flecked with a hint of green — instead of packing it into a plastic tub.

My $10 slice of pickle pizza was pretty darn tasty. [Jennifer Bain]

They’re almost the same size and shape as pepperoni, so pickle slices make a certain kind of sense as a pizza topping. At Rick’s Pizza they’re laid atop mozzarella and sprinkled with dill. Just like airport food, fair food is never cheap. A slice cost me $10.

Would you rather eat the cone as given or the cone as advertised? [Jennifer Bain]

While it makes a pretty picture, pickle ice cream is too mild for my taste. I loved the baby pickle garnish but craved more dill. I also may have kicked up a fuss about how the cone I got looks nothing like the concoction that So Cute Ice Cream advertised with a pink cone with a heavily dilled coating.

Truth in advertising. This ice pop actually looked like it should. [Jennifer Bain]

A word of warning — the food maps weren’t entirely accurate and it was easier to just wander the rows of concessions and stumble upon culinary treasures. Radke says that with 175 food booths, and 90 new foods, some concession owners swap places and change menus and so the map isn’t perfect. I’m glad I found Family Squeezed’s dill pickle ice pops — they had an unforgettable intensity.

Frog legs (right) aren’t exactly easy on the eyes, but hot Cheetos crumbs help. [Jennifer Bain]

I lost track of how long I lined up for Flamin’ Frog Legs (aka Flaming Hot Cheetos Ribbits) at the Happy Fish Truck, but it was north of 30 minutes. The awkward-looking protein was deep-fried and then sprinkled with crumbled Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (they don’t really stick like in the demonstration offering). The meat doesn’t have much flavour, but the ick factor is high. Giant battered squid at the same booth were way more popular.

Deep-fried chicken skins are best shared with friends. [Jennifer Bain]

When I was a kid, I savoured the skin on KFC when we got a bucket while on the way to the cottage every summer. It’s not a fast food that I eat anymore, but I couldn’t resist the booth hawking deep-fried chicken skins. They’re supposed to come with fries for $15 but you can go all in on crispy skins instead.

You can’t tell from the outside, but the pizza corn dog on the left was fantastic. [Jennifer Bain]

It wouldn’t be Stampede without a traditional or nouveau corn dog. The enormous one with a hot dog nestled inside a hollowed out pickle didn’t do it for me, nor did the one coated in those crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The one speckled with dried ramen noodles had a pleasing crunch. Unexpectedly it was the Big Pizza Corn Dog at Corn Dog King that wowed with its tasty pepperoni and thyme batter and layer of gooey cheese.

At Pizza 73, the Cherry Bomb Pizza comes with maraschino cherries. [Jennifer Bain]

Strawberry Shock Rocks (a popping candy) are the secret weapon on Pizza 73’s extreme pizza offering featuring pepperoni, bacon, hot sauce and maraschino cherries. It’s a fabulous piece of pie — once you toss out the vile cherries.

Call it the unicorn effect, but anything pink and purple is currently pleasing. [Jennifer Bain]

I’m not against fresh-from-the-fryer mini donuts tossed with copious amounts of cotton candy-flavoured sugar at Mini-O’s Mini Donuts. It’s a little excessive, but not too outrageous and a welcome change from the monotony of ordinary sugar or cinnamon.

At Family Squeezed Lemonade, you can see that you’re getting the real thing.  [Jennifer Bain]

My go-to midway beverage is lemonade, but it’s always a struggle to figure out which of the multiple juice vendors to go to. Family Squeezed Lemonade impressed because you can watch people actually chopping, slicing and smashing lemons and other fruit and not cheating and slipping in concentrates.

I can’t even begin to tell you how fabulous this Fiddle Stick was. [Jennifer Bain]

Radke’s traditional fair food — the thing he goes straight for when Stampede starts — is bratwurst on a bun with sauerkraut. For me, it’s Fiddle Sticks. Ordinary vanilla ice cream is shaped into a fat rectangle and jammed on a stick and then rolled in liquid chocolate that hardens after it is in turn quickly rolled in chopped peanuts. Bliss.

Once you know to look for “new food” stickers, it’s hard to eat at anything “old.” [Jennifer Bain]

In an unscientific study, I saw more people sharing Colossal Onions than anything else and suspect it might be the Stampede’s biggest culinary money maker. It’s just a large onion that’s specially cut to look like a blooming flower and then battered, deep-fried and served with chipotle mayo dipping sauce, but there’s something magical about it. Alas, I was so fixated on new fair foods that I filled up on all things pickle and didn’t save room for onions. I also missed bacon onion rings on a stick.

At the Hotel Arts, the Stampede menu includes these Corb Lund-inspired pancakes. [Hotel Arts]

One cannot eat at the Stampede alone while in Calgary. I love staying at Hotel Arts because of the food, although the courtyard pool is pretty sweet, too, and sometimes you can combine the two things with patio dining. It’s also a mere seven-minute walk to the Stampede grounds.

This week the hotel’s Yellow Door Bistro has a handful of Stampede food and drink specials, including rye whiskey soufflé pancakes. Chef de cuisine Jeff Redekopp was inspired by Alberta musician Corb Lund’s song “Rye Whiskey/Time to Switch to Whiskey” and figured a little hair of the dog is always a good Stampede hangover cure. The pancakes, made from rye flour and instant coffee granules and topped with bacon strips and rye whiskey caramel sauce, should be on the menu a few more days before making way for another sweet or savoury soufflé-style pancake creation.

This year’s three Testicle Festival dishes each cost $14.95 at Bottlescrew Bills. [Jennifer Bain]

It’s the 26th annual Testicle Festival at Bottlescrew Bills, a downtown pub with hundreds of beers that’s walking distance from both Stampede Park and the Hotel Arts. Timed to kick off the same day as Stampede, and lasting only a precious few weeks every July while supplies last, the festival has three “prairie oyster” (cow testicle) appetizers this year.

Executive chef Sisira Amarakoon sneaks meatballs made of ground testicle meat into linguine with red wine and tomato sauce. He disguises the boiled, peeled and sliced goodies in tacos. And he fries them and tosses them in “devilled sauce” to serve them with cooked vegetables and garlic focaccia.

“I think his goal is that if people were to eat them without knowing what they were, they’d still enjoy the dish,” confides owner Stuart Allan.

Try just one of the three testicle dishes at Bottlescrew Bills and get this sticker. [Jennifer Bain]

Bottlescrew Bills now gives a ball-shaped fabric sticker to give to everyone who tries at least one testicle dish. “You can’t really make a sticker of genitalia very often,” acknowledges general manager Geoff Allan.

“It’s not much of a festival if you just eat it and that’s it,” adds his dad.

Source: Canada.com

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