Over the weekend was the Oshawa Ribfest. The same group of friends who I went with to the Whitby Ribfest decided to go to this event this year. For me, this is the first time at the Oshawa Ribfest, but I assumed everything is similar to the Whitby one. There was only one minor issue, a Tornado touched down near the south of Oshawa. Yay!

Initially, we were planning on going to the Rib fest around one post meridiem. However, due to the heavy rain, my drive from Toronto to Oshawa was delayed for about forty-five minutes. Once I finally arrived at my friend’s place, we decided that I will be the driver while the three of them dash for the ribs. This is primarily because I didn’t bring a change of clothes while they can easily change into something else as needed. The interesting thing is, while we were on our way, one of my wipers ripped apart and we took this as a sign to turn back while picking up some chicken wings and Chinese food. I messaged that Chinese girl this decision, who I did invite but she had to stay home to prep for the pest control person who is coming to her building on Monday, and she was wondering how much more random can we be. ROFL.

Well, it turns out that sign was correct since a Tornado touched down near the south end of Oshawa, where the Ribfest was. Trees were also uprooted and the clean up crew had to race against time once the storm subsided to ensure the Ribfest can continue. Around six post meridiem that day, the Ribfest group announced that they will reopen and welcomes everyone back. That’s when a friend and I went into Operation Ribs.

Operation Ribs is basically one of my friend joining me on a ‘heist’ of ribs at the Oshawa Ribfest. Since everyone wanted the same Hawgs gone wild ribs that I ordered at the Whitby one, that is one shack we know we are stopping by. I chose to take this one on as the order is four full slabs of ribs which comes easily to a hundred bucks. My friend took an extra fifty bucks and just randomly pick a different shack to try out.

We were lucky as when we got there, people were still on their way back to the Ribfest. This means parking wasn’t a big hassle and the line ups were relatively short. I think I was fifth or sixth person in line here.

Once again, those trophies, this along with the tipping slogan the staff sing when someone tips them, I am sure this is the same shack I purchased from even when the banner looked different.

There were some shacks that I have not seen before, maybe next year at the Whitby one I will try something else.

After watching the dude barbecue some more ribs, mission accomplished.

I met up with my friend who was lining up at the Texas Rangers one for a beef rib and a pork rib. As he only have two boxes, I off loaded one to him. My friend took a picture of that blooming Onion from the Whitby ribfest and sent it to his girlfriend, so this time around we better get her one just to ensure he doesn’t get into any kind of trouble.

I started looking for the truck we saw at the Whitby Ribfest, only to find this shack. It seems the Blooming Onion shack is a bit more serious in the Oshawa ribfest as oppose to the Whitby one.

Here we have an onion being bloomed. 🙂

This time, they were really fast, as soon as money changed hands, the blooming onion was handed over to him.

The Hawgs Gone Wild ribs was just as good as it was from the Whitby one, the meat didn’t fall off the bones as if it was over cooked while maintaining a easy to chew texture. There are two kinds of sauces I can get with this shack, a hot and a sweet one. To be honest, the hot isn’t really hot at all. Something like Sriracha would be decently hot (flavour), when compared to that, this ‘hot’ sauce is simply sweet.

The Texas Rangers pork rips was good too, it is even less cooked than the Hawgs Gone Wild ones, but it seems the sauce isn’t as heavily available. However, the biggest complain all of us have in consensus is the beef one. It is not edible as-is. I actually took out some metallic utensils and it was still very difficult to eat. My friend’s solution is that he is going to take it home and put it in the slow cooker to see if he can fix it.

The Blooming Onion wasn’t as nice as the freshly made one we had back at the Whitby Ribfest. However it is still pretty good as it was still crispy by the time we got back to my friend’s place. I was planning to throw it in the oven to force some of the grease out before eating it but my friend’s girlfriend launched directly at it when he walked through the door with it. And since she is the primary recipient of this onion, we’ll just let it be.