Mac and Cheese Festival

Thought the festival was great! I thought it was well organized compared to other first time food festivals and it was free admission (so I went expected large crowds and long lineups especially after seeing how many people were going on the facebook event)
I got there at 2.30pm and stayed till 5pm on Saturday, there was still room to walk around, there were staffing sweeping the floors so the grounds were pretty clean for a festival with that many people.
I got lucky and got 20 tickets from my friends so I skipped the insanely long ticket lineup (at least there was free yogurt being handed out by the packs of 4, so you had a snack while standing? but yeah I guess how one can get cranky in the line)
I got the lobster mac and cheese for 4 tickets — the lineup was so short only had to wait 8 people so it was less than 5 minutes. Wish it had more lobster but it was very creamy and the serving was steaming hot.
Then we went to «grub» and got the korean rice cake mac with char siu pork, the line here got longer around 15 minutes, the cheese sauce was good but unfortunately the rice cakes were so undercooked it was very hard in the centre. Beside was the Hawaiian mac salad with pulled pork for 5 tickets — not too bad but not memorable — but short line about 10 minutes
The longest line I was in was for the Smash Mac — in a Doritos bag — the line was about 30 minutes long — it was a good novelty — regular mac and cheese with doritos was exactly what it was. Also tried their white chocolate mac — it was horrible — only had 2 bites — it tasted a bit soapy and flowery.
Ended with the mac and cheese ice cream from Cheesewerks — no lineup at all — walked up and got my ice cream — it was interesting with chunks of cheese and studded with raw macaroni — got better with every bite though.

what a mess.
the idea sounded good; mac and cheese. who doesnt love it?
I’ll tell you who…
we thought we could beat the rush in buying «tokens» the night before. the line up to buy tickets in the day were really long. we thought we beat the rush but were we wrong.
with our 20 tickets in hand, we chose some duck mac and cheese hors derve: 2 tickets. meh.
it was hit or miss depending on what you got.
got one from a food truck, Brasil something. it was ok. was it worth 6 tickets? no way.
we then made our biggest mistake. lining up at the holy grill.
they had a sign said $ 3 samosas and $ 7 for philly steak poutine. we had to wait 30 mins while they made more sauce. the owner seemed a bit arrogent when I asked if the rumor was true they ran out of sauce. anyways. when we get to the front after waiting 1 ½ hrs, he tells us that its $ 7 cash or 10 tickets. ???
every vendor I saw accepted tickets only.
his reasoning? he gets 80 cents for each ticket.
we only had 7 tickets left at that point so we had to pay $ 3 for the difference so he got a good deal off us. we shoulda paid less since our tickets by his account was $ 5.60 plus $ 3 is $ 8.60
williams landing had a mac and cheese. I had 3 tickets and asked if I could pay cash for the diff (it was 4 tickets). no said the lady and she told them to give me ²⁄₃ of a portion. everyone got 2 soops but I just got a bit more than half a scoop. how does that equal ²⁄₃?
math isnt a strong skilll for people that work here.

This is the first Mac n Cheese Festival in Toronto, and the first of its kind for me. I love going to this type of events, where I get to sample many versions of the same food.
This one does not disappoint.
Who doesn’t like mac n cheese? Vegans? Well, there are vegan versions. Gluten sensitive? No problem, there are gluten free offering.
I expect to see lobster mac n cheese, truffled mac n cheese, and most certainly they are represented. But there are more. Korean style with cheesy udon topped with seaweed flakes, Hawaiian style somewhat akin to a potato salad, French influenced with duck and edible flower, Indian flavored with curry beef, and junk food style served in a bag of cheetos (we didn’t like that one so much but from the same booth there is one with white chocolate, brie, and bourbon ketchup that I totally love). Pasta topped with all types of cheese, meat and veggie. There is kangaroo mac n cheese though we didn’t try — it was 8 tickets’ worth. And oh mac n cheese ice cream, anyone? (The pasta is cooked, then coated with caramel, frozen and stirred into vanilla ice cream. The pasta is a bit too hard but sure was interesting to eat.) All in all, it was really interesting to see how everybody goes on such wildly different tangents with the idea of mac n cheese. Certainly not the Kraft box type from your childhood. There are about 20 booths, but each booth often has multiple options, so all in all, you have probably 50 versions.
It’s the first year of this festival, so there are some kinks. Line for tickets is insanely long. (event works w tickets. Each sample goes from 2 – 8 tickets.) Most booths have a reasonable wait, of 5 min or less, when we were there. Some booths do have very long lines. The best strategy is to go with some friends. You get to share a portion and get to try more. Also, with the long lines, a few can line up while one people walks around and get food.