Can you imagine a world where you can eat fried cookie dough and wash it down with fried kool aid? Or fried butter and fried autumn pie are options for dessert? Well brace yourself because this world exists. What I have just described is the Texas State Fair. I am used to going to many a fairs in my day being that I was in … cough… 4-H… cough. So I’ve tasted the typical fried foods such as the elephant ear and the even crazy out there fried pickle, but the Texas State Fair leaves little to the fried food imagination.
First thing to say about this fair is it is such a big deal that my company let us out early to attend. Gitty with excitement I packed up early and headed to the fair. We walked into the fair and it seemed pretty typical with rides but it was bigger and better. It wasn’t the normal dirt ground, horse barn fair I’m familiar with, the grounds were cement with cool buildings that had tile murals on them. You can’t go in without noticing the infamous Big Tex. Kinda creepy and you may start to get weary of this fair but then you’ll see the Fletchers stand where you can find legendary corn dogs and any fear you have will melt away. The corn dog is sweet and savory all in one bite. Add some zing from the mustard, a must in my opinion, and you’ve reached perfection! At this point you’ve been swept off your feet to fairy fried food land.
After walking through the park, reading a few of the menus I felt as if I should be walking around sipping on a cup of pepto-bismol. We tried fried Oreo, snickers and cookie dough. The Oreos were very light if you can believe it; these were my favorite of those three. We also had deep fried Frito pie and buffalo chicken in a flapjack, the winner of the best taste award and the minute you take a bite of it you know why. They start with a strip of buffalo chicken, coat with flapjack batter, roll in jalapeño bread crumbs, fry and serve on a skewer with syrup as a dipping sauce. Seriously amazing spicy, sweet and juicy all at the same time. This is reason enough to go to the state fair but then we found the greatest thing yet, fried butter. When I was paying for my fried butter I felt Julia Child smiling down upon me. Half the reason to buy fried butter is to figure out what the heck it is. After trying it, my assumption is that it is a frozen cube of butter dipped in batter then deep-fried. You have the choices of savory garlic powder or sugar and cinnamon; I chose the sweet one. You bite in and it is doughy, then pure rich savoryness of the butter. You have to be careful though because sometimes you can get a bigger chunk of butter and when my sister took a bite melted butter poured out all over her face. But mine tasted exactly how fried butter should.
So I guess things are bigger in Texas and dare I say better?
-Fried Oreo-
-Fried Butter-
Photos courtesy of John Tagle
Follow me on Twitter @Coltkels