I want candy

Bite-sized chocolate bars can be rationalized away as antioxidants and those chewy taffy treats wrapped in festive orange and black can be hard to resist. But what with the cold weather arriving and Halloween events requiring loads of energy Halloweek organizers have coordinated some more substantial sustenance with the Pumpkin Culinary Festival. Restaurants the length of Church St are rising to the challenge of creating gourmet-fare themed around the ubiquitous pumpkins and Halloween.

Chef Skip at Hair of the Dog is positively gleeful about his “campy over the top” contributions to the festival. His favourite is Batwing Soup: a curried pumpkin purée garnished with (hopefully PETA approved) batwing croutons. There will also be jiggling Eyeball Jello.

Café California’s manager Richard relishes describing the decorated-to-the-hilt restaurant’s special dishes: Mistress Cruella’s Black Linguini with Lobster, Monstrous Red-eyed Tuna with Risotto and Freddie Kruger’s Duck Confit.

Karen Halliday at Slack’s brags that no one will be able to resist their Pumpkin Crème Brulé. Master Chef Lia at Voglie is not ready to unveil her gourd lab experiments but has several alarming appetizers waiting to be roused to life.

While not officially part of the festival Zelda’s already serves the scariest dish on Church St with its irresistible deep-fried Macaroni and Cheese Snackers, which would clog even the bloodless arteries of a vampire.