Because today is the last day of the great State Fair of Texas, I’d feel a little remiss if I didn’t share an overview of our fried expedition to the fair this month.
Seriously – we went to test out a new selection of fried foods. We run. A lot. That’s our justification for indulging in fried you-name-its. Plus we share, so no one person is eating a whole fried anything.
Fried Thanksgiving Dinner
Delicious. This was seriously the best fried novelty item I’ve eaten – maybe ever. The texture reminds me of a hushpuppy…a hushpuppy made of Stouffer’s cornbread stuffing and chopped turkey. It’s served with gravy and cranberry sauce for dipping.
Fried Banana Pudding
Another winner, though we would say this is more accurately described as a banana cream hand pie. We would have liked our serving to have the decorative banana slices shown in the menu photo – and some sprinklings of Nilla Wafers on top with the whipped cream would have completed the mental connection to the classic Southern dessert.
Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll
The Boy had this last year and said it was amazing. Despite his recommendation, I refused to try it. I love bacon. I love cinnamon rolls. But together…and fried? I was doubtful. This year I gave in and tried it. And…it wasn’t my favorite. It’s entirely possible that I had a poorly prepared fried bacon cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll didn’t have my preferred yeasty-cinnamony flavor. As well, I expected the roll to have hints of bacon flavor balancing out the sweet. Instead, the roll mostly tasted doughy and sweet. Pretty disappointing for the 2012 Fried Food Competition Best Taste winner. And it was served on a stick – which couldn’t handle the weight of the roll. We had to pull the stick out to eat it, making me wonder what the point of the stick was.
Fried Snickers Bar
I would not fry a full-sized Snickers bar and I would not serve this on a stick. First, this is entirely too sweet. Second, it is frankly just too much. Third, because it is too much it falls off the stick (and need I say how disgusting it looks as you eat it?). A better presentation would be to fry 2-3 Snickers minis and serve them in a basket. A single bite would translate the flavor nicely without making you want to gag.
One final complaint about the last two items – they were both served by the same booth. They were both served on sticks that were useless, they were both the messiest fried foods that I ate and the booth did not give us napkins. A major pet peeve.
But one final spot of fried happiness…
A trip to the State Fair of Texas is not complete without a Fletcher’s corny dog. It was a huge relief to see that Fletcher’s employs this guy:
He makes this guy very happy:
