SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It just wouldn't be Caribou Carnival without the Association Franco-Curturelle's annual sugar shack.

Vincent, Stephane and Emilie Gagne enjoy some maple toffee on the deck of Twist on 50 Street on Friday. The Association Franco-Curturelle's annual sugar shack hit a snag on the opening day of Caribou Carnival when the tent for the venue could not be procured in time for Friday afternoon festivities, so the association made do on the deck. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

But things were a little different this year.

On Friday, the popular station hit the streets – 50 street, to be exact – when the tent planned for the venue couldn't be procured in time for Friday afternoon festivities.

Thankfully, Kaven Paradis, owner of Twist and Fuego, invited staff with the association to set up shop on the patio deck of Twist.

Customers of the restaurant enjoying a mid-afternoon lunch were treated to an unusual display, as Patrice Lapointe and Jean Thibodeau used the cramped space to its fullest, serving up regular helpings of maple toffee on a stick – sirop d'erable to Francophones – at $4 a pop to a variety of customers, French-speaking and otherwise.

Among the crowd gathered on the deck at around 1p.m. were Stephane Gagne and Genevieve Charron and their toddlers Vincent and Emilie.

Holding a miniature slab of maple toffee on a tongue depressor, his hands and cheeks bright red, Vincent offered, "I like it, but my hands are getting cold."

For Vincent's mother, who grew up near Gatineau, Que., maple toffee is a cultural touchstone to be enjoyed at every opportunity.

"Do you remember the first time we had some?" she asked Vincent, who stared back blankly, prompting her to add, "We had some at the SnowKing tent."

"Yes, yes!" exclaimed Vincent, suddenly remembering.

"Is that the best thing in the world?"

"Aha!"

Charron and Gagne, who moved to Yellowknife from Longueuil, Que., four years ago, are regular attendees of the carnival and the events put on by the francophone association, said Charron.

"It's people that we know, and it's our culture."

She remembered her first exposure to maple toffee very well.

"It tastes like childhood, really..." she said. "There was a little track behind my house. We would have to go into the bush, and our neighbour had (a) little shack."

As Lapointe explained it, making maple toffee is pretty simple.

"All we need to do is take maple syrup and boil it until it gets thick enough to not go through the snow.

As long as it's real maple syrup, it'll do," said Lapointe. "You have to wait until it freezes a little, because otherwise it's too liquid."

On Sunday, the plan was to move the shack to, well, an actual shack, constructed by Caribou Carnival staff. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the association was planning to serve up a veritable French feast that would have made Julia Child proud. In addition to maple toffee, the menu included pea soup, beans, maple syrup eggs, omelettes, smoked maple ham, crepes and hash brows – all prepared by Paradis' outfit World Catering & Banquet Services.

"We try," joked the modest Lapointe.