Waffly good
The origins of the CNE’s hot ice-cream waffle sandwich remain cloaked in mystery
It’s the iconic taste of the CNE, which means if you stripped the Ex of all but one of its foods, this would be it.
Two rectangular waffles, plainer than plain but hinting at vanilla, come piping hot from the waffle iron and wrapped around a “brick” of vanilla ice cream.
The hot ice cream waffle turns 75, more or less, this year. If you’ve never had the pleasure, be aware that the ice cream isn’t actually hot.
The fact that this simple dessert is still a sentimental favourite in the age of over-the-top, mainly deep-fried fair food says something about the appeal of nostalgia, don’t you think?
“The peculiar thing about it all,” says carnival expert Jim Conklin, “is that it’s very successful at the CNE.”
The retired boss of Conklin Shows no longer runs the midway at the Ex, but still presides over Conko Inc., which makes the signature waffles.
“We have taken the waffle on the road outside, to London, Ont., for instance, and no interest. We’ve taken it out west. We’ve covered Canada with it and it only works in Toronto.”
The birth of this ice-cream sandwich is cloaked in mystery.
The CNE admits the “show business legend” is hazy, but believes midway employee Sharole Levan arrived on the Conklin Shows carnival train raving about ice cream waffles in 1940.
Jim Conklin’s dad, the late Patty Conklin, let Levan run with it and, well, that’s really all that’s known. Neither Levan (the “waffle queen”) nor Conklin Sr. is alive today to fill in the blanks.
“We have taken the waffle on the road . . . and no interest. We’ve covered Canada with it and it only works in Toronto.” JIM CONKLIN CARNIVAL EXPERT
“We’d like some information about the waffles,” concedes Jim Conklin. “We don’t have any.”
He’s 82 now and would have been 7 the year they apparently debuted. He vaguely remembers working at the Ex as a teenager and “wandering over to get a free waffle.” We scoured the archives but couldn’t find a mention of the waffles before 1979, when one Star reporter sneered that you can buy fresh lobster at P.E.I.’S Old Home Week fair, “while the best the CNE offers is ice-cream waffles.”
We did find a 1926 entry in the Santa Ana Register in California enthusing about a freshly baked waffle ice cream sandwich, so we can’t say Toronto is the birthplace of this culinary creation.
Precious little is known about our waffles. Conko’s waffle irons were made in Ontario and are still serviced here, so conspiracy theorists who insist the waffles have gotten smaller over the years are wrong.
The batter — egg whites, milk powder, flour, vanilla, canola oil and water — is now contracted out to a Brampton bakery supplier. The vanilla ice cream comes from Chapman’s. Two-litre ice cream bricks are halved lengthwise and scored into 16 smaller bricks.
Conko’s has dabbled beyond vanilla, and experimented with scooped ice cream and milkshakes, but al- ways come back to the original concoction.
It brings two of its three waffle trailers to the CNE. For years, it scored a prime spot next to the grandstand, but now sets up by the midway stage and busker stage.
In this era of aggressive branding, it should be noted that the trailers themselves don’t actually say Conko’s anywhere, just “Hot ice cream waffles — the original CNE waffle.”
Fans look for the Conko logo (stylized clown faces) and black Holstein cow spots. They also know that competitors use frozen waffles.
“Because we sell so many, we can cut our prices,” reveals Conklin. “We always try to be the cheapest fast food item at the grounds.”
This year’s waffles are $3.75 — no tax required.
Kathy Hunter, an Etobicoke mom, has been head waffler for seven years ever since deciding to help her three kids find summer jobs.
It takes about two minutes to cook a waffle. Each waffle iron has “a different personality,” and the weather affects the cooking.
Twenty students will work with Hunter this summer making an expected 45,000 waffles. The “big cow” trailer fires up seven waffle irons, six working and one heating at all times. The “medium cow” has four irons cooking and one heating. “You get a rhythm,” Hunter says. Turnover is usually brisk. Sometimes waffles sit on the rack for up to 10 minutes, but go back into the iron for warming before they’re served.
“I prefer them that way because they crisp up a bit more,” Hunter admits.
The trick to eating the waffles? Be fast. “It’s really healthy when you think about it,” Hunter muses. “It’s real ice cream and homemade waffles. What more could you ask for?”
The Star’s Megan Ogilvie analyzed the waffle sandwich for her Dish column in 2010 and found it had a reasonable 231 calories and 8.5 grams of fat.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the waffles, Hunter promises “surprises every single day” at the CNE, which begins Friday.
While she would love to take the waffles on the road again to see how Canadians respond now, she doesn’t want to turn them into a year-round treat.
“I think this is what makes it special: it’s a CNE thing.” jbain@thestar.ca