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Another year of food festivals is about to get going in Winnipeg. Fried Chicken Fest begins on Wednesday with a few dozen entries. Many are sandwiches, like the very tasty Taco Crunch Sando at Blazing Chicken Shack (I was lucky enough to have a sneak taste of it the other night). But a handful of restaurants are serving up chicken dishes. Oh Doughnuts is even getting in on the fun with She’s All Chaat Tamarind Fried Chicken. It features tamarind, garam masala and garlic marinated fried chicken thigh, tossed in tamarind chutney and topped with chaat masala yogurt; a fresh minty slaw; ginger-pickled cukes and a chile chutney butter, all served on a toasted doughnut “bun.” For more, go to friedchickenfest.ca.
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KRISPY KREME/POP-TARTS COLLAB
Krispy Kreme, including the Winnipeg location, has announced a new collaboration with Pop-Tarts. For a limited time, the doughnut chain has a trio of donuts that represents different flavours of Pop-Tarts. The first is a frosted strawberry, dipped in shortbread icing and stuffed with strawberry filling, with pieces of strawberry Pop-Tarts on top. Next is a frosted chocolate fudge donut, with chocolate and browner batter buttercream and crushed frosted chocolatey fudge Pop-Tarts. The third is a brown sugar cinnamon doughnut, topped with a buttercream flavor, with brown sugar cinnamon cream cheese and covered with frosted cinnamon roll Pop-Tarts.
JETS HOCKEY BOX
This is fun! Pizza Pizza has partnered with the Winnipeg Jets to release a new Hockey Box combo that includes a large two-topping pizza and two 500-ml bottles of Coca-Cola. And then after you eat the pie and drink the Cokes, the Jets-logoed pizza box becomes a tabletop hockey game, complete with pucks (the bottle caps) and a built-in net. And the price is pretty good too, just $15.99. Kids of all ages will love it. Go Jets Go!!!
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LIME COKE RETURNS
Coca-Cola has brought back a flavour that hasn’t been on store shelves for almost 20 years. Lime Coke, which features a hint of green citrus, was first released in 2005 but discontinued after about two years. So far, Lime Coke is only available in the UK.
COUNTRIES WITH BEST FOOD
Travel guide TasteAtlas analyzed user ratings to determine the best cuisines in the world for 2025. Here’s the top 10:
1. Greek
2. Italian
3. Mexican
4. Spanish
5. Portuguese
6. Turkish
7. Indonesian
8. French
9. Japanese
10. Chinese
*Canada was 43rd on the list.
OZEMPIC HURTING FOOD PROFITS
It seems weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy aren’t just reducing waistlines. They’re also trimming the fat from profits at some food companies. New research from Cornell University shows that people using these prescription medications tend to spend less on food as a result. About 6% less in households where at least one person is taking an appetite-suppressing drug. That number jumps to around 9% with higher-income families.
$1.3 MILLION FISH!
A 608-pound bluefin tuna, as big as a male grizzly bear, has sold for more than $1.3 million at auction. The Onodera Group, a Michelin-starred sushi chain operator, was the top bidder at Tokyo’s Toyosu market. Onodora will offer pieces of the tuna at its conveyor-belt diners for $7.50.
— Hal has written columns for years. He’s also the host of Connecting Winnipeg weekday mornings from 10 to noon on 680 CJOB. You can email him at Hal@HalAnderson.ca.
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