PrintCounty fair food!
I just got back from the Dutchess County Fair (NY). It's my chance to eat sinfully one day a year. The best thing I had today was fried pickles with horseradish dipping sauce -- what a treat! I hope the guy comes back next year. John's Famous French Fries were darn good, too. What do you like to eat at the county fair?
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26 Comments:
At the Middlesex Couny fair in NJ, I used to love to eat funnel cakes - fried dough goodness, covered in confectioners sugar, deeeeelicious!!!! (hope this qualifies as a country fair)
Mich23 at 5:30PM on 08/25/07
It has been years since I have eaten an Elephant Ear but those were always my favorite
JEP at 8:15PM on 08/25/07
My favorite is always the cheese curds. But anyone from MN will tell you that the best fair foods come on a stick, and I don't mean just corn dogs. Pickles, macaroni and cheese, alligator, deep fried fruit... it's insane.
LiveToEat at 7:01PM on 08/26/07
LiveToEat, how do you put mac and cheese on a stick?? And I'm from MN . . . !!
ride&cook at 6:03AM on 08/27/07
Before I was veggo, I loooooved the dagwood: a battered sausage deep fried served with tomato sauce (ketchup)
I was also partial to jam donuts: oily and doughy balls of sugared heaven with the hot squirt of artificial raspberry in the middle. Bliss.
choc_puddin at 6:12AM on 08/27/07
I've taken to making my own corn dogs after developing this recipe. However, I recently had some batter left over and ran out of dogs, except for a couple on the grill. I wiped those two down and corn-dogged 'em ... and the texture was totally different. Maybe that's why some folks who like hot dogs don't like corn dogs; The dog really isn't cooked through like they're used to having in a bun.
LunaPierCook at 6:35AM on 08/27/07
Elephant ears, funnel cakes and lemon shake ups! I usually get at least a lemon shake up every year at my hometown's festival. Not a county fair, but since I'm not a fair goer this is the best I can do!
The festival is this weekend so if there is a vendor selling deep fried candy bars I may have to try one....
AuntJone at 10:54AM on 08/27/07
ride&cook, the macaroni and cheese, is ufually formed and frozen and then breaded and fried. I've never tried this... but have seen it.
We're heading the Minnesota State Fair this weekend... I'm looking forward to having something that just shouldn't be allowed on a stick, or fried. LOL. Have to have once a year indulgence.
Alm25 at 10:58AM on 08/27/07
ride&cook, and anyone else who wants to see how crazy the MN State Fair is about food, here's a link to the catalogue. Use the pull-down menu to see all the foods on a stick.
http://gopher.mnstatefair.org/foodfinder/
LiveToEat at 12:17PM on 08/27/07
The rarely acclaimed Walla Walla Sweet onion is sliced, fried to caramel, and piled atop the Fair Burger at the Western Washington State Fair in Puyallup each September. It has made my mouth water every autumn for nearly fifty years. Wear short sleeves; the grease will be running down your arms.
czken at 3:58PM on 08/27/07
How do you make sloppy joe on a stick? Oh never mind, I probably don't want to know.
maggiesara at 5:08PM on 08/27/07
Mmm, I was just at the MN state fair yesterday. Staples are always a freshly fried corn dog - gotta watch them make it.
Had a Scotch Egg for the first time. It's a hard boiled egg covered with a meat mix and deep fried. Pretty good but the meat was too much like breakfast sausage for me. Oh well, going back on Thursday anyway!
mlo at 5:45PM on 08/27/07
My county fair isn't interesting, so I'm not counting it.
However; the Iowa State Fair was just the other weekend, filled to the brim with fried foods of all types and flavors. It was also in the 90's most days, so the lemon shakeup was where it was at, though the call of the funnelcake was strong.
Next year's goal: trying to figure out what I could do with a cow made of 600+ pounds of butter. A high-speed collision with some sort of french bread dromedary could yield delicious results.
corycm at 5:47PM on 08/27/07
Every year I go to the MN state fair and I have to get a corn dog. Also love cheese on a stick, mini donuts, and cheese curds. The state fair also has some really great food like walleye sandwiches and crab cakes.
