Ribfest in Burlington, as far as I'm concerned, didn't come to be until I arrived on the scene. Who knows how long it's been around in reality, but in my reality, I had never truly had ribs until yesterday.
Ribfest is very much Go Big Or Go Home. There are bajillions of fold out tables and chairs, freshly sqeezed Alabama lemonade, funnel cakes, beaver tails (or Jumbo ears as they call them), and of course, meat. The rib stands are HUGE, framed with dozens of signs proclaiming their specials and fun sayings and pictures and which red-neck state they're from (the Turtle Jacks of Burlington stand wasn't exactly requiring crowd control). Tables were set up in front of Ribber's Row, with the trophies that each establishment could boast. Texas, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina were all present.
We picked one of the longest line-ups and took a waiting stance. At the grill, we noticed, was a girl no older than 10 years old. She was dipping a small mop into a vat full of sauce and slopping it ontop of the meat. Meat and meat as far as anyone could see. Untainted by fries or other things here in rib alley. Some signs mocked "Vegetarian's Nightmare" - a 3 meat special of pulled pork, ribs and bbq chicken.
As I made my way to the front of the line (Mark had gone to get us freshly squeezed lemonade), I began to rub my pregnant belly strategically. The meat cutting gal flashed me a grin knowingly, put the full rack of ribs that we'd ordered into our paper box, then threw in an additional 1/3 of a rack.
We hardly made a dent, but we sure had fun.
Note: I was particularly impressed that all of the food containers were paper instead of styrofoam and there were huge recycling tents where volunteers were diligently picking through the waste in order to properly compost or recycle every bit of waste possible.
www.canadaslargestribfest.com
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