HELA SPICE TASTES THE CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION
HELA SPICE TASTES THE CNE
For some it’s a sign that summer’s almost over, but for the creative geniuses in Hela’s R&D team to draw inspiration on the wild foods on offer!
This year we wanted to make sure we tried the wildest options available and provide some inspiration to take these concepts from the fairgrounds to your plant!
SUPERFLY NOODLES
Superfly noodles are back again in 2025, this year offering a new dumpling poutine in addition to their gravity defying noodles.
Chicken dumplings are topped with processed cheese, crispy shallots, garlic, and green onions then doused with coconut curry gravy and chili oil.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Why not make a Montreal smoked meat beef soup dumpling stuffed with cheese for the ultimate smoked meat poutine dumpling!
MARRY ME MOCHI
Next, we were ready for something sweet! We stopped at Marry Me Mochi for their K-POP inspired Black Pink mochi donut.
Raspberry flavoured mochi donut with a dark chocolate glaze and a raspberry flavoured white chocolate coated marshmallow.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
We’re not big fans of K – POP, but a Chicago Italian Beef croquette with hot giardiniera inspired by television’s The Bear would be our pop – culture food mash up!
LUCKY CHICKEN
Lucky chicken is offering crispy chicken tenders coated with non – traditional flavours.
First up, there’s a crispy chicken tender coated in All Dressed seasoning. Tangy, sweet, and smoky a perfect pairing.
Then for those who love the sweet and salty combo there’s a Frosted Flakes inspired tender, coated in corn flakes and finished with icing sugar.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Building on the use of a popular snack seasoning on fried chicken, why not buck the Nashville hot chicken for a homegrown version – Canadian Hot Chicken. With a spicy ketchup or all dressed snack seasoning that’s applied after frying.
LUCKY CHICKEN
While we were at Lucky Chicken, we knew we had to get something sweet to go with our chicken tenders.
Here’s the perfect sweet and salty combo for those who love to dip their fries in their milk shake. An ice cream sandwich made with two hashbrown patties.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Why not combine the sweet and salty taste into a convenient snack format with a vanilla ice cream potato chip seasoning
PICKLE BAR
At the Pickle Bar they’re offering extra large scooped pickles that are stuffed with wild and wacky fillings
First, we started with a pickle filled with a cheddar cheese sauce and topped with Flamin ’ Hot Cheetos. Perfect mix of cheese and heat.
Then we had a slightly more substantial pickle stuffed with peanut butter and topped with a hazelnut chocolate spread and pretzels. Sweet, salty, sour; a wild ride of flavours that worked
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Spicy pickle and cheddar pepperettes would make a perfect meat snack .
OUR CARNIVAL KITCHEN
Our Carnival Kitchen was offering an amped up version of Korean corn dogs.
Korean corn dogs have a mix of cheese and hot dogs on a stick and are battered, rolled in diced potato and fried.
These corn dogs keep the cheese and meat but were battered in a sweet pancake mix and rolled in crunch panko then topped with fruity breakfast cereal and frosting.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
By including the breakfast cereal into the coating, it would improve the texture and bring more of the sweet and salt flavour out.
DEEP FRIED CO.
We saw people walking around eating what looked like a deep – fried popsicle and went searching!
While this wasn’t a deep-fried popsicle, it was maybe something better!
Alternating meat balls and mozzarella cheese on a stick then battered and deep-fried and topped with bechamel, tomato sauce, and parm.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Mozzarella stuffed meatballs, enrobed in a garlic parmesan batter and deep fried. These could be any size meat ball to fit your customers needs – from hors d’oeuvre size to mega meatballs!
SAM'S GRILL
When we walked by Sam’s Grill and saw the Maki Sushi Corn Dog, we knew it was the right kind of weird that we needed to try!
An all-beef hot dog wrapped in sushi rice and a sheet of nori then battered and fried. Topped with chili mayo, sesame seeds, pickled ginger and wasabi.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
The flavours of sushi worked well with a hot dog, why not move those flavours into a snack seasoning with the combination of soy, chili mayo, wasabi, and pickled ginger.
PIZZA PIZZA
Pizza Pizza had Doritos breaded deep-fried pizza on a stick.
Both slices were a cheese pizza base then breaded with nacho cheese Doritos.
The first slice was topped with parmesan and their famous garlic dipping sauce.
The next slice was topped with hot honey.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
Turning these into pizza croquettes with a corn chip coating would allow the tomato and cheese to really come through.
LEGEND DAIRY
Butter ice cream, was it even a question if we’d try it?
Butter flavoured ice cream from Legend Dairy had the perfect balance of sweet and salty.
The flavour was buttery, and reminiscent of pancake syrup and salted butter.
Here’s how Hela would do it:
We wouldn’t change a thing!
CRAIG’S COOKIES
Craig’s Cookies was offering up a chicken nugget stuffed cookie.
Sweet cookie dough wrapped around a savoury chicken nugget served with BBQ sauce. Weird, right?
Here’s how Hela would do it:
A cake batter coating would bring the sweetness but still allow the chicken to shine.
WHY SHOULD YOU WORK WITH HELA SPICE?
- R&D Team experienced in many different product categories
- Ability to create products based on customers’ ideas
- Ability to bring new product ideas and fully developed concepts for customer review
- Real plant production experience that enables Hela Spice to create an easy to produce system of blends and raw materials including processing instructions, to make processing simple for companies
- We can adapt procedures to best utilize available plant processing equipment
Have a product idea? Tell us all about it and your search for the perfect ingredients. Find it all at Hela Spice. Let’s talk about your next best-seller.