New Rideau Canal vendors offering food to go with a fresh twist

It's a new twist on food offerings on the Rideau Canal. This is a spiralled deep-fried potato on a stick from Spring Chips. (Maxim Allain/CBC - image credit)
It's a new twist on food offerings on the Rideau Canal. This is a spiralled deep-fried potato on a stick from Spring Chips. (Maxim Allain/CBC - image credit)

If your stomach starts to rumble while you're on the Rideau Canal Skateway, the traditional solution is a sugary, delicious BeaverTail — who hasn't bribed a reluctant skater with the promise of a Killaloe Sunrise?

But what if you're in the mood for something different?

This year, skaters have three new vendors in the mix: Dumpling Soup and Super Crunch Tanghulu at the northern end of the skateway near the Rideau Centre, and Spring Chips at the Concord access point south of the big bend at the University of Ottawa.

Dumpling Soup offers dim sum favourites such as pork buns, potstickers and bite-size soup dumplings.

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Super Crunch Tanghulu sells tanghulu: bamboo skewers of fruit in a hard sugar glaze. Think candy apples but with grapes, strawberries or orange segments.

Spring Chips's big seller is a fried, skewered potato spiral.

It's a new twist on food offerings on the Rideau Canal. This is a spiralled deep-fried potato on a stick from Spring Chips.
It's a new twist on food offerings on the Rideau Canal. This is a spiralled deep-fried potato on a stick from Spring Chips.

This is a spiralled deep-fried potato on a stick from Spring Chips. (Maxim Allain/CBC)

The process of earning a spot on the canal wasn't a piece of cake.

Gary Wu described a rigorous application process, with his proposal to the National Capital Commission running more than 10 pages.

Wu is the president of Super Smash Juice Inc., which owns both Dumpling Soup and Super Crunch Tanghulu.

He had planned to use a food truck and trailer, then decided it didn't match the vibe of the canal.

"It's such a beautiful setting," said Wu in an interview with CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning. "I stumbled on these [wooden] sheds which were used at the Christmas market at Lansdowne … and [it] turns out they actually rent them off-season."

Gary Wu is the owner of Super Crunch Tanghulu and Dumpling Soup, two of the three new snack shacks on the Rideau Canal Skateway.
Gary Wu is the owner of Super Crunch Tanghulu and Dumpling Soup, two of the three new snack shacks on the Rideau Canal Skateway.

Gary Wu is the owner of Super Crunch Tanghulu and Dumpling Soup, two of the skateway's three new snack shacks. (Maxim Allain/CBC)

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Room for variety on the world's largest skating rink

Wu thinks chilled visitors will reach for the warmth of dumplings.

"[It's] perfect for a winter festival," he said. "You can pop a few and then you can go back to skating."

A few early hiccups with power supply have been sorted out and both locations are now operational.

And what about going up against the perennial favourite?

"There's nothing wrong with getting BeaverTails and candied fruit, right? They're nothing wrong with getting all three because we're all side by side," said Wu. "A big family could try different stuff together."

WATCH | A lesson in tanghulu:

Other returning vendors are Dunrobin Distilleries, Guylaine Café, and Snack O'Shack.

All vendors are open at noon on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends. They close at 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 p.m. on Sunday.