Over the years, fair food has gone from the standard cotton candy and corn dogs to innovative,
wacky, and sometimes downright questionable eats.
As each new fair season dawns, you never know what kind of deep-fried delight you'll encounter,
or what unexpected mashups the vendors have dreamed up.
The classic corn dog is a staple at any fair, but let's be honest.
These days a plain ol' corn dog just seems a little tame compared to all the imaginative
eats being offered on the midway.
Sure, it checks many of the requisite fair food boxes.
It's battered, deep-fried, portable, and absolutely delicious.
But there's got to be a way to make it even better.
That's where the pickle dog comes in.
This food-in-a-food looks like a typical corn dog, but one bite reveals its secret: there's
a giant dill pickle inside.
That's right, someone figured out that the way to make a corn dog even better was to
stuff the hot dog inside a dill pickle before battering and deep-frying it.
And to that person we say, "thank you, we are forever in your debt."
Utah residents really love Jell-O.
Not only do they eat more of it per capita than any other state in the country, they
also celebrate Jell-O Week statewide.
Thus, it's no surprise that the Utah State Fair features a loving tribute to this beloved
food.
In 2012, Jon Searle, aka "Deep Fried Guy," filled the state fair's Jell-O void with deep-fried
green Jell-O.
But how in the world do you deep-fry Jell-O?
Searle explained the process on Facebook,
"We take our DELICIOUS Deep Fried Batter and add into it LARGE amounts of chilled Jello
Concentrate, fire it up into 'Fried Jello Sticks' and top it off with MORE jello on
top!!
DELICIOUS!!"
If we didn't know any better, we'd say it looks a lot like Jell-O-infused funnel cake
batter, which doesn't sound so bad either.
But does it taste any good?
According to Searle, the Jell-O melts and softens inside the batter, which he raves
is "intoxicating."
Who needs savory spaghetti and meatballs when you can eat sweet spaghetti and meatballs?
The sugar lover's dream known as cookie dough spaghetti debuted at the 2018 Iowa State Fair.
This over-the-top dessert consists of cookie dough "pasta," a Ferrero Rocher "meatball,"
and a generous topping of strawberry "marinara" sauce.
So what's the verdict on flavor?
One Instagrammer noted, "I was expecting to be grossed out but it was actually pretty
tasty."
Our only complaint is that the single meatball makes it awfully difficult to share.
Nobody wants half a meatball, whether it's made of candy meat or actual meat.
At the State Fair of Texas, food and beverage concessionaires create unique and creative
recipes with one thing in mind: the Big Tex Choice Awards.
The foodie competition awards top honors in three categories each year: Best Taste, Sweet,
Best Taste, Savory, and Most Creative.
Past winners have included creations like deep-fried beer, fried banana split, and fried
Thanksgiving dinner.
In 2018, cotton candy tacos took home the prize for Most Creative.
The sweet treat is made up of a graham cracker waffle cone "taco shell" that's coated with
a marshmallow glaze and then stuffed with chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and cotton
candy.
And for good measure, it gets topped with chocolate cookie crumbles and two chocolate
cream-covered biscuit sticks with marshmallows.
That all sounds like a delicious formula for sugar overload.
If you consider yourself an adventurous eater, head to Jungle George's Exotic Meats and Bugs
at the California State Fair and grab a Maggot Melt Sandwich.
It's exactly what it sounds like: a grilled cheese sandwich with a heaping helping of
maggot larvae inside.
The Travel Channel got reactions from fairgoers who tried the culinary delight, and surprisingly
the reviews weren't horrible.
"It just tastes like a regular grilled cheese sandwich with a little bit of bacon crumbs
on there that's about it"
"Crunchy and a little nutty, not too much flavor but I'm getting a lot of shell in my
teeth right now"
All in all, that's not too bad for a bunch of maggots.
From the Orange County Fair comes the Krispy Kreme ice cream chicken sandwich, a sweet-and-savory
mashup from Chicken Charlie's.
Charlie Boghosian, aka "Chicken Charlie," told the Los Angeles Times that when it comes
to his crazy concoctions, he strives to outdo himself year after year.
His Krispy Kreme ice cream chicken sandwich consists of a massive piece of fried chicken
topped with vanilla ice cream that's sandwiched between two glazed, jelly-filled doughnuts.
And for good measure, he throws some rainbow-colored cereal on top.
LA Times writer Luke Money deemed it the "best thing" that he ate at the fair all day.
That's high praise, indeed, and enough motivation for us to head out to our local state fair
as soon as possible.