Rib Fest

Kevin and I went to the International Chicken and Rib Cook-Off (better known as Rib Fest) with Felipe and Hanita. I had to miss Hanita's baby shower a few weeks ago, so our outing was in lieu. Plus it's always good form to take pregnant friends for all you can eat meat.

Rib Fest takes place on Sparks Street, which is a street downtown that's only open to pedestrians. The street would be awesome if it weren't full of tourist trap souvenir shops. Does anyone really believe that stuffed beavers in mountie outfits, canoe placemats and maple syrup flavoured mustard really represent the essence of Canada? The horror.

We decided to pick the rib stand with the most trophies and titles, and chose Uncle Sam's. They claimed to be Ottawa's 2007 winner for best ribs and had a lot of tacky trophies topped with pigs. Kevin has a theory that as the companies travel the "rib circuit", the different stands just take turns being the previous year's winner so they all get a turn at raking in the money. Uncle Sam's "from Albuquerque, New Mexico" also appeared to have a suspiciously all-Canadian crew. Despite the deceit, we managed to finish a half rack of ribs and half a chicken in one sitting.