Sunny weather, spending time outside, and eating outdoors – for most people that’s a sure sign of summer. But for many people in the U.S. that means one thing: state fairs. And as most people know, the whole point of a state fair is to eat as much as humanly possible and to create extreme foods.
We talk a lot about the importance of being innovative in cooking, but one thing that often gets overlooked for culinary creativity is state fair food. It might not be the crème de la crème of the food world, but one thing’s for certain: these food concoctions definitely can’t be called boring.
Strange State Fair Food
- Sweet Potato Taco – The Sweet Potato Taco is going to be a new food introduced at the Minnesota State Fair this year. In the grand scheme of state fair food, this one’s pretty simple: black beans, sauteed onions, and vinegar coleslaw mixed with mashed sweet potatoes. Roll it up in a flour tortilla, and you’ve got a great fair-worthy food.
- Mac-n-Cheese Cupcake – Ok, so mac-n-cheese isn’t the most innovative thing out there. But making mac-n-cheese into a cupcake? That’s pretty creative. This mac-n-cheese hybrid is rolled in breadcrumbs and cooked in a cupcake tin, then topped off with more breadcrumbs and a dollop of Cheez Whiz (to make it pretty).
- Fried Beer – Did you know that beer can be fried? It can if it’s wrapped tightly in pretzel dough, which is exactly what some enterprising people in Dallas, Texas did to take home the Big Tex Choice Award at the Texas State Fair. The concoction is wrapped up to look similar to ravioli, and drizzled with cheese on top.
- Grandma Deb’s Snicker Bar Salad – Calling this a salad is a bit of a stretch, as it’s basically a bunch of sweets tossed together into a bowl. It consists