The latest inductees to the CNE Food Hall of Fame, ranked

Last year, in honour of the CNE’s 70th anniversary—seven decades of stomach-churning rides and equally gut-testing treats—the exhibition launched a Food Hall of Fame, spotlighting a handful of classic food stands that made their mark on food culture well before TikTok turned weird eating into a career. This year’s honourees range from the simple to the spectacular to the just plain strange. Here’s our ranking, on a scale of hearty and worthwhile to flashy but forgettable.

5. The Rainbow Grilled Cheese The RGC first showed up on the midway in 2019 and quickly became Instagram famous for its technicolour dream-pull that had newbie influencers lining up for their 15 seconds and 1,500 likes. This year, the colourful brainchild of Adal Aguilar (owner of Kensington Market’s Pancho’s Bakery) is jumping on the I Heart Canada bandwagon, launching a gooey take on the flag called the Red and White Grilled Cheese. While it’s understandable that the colour-saturated sammy landed on this year’s list, it looks like it could redecorate your digestive tract on the way down.

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4. The Bug Dog While Mexico is home to a long tradition of insect consumption, Canada is not. And though arthropod-eating is a sustainable practice that just might become a survival skill during the climate collapse, the CNE is likely not the best place to develop a palate for pests. Nevertheless, the Bug Dog, an all-beef frank blended with cricket protein and topped with a flurry of crunchy crickets, has joined the hall of fame for its wave-making arrival courtesy of Sheldon Cohen in 2016. Sheldon has since passed the torch to his son, Adam, who is now working with potatoes instead of potato bugs to create this year’s ice cream sensation: the hash brown ice cream sandwich.

3. The Jumbo Turkey Leg A sensible HOF entry, these comically large poultry handles look absurd and smack you upside the head with flavour like Bamm-Bamm Flintstone on a tear. Originally brought to the carnival by Meester Mike’s stand back in the day, the current meat-slinging man is second-generation food vendor Mike Zdebiak, who keeps his pop’s recipe hush hush but says the key to success is quality meat that’s never frozen.

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2. The Colossal Onion Peel back an onion’s layers and truths are revealed. Bread it, deep-fry it and season it perfectly, on the other hand, and suddenly your entire existence has been given a glow-up. Invented in Texas in 1988, the celebrated tear-jerker is notable for its design ingenuity: it’s sliced into tearable bite-size pieces that are perfect for dipping. The wonderful wedges make traditional rings seem almost unnecessary. Absurd, we know.

1. The Corn Dog The OG midway meal, the corn dog was originally built from a simple wiener impaled on a stick, dipped in gloriously sweet and salty corn batter, and deep-fried until golden crisp. But the classic has since been remixed in all sorts of delicious ways. This year’s CNE variations include the Maki Sushi Corn Dog, the deep-fried pickle dog and the peanut butter–chocolate corn dog (all, thankfully, insect free). A worthier inductee need not apply.