A Wedding, Cooking, and a 1500+ Calorie WHAT?

This past weekend was quite an eventful one. The main reason for going home was to attend a wedding. My good friend Marie’s brother Chris was getting married to his bride Lisa, and it was an honour to be invited and to be present for their special day. I had never met Lisa before, but after seeing them together, they definitely make a great couple! Congratulations Chris and Lisa! The ceremony was lovely- Chris looked handsome, Lisa was stunning, and as they recited their vows, it was obvious to everyone in attendance that they are very much in love. The reception took place at the elegant Capitol Event Theatre in Toronto, and it was decorated beautifully. Chris and Lisa had movie-like posters on display as we entered the theatre. The title of their love story: Love, Laughter and Happily Ever After. 🙂 

The night was filled with a wonderful dinner, heart-felt speeches, a candy and cupcake table, drinks and merriment, and lots of dancing. It was hilarious to see Chris and Lisa’s first dance! What started off as an intimate slow dance ended with an awesomely choreographed number to Tag Team’s 1993 hit “Whoomp! (There It is)”. It was just awesome!

The next day was a cooking day. As part of my list of 30 before 30, I had wanted to “Learn to cook and have a signature dish”. I knew the dish had to be something from Trinidadian culture, and who better to learn from than my Trini parents! The ‘dish’ turned into a typical Trinidadian meal of pelau, callaloo, and macaroni pie. We made a LOT of food.

All Trinis claim that they have the BEST pelau, or the BEST callaloo, or the BEST macaroni pie… but my parents make these dishes the best :). Granted, that’s a pretty biased statement, but I write what I know. I spent most of the day in the kitchen helping out with the creation of these Trini dishes while taking detailed notes on how to prepare everything just right. Of course, all the food was delicious, and since I don’t get home cooking very often, it was amazing to sit down and eat Trini food like it was going out of style. My goal is to re-create these myself one day! I’m confident I can do a good job and represent! :).

On Monday, I went to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). It was a family outing (plus my sister’s boyfriend Bruce), and it was great to have the family together. When I lived in Ontario, we would go every year. Living in Calgary, I’ve missed a lot of family events, so this one was very special for me. We played some midway games, went shopping, visited the Farm building, and went on a haunted ride (which, by the way, was not scary at all :S).

Of course, the CNE would not be complete without eating something at the Food Building. I had a curry chicken roti, some fish and chips, and sampled a Montreal smoked meat sandwich. But the real deal was the… GASP… the Krispy Kreme Donut Cheesburger!

That’s right, a Krispy Kreme donut cheeseburger. I had read about this a few weeks back when it made headlines for being a gastronomic nightmare at 1500 horrible calories in one sandwich. The company to blame for something so crazy? Epic Burgers & Waffles. And yes, this sandwich was epic. It consisted of two glazed sugar krispy kreme donuts as ‘bread’, and a beef patty with cheese, lettuce and tomato. When I ordered it, the girl asked “Would you like bacon and a fried egg on it as well?” Say what??? Gross, but of course I wanted to try it! According to one website, adding these extra toppings pushes the caloric value of the sandwich closer to 2000. It’s an artery-blocker with every bite! And working in chronic disease research, food like this does nothing good for the general population.

When I opened this gift from its foil wrapping, it looked pretty disgusting because the egg yolk had burst and was everywhere in the sandwich, as well as all over the donuts. Now I’m pretty sure some people would enjoy the sweet glazed sugar taste juxtaposed against the juiciness of the beef batty accompanied with the joy of breakfast. I am not one of those people. I did take two bites, but believe it or not, I did not enjoy this concoction. But boy was it an experience… and worth the $11.30! To recap… 2000 calories…. and it was pretty disgusting in my opinion. Gawd. With that said… given the opportunity to try this beast, I highly recommend it!