Rotary Canada Day International Festival and Ribfest 2011

After a decade in Canada, you’d think that I would run out of first times.  Despite me living in Scarborough a few years ago, I never really got into trying out the local festivals.  Half the time during the summer, I am somewhere else, driving and exploring far out of the GTA.  This year, I am grounding myself within Toronto and I find so many events that I wished I have paid attention before.  One of them is Scarborough’s love affair with the barbecue.

I always see it advertised  in the Scarborough Mirror year after year.  This time I finally made into one.  There are several big barbecue events in Scarborough during the summer and I chose the one closest to my sister’s place at Kennedy and McNicoll, Rotary Canada Day International Festival and Ribfest.    Being the newb that I am,  I was not ready to how good the turn-out was going to be.  The lines of people wanting their share of ribs look like a line on a first day of a movie box office hit.  I stand there contemplating whether to duck out (again!) or just buy something else.  They do have the quintessential food truck for fresh-cut fries, sausages, poutine and even funnel cake!  But I didn’t come for those!  And guess what I did?  I lined up for sure!

Amidst amusing myself with Twitter and Facebook and listening to free band playing cheesy songs, I waited patiently.  I was waiting for my friends to come.  I figured, I’ll line up and they can catch up and get their orders together with mine.  Most of the time, my choice would be the longest line as it always guarantees good eats.  This trick does not help me as all booths have equally the same length in people queuing for some of their barbecue goodness.  So I randomly selected the one closest to me, Brickyard BBQ.  I figured of the five ribbers in attendance, they seem to have the most recent awards displayed.

Once I got right in front, I of course got my share of ribs and I excitedly dipped my finger on the BBQ sauce.  The booth has a mammoth banner claiming that they have the Best BBQ sauce and I have to find out.  Sweet, tangy with a good hint of spice, finger-licking, lip-smacking deliciousness are some of the thoughts that came into my head.  Their portion is so generous, I don’t think I would be able to finish it all.  I try several and the meat just falls off the bone.  I am one happy camper eating ribs.

The Ribfest is on for the rest of the weekend.  Don’t take my word for it, go to Scarborough and try it :)

If you want more information about the festival, here is a link to the organizer’s website: http://www.rotarymulticulturalfestival.com/