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It's official! Fair season here! County or state, not a weekend goes by that tents aren't pitched, caravans aren't rolled out and oil is heated up, ready to fry up all the delicious perennial food that fair season serves up! Here's a gallery of delicious and fantastical food to get your taste bud in the mood!
Ahhh, one of the original "food-on-a-stick" favorites--the corn dog! Since the 1920s folks have been enjoying hot dogs dipped in cornmeal batter before being fried in hot oil. If you're not much of a hot dog lover you might be able to find a vegetarian option as well as bratwurst options and even options offering a pancake batter coating.
If a dessert is good enough to eat, it's probably even better dipped in chocolate! Chocolate dipping is one of the easiest and most common ways to serve fair food, and nearly nothing is immune to the quick and tasty chocolate dip. Here we have a generous slice of cheesecake, fresh from a dunk in melted chocolate. Not a fan of cheesecake? You can find chocolate dipped bananas, s'mores, waffles, cookie dough and....
Yes, yes that is bacon, chocolate-covered bacon. Bacon has become the new go-to food in the world of unrefined but decadent food. In a marriage with chocolate it's absolutely stunning, putting peanut butter to shame.
Ahh...the humble potato. So simple but when done correctly, so incredibly divine. It's golden crisp on the outside, fluffy and hot on the inside. You can't go wrong with a basket full of fries and plenty of napkins. But, if you want to push your gastro-gut to it's limit, you could always try these: fries smothered in cheese and chili.
Another fantastic potato product are ribbon fries. Potatoes are cut with a spiral cutter into one long thin ribbon before deep fryng. The result is a mound of crispy potato chips, totally worth every single carbohydrate!
Other versions of fried potatoes include seasoned fries, curly fries, hash browns, fried pototoes doused in cheese and the ever-popular, tater tots.
As an Iowan, grilled sweet corn is very near and dear to my heart. When done right it can be nearly orgasmic to eat. The corn should be in season and be grilled with the husks on, with a generous coating of butter slathered on before and after grilling. Some folks like a little salt, that's a personal choice. Grilled ears of corn are also the perfect fair food because they come with their own handles, and can be eaten with one hand while the other holds a cold beverage. I've never seen anyone try to dunk and ear in chocolate but you can find seasoned corn. For a spicy treat, look for cumin, cayenne and chili powdered ears and for the more decadent, look for bacon wrapped ears.
It's amazing what a dunk in a simple batter and a swim in a fryer can do to an unassuming fruit. This here is a spear of pineapple, dipped in a sweet batter, fried and then decorated with a sugar glaze. The pineapple stays ultra juicy and the sweet batter tastes like a warm pineapple-flavored donut. Any kind of fruit can be battered and fried but some of the best are the juicy fruits: strawberries, mango, pineapple, cherries and peaches. Bananas are very fry-able, as you can imagine, and apples and pears work well with a sprinkling of cinnamon. You can go to the fair and fit in all the food groups!
Even the smallest fair or carnival usually has one vendor selling funnel cakes. These cakes are made by pouring batter through a small opening--like a funnel--into hot oil. The irregular mass gets golden brown before it gets a dusting of powered sugar. That's the classic version anyway. Lately I've seen funnel cakes topped with ice cream and sundae fixins', all sorts of fruit pie fillings, whipped cream, Nutella, chocolate syrup, caramel, coconut, and yes, of course, bacon. If you can make it though a day at the fair without at least tasting a funnel cake, well, you've got me beat!
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but cheese is its own food group, right? I mean, they have cheese courses at the finest of restaurants so I think it's fair to say that cheese is in a category all its own. Here we have fried cheese curds: small pieces of cheddar cheese are battered and fried. In the best situation, the cheese becomes hot and gooey but not so hot that it scalds your mouth. Fried cheese curds are a bar food staple but fairs all across the nation have embraced the frying of cheese, sometimes even putting it on a stick.
This log of mozzarella cheese is breaded and fried until hot, melted cheese is just starting to break through it's golden fried jacket. Of course you could eat this one handed--it does have a stick after all! But I suggest keeping a napkin handy. Fried cheese gets messy!
What is next in the world of fair food? Well, those in the know say it could be Fried Kool-Aid, created by San Diego County Fair vendor Charlie Boghosian. Boghosian's love of the sugary drink inspired him to concoct what in it's essence is a Kool-Aid-flavored fried donut. Frying up drinks isn't a new concept, with fried lemonade and fried Pepsi popping up at fairs for several years now, but Boghosian is the first to bring the comforting flavor of Kool-Aid to the fryer.
I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of delicious but--not necessarily nutritious--fair food and I hope you get a chance to go out and enjoy the season and all it has to offer. Summer is the perfect time to treat yourself to something sweet, seasonal and delectable!
What's your favorite fair food that you look forward to every year?
Corndog Photo: kevinthoule, Creative Commons 2.0All other photos courtesy of author.
Oh wow, now I'm hungry. Funnel cakes are my all time fair favorites, but that chocolate dipped cheesecake looks pretty amazing!
Chocolate dipped cheesecake certainly is easier to walk around and eat at the same time!
I haven't seen deep fried fruit at the fair at all. I wonder how many calories are added when you deep fry them. This calls for an investigation!