PNE 2014 – Poutine and Ribs

It’s August which means it’s time for the PNE. With the free admission day set for tomorrow (free gate admission on Tuesday, August 19th from 11am to 1pm), I figured this post would be timely. 

Like last year, the PNE is closed on Mondays (not sure what they were thinking there… I always liked going on Mondays). Gate admission is $16 but you can get a $3 discount if you buy your tickets online or at 7-11, Safeway, or Save-on-Foods. Keep in mind that if you want to buy online, you have to sign up for a Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code for it to work.

If you’re looking for some of your favourite food stalls, you might be out-of-luck depending on which stall you prefer. The PNE wanted to get some more diversity this year so they didn’t renew the license of some of the former stalls (ie. Fisher Scones) in favour of bringing in some newer stalls. Don’t worry… Hunky Bill’s is still there and so are those root beer stands.

We decided to try some different things this year and headed down to the Celebration Plaza area where they were holding the 4th Annual Vancouver Rib Festival.

At the Unroutine Poutine stand, there was a steady line of customers waiting for freshly-made poutine. We picked the Philly which had braised beef, sautéed onions, pepper, mushrooms, and cheese drizzle for $9.75. While you wait for your order, you can see them cutting the BC grown Kennebec potatoes in their special fry cutting device.

The poutine was actually quite good – the fries really sold it.

But it wouldn’t be a rib fest if we didn’t try the ribs.  But how do you decide which stand to go to? It seems they all have signs claiming to have won competitions and having “the best ribs”. Well, I suppose you could just try them all… but we wanted to save some room for other foods so we picked Gator BBQ (partly because they were offering some free samples of pulled pork that tasted really good).

The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. In the picture below, we have 1/3 of a slab which turned out to be 4 ribs. If you plan to have ribs here, the best advice I have is not to wear any white clothing – otherwise, you’re just asking to get bbq sauce all over you.

Lastly, we picked up some Wiggle Chips (I’m sure you’ve seen this at many of the night markets that are popping up all over the Lower Mainland). You can either get this on a stick or in a bowl (that resembles a dog food bowl) – I think the bowl is easier to hold. You then dredge your chips in the seasoning of your choice.

The SuperDogs is still here – they share their venue with the Thunder Drums of China act.

Those Little Donuts is also still here but I swear the price keeps going up… maybe that’s why there was no lineups for the tasty mini donuts.

If you’re looking for some more pics of PNE food, try checking out our PNE 2013 post (where we tried the deep-fried mac and cheese, mini donuts and deep-fried pies) or PNE 2012 post (where we tried the Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cake, deep-fried Oreos, and the Colossal Onion) or PNE 2011 post (where we tried the foot-long hot dog, Hunky Bill’s Ukranian Dinner, and the now-departed but much loved, Whales Tails and Fisher Scones).

What do you plan to eat at the PNE?

 

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