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.}