By Hedy Korbee
I’ve lived in Scarborough for nearly 20 years and am almost embarrassed to say we never took in Ribfest until this weekend.
11th annual Scarborough Ribfest
I don’t know why that is.
It’s particularly strange when you consider my other half is a serious BBQ addict aficionado who bought a smoker long before it was fashionable, imports his rub from New Orleans, and once drove our family four hours out of our way in order to eat at a restaurant in South Carolina called “The Piggie Park”.
The challenge: Eat until he could eat no more
Needless to say, he was more than game when I challenged him to eat his way through Ribfest on Saturday so I could write about it.
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Ribfest is a free family event held every year at Thomson Memorial Park on the Simcoe Day long weekend. It’s organized by the Rotary Club of Scarborough.
11th annual Scarborough Ribfest
I was pleased to see the massive turnout because although Ribfest is free, donations at the gate go to support The Scarborough Hospital and Rouge Valley Health System. Last year, more than 130,000 people attended.
Organizers were hoping for 140,000 visitors this year
Almost every ribber promotes authentic southern BBQ roots although it seemed most of these trucks have their own BBQ circuit here in Canada.
Scarborough Ribfest
They’re not shy when it comes to promotion….
Scarborough Ribfest
…although I loved this sign from a Canadian vendor.
Seems so Canadian, doesn't it?
After much roaming around and careful thought, the first thing the O/H sampled was the pulled pork sandwich from Sticky Fingers, based in Castleberry Alabama.
Pulled pork sandwich - Sticky Fingers
It had a good flavour and a good texture. It wasn’t too overloaded with sauce which is sometimes how they do it. It could have been a little bit more smoky though. It didn’t quite have as much smokiness as I would have liked. It was served on a good quality bun so it held together as a sandwich really nicely. Sometimes they cheap out on the buns and the buns fall apart when you’re eating them. But this one was a nice good roll so it soaked up the sauce and made for a good sandwich. It hit the spot. It was tasty.
Turns out you don’t need to be from the deep south to make delectable ribs. Here’s the review of Horn Dawgs from Oshawa:
Side ribs from Oshawa's Horn Dawgs. Smoked in cherry wood for 4 1/2 hours.
For a side rib, it’s excellent. The barbecue sauce is really tasty. The meat has a really good smoked flavour and it’s really done just right. The
side ribs are tougher than the baby backs but it really is nicely done.
The half chicken from Gator BBQ, based in Everglade City, Florida got a mixed review.
Half chicken from Florida-based Gator BBQ
The sauce is good. The chicken is only OK. A truly good BBQ chicken, smoked and grilled, should fall off the bone easily. And this one doesn’t, unfortunately, and so it’s a little less than ideal in terms of texture. The taste is OK but you really want it to be falling off the bone.
Next on the menu was baby back ribs from Bibb’s BBQ in Naples, Florida.
Bibb's BBQ from Naples, Florida billed itself as the only vendor with baby back ribs.
The baby backs make so much difference as opposed to the sides. It really is a superior cut of meat. And there’s not too much sauce on these, which is nice, because you can taste the smoky flavour of the meat and it’s not drowned out with a lot of really sweet sauce. I’m not a big fan of the sweet sauce. The sauce that’s on here is a nice mellow sauce and it’s not too much. It’s really tasty, the meat just falls off the bone nicely.
You can check out the food yourself as Ribfest continues today from 11:00am – 8:00pm. In addition to the BBQ, there’s also midway rides and games, crafters and vendors, as well as karaoke.
