The State Fair of Texas and All the Fried Food in the World

By Julie

There are many things for which the State Fair of Texas (yes, capitalized) is known, but perhaps none so much as the cuisine. Which, in this case, is a fancy word for fried everything. Literally. And it is awesome.

I haven’t been to the fair in many years, so when I had the chance to partake this week, I jumped at it. They have a contest every year to crown winners in new food categories, and the list of champions is long, distinguished, and deeply weird. There have been fried bacon, fired butter, and fried coke. Sensing a theme here?

So I did my own little taste test of decadent delights. My criteria for selection were as follows: it had to be unusual and it had to have enough tickets to buy it. Let Fried Fest begin!

Let me just state from the beginning that all of these foods, ones tasted and ones left for another day, look remarkably similar because they are all created on the principle of “let’s see what bizarre thing we can wrap in dough/dip in batter and fry to oblivion.” Nothing wrong with that.

I started off with the fried banana pudding because I saw it and remembered I’d seen a coupon in the guidebook for it. Savings at the fair? Yes, please. My judging panel consisted of myself, my 4 year old daughter, and my dad. Our conclusion was that this was pretty good, basically a banana cream fried pie. The whipped cream frosting was the best part, in my opinion. My dad said that it would really be better with some crushed up vanilla wafers inside to give it the full banana pudding experience, and I wholeheartedly agree.

A bit later, we were joined by my husband (who’d been off on his own fried food expedition, and more on that in a moment) to try the fried pineapple upside down cake and the fried “taste of autumn” pumpkin pie. The cake was just a canned ring of pineapple battered and friend, and was incredibly difficult to eat with only a flimsy plastic fork. The pineapple just slid out of the coating and refused to be severed by said fork. The pie was ball shaped and merely filled with pumpkin pie filling, so it wasn’t all that spectacular and I have no idea why it required a special “taste of autumn” descriptor. It was merely fine. I guess I just prefer my pumpkin pie chilled.

Now, my husband had wandered off in search of this year’s best taste winner, the fried jambalaya. He said it was tasty, but that it was predominantly a disc of fried rice and couldn’t really find any sausage or seafood in it, as one might expect in jambalaya. He also said it was fairly teeny in portion.

All that said, the winner of the day was a classic: the good ol’ corn dog, a fair staple since forever. Whether you’re a purist and go for a good slather of mustard, or a renegade and cover yours in ketchup (like my daughter, whom I don’t even know anymore, because ketchup?), you cannot go wrong with a corny dog. So good.

And there you have it, my 2012 State Fair of Texas food roundup. If you’d like to join my next year, please being prepping your arteries now.

{Photo Credits: blogs.observer.com, sidedish.dmagazine.com, and eatsblog.dallasnews.com. I actually took my own photos, but my computer and camera are currently conspiring against me.}

Comments

[Heather]

I like mustard AND ketchup on my corndogs. My mom went to the State Fair the other day, and I begged her to NOT try fried butter. EW. Now, fried banana pudding? I would stand in line for that!

[Kate]

Sad news..did you see that Big Tex burned down this morning? Apparently it was some sort of electrical fire. :(

[Carol]

Yes, we lost Big Tex today - RIP. He'll be back bigger and better next year; that's how we do things in Texas.

Actually, the fried butter was pretty good - sort of like a donut hole with a little bit of butter in the middle. It was completely melted - you don't bite into a hunk o'butter - YUK.

I tried the fried zucchini - veggies, right? It was a WHOLE BATTERED ZUCCHINI that was served at about 1,000 degrees. No way to eat it. Plus, they served THREE to an order!!

[elz]

1) RIP Big Tex. I hope you will be back!
2) Did you have the pancake battered buffalo chicken and maple dipping sauce that won last year's competition? INSANE. SO delicious.