I went to the taste of Chicago this summer and had some really amazing food - deep dish spinach pizza, mustard fried catfish, fried okra. So so good! I know it all sounds so bad but I only indulge like this a few times a year!
Chau at 6:01PM on 08/27/07
It's not exactly a country fair, but in Collinsville IL they have a horseradish festival every year in June. As you can imagine all food is prepared with horseradish, including ice cream, which is surprisingly good. But the best part is the Bloody Mary contest. Samples are liberally doled out. Yum ( burp ).
spanklin at 6:48PM on 08/27/07
At the Illinois State Fair a couple weeks ago, we preferred the fried dill pickles with ranch dipping sauce and the jalapeno poppers stuffed with cream cheese with pepper jelly for dipping (are you sensing a theme here?). We also enjoyed homemade root beer and cream soda from a vendor in "Conservation World".
This weekend we are going to the Minnesota State Fair and have used their website to plan our attack!
Mizbee at 1:11PM on 08/28/07
Big ol' roasted turkey legs and corn-on-the-cob on a stick, drenched in butter and heavily self-seasoned. Also, barbecued pork sandwiches, curly fries and ice cream cones, then it's straight home for the alka-seltzer.
hatlady at 1:34PM on 08/28/07
i'm partial to cotton candy because it's the one thing i really can't make on my own...
but i remember going to the armada fair in armada michigan one year and having the most amazing shoestring french fries drizzled with vinegar...just the thought of them still makes my mouth water
oh yes, and, of course a good italian sausage or brat with all the fixins!
crafty at 4:24PM on 08/28/07
Check out this fun bit of State Fair Food trivia!
http://food.aol.com/food-trivia-quizzes/state-fair-trivia
dlish at 3:02PM on 08/29/07
If anyone has sampled the MN Fair's Hotdish-On-A-Stick, I beg of you - please describe. If you're still, you know, with us.
katkinsman at 3:33PM on 08/29/07
boiled peanuts at the Florida State Fair
Koren at 4:21PM on 08/29/07
I love funnel cakes, pizza, Greek food like gyros, BBQ, ribs, and soft serve ice cream! I can't wait for the Georgia National Fair to come in October.
justboycrazy at 6:53PM on 08/29/07
katkinsman, I gave the Hotdish-On-A-Stick a whirl today and it was a lot better than I expected. On the stick it alternates meatball, tater tot, meatball, tater tot, etc. The whole thing is dipped in some type of light batter and then deep fried. You get a side of cream of mushroom dipping sauce which you really need because otherwise it doesn't have much flavor. The meatball bites were good, but the tater tots were bland.
I also tried a double chocolate frozen mocha on a stick today. It was chocolate ice cream with espresso coated in dark chocolate. It was quite good, but too small to justify the $4.25 price tag.
I had a bite of the macaroni and cheese on a stick. They're actually little bundles of mac & cheese battered and deep fried and then strung on a stick. Again, a lot better then I thought it would be, and I don't really like mac & cheese.
My favorite thing at the MN state fair is the Fudge Puppy. Sooo good. It's a Belgian waffle (on a stick and shaped like a corn dog) dipped in chocolate. Then they put on whipped cream and sprinkles. Mmmmmm....*Homer drool*
kj415 at 8:51PM on 08/29/07
Meatballs and tater tots, wow; I would seek that out. Tomorrow I'm going to Saratoga Racetrack, I'll see what kinds of funky things are up there. It would be fun to take the summer off and tour all the county/state fairs!
ride&cook at 10:13PM on 08/29/07
As a long time denizen of the Pacific Northwest, who's now living on the 'wrong' coast, I remember fondly and well the great burgers with the afore-mentioned Walla Walla sweet onions. The tagline was "Do the Puyallup"...referring to the fair. You just had to do one of those burgers to properly do the fair. Although I have to admit, my all -time favorite fair foods were the corn dogs and curly fries at the LA County Fair in Pomona.
Scottzel at 6:52PM on 09/04/07
Bless you for that report, kj415. I love knowing that it's served with a side of "Lutheran glue". Wouldn't be hotdish without.
katkinsman at 5:27PM on 09/11/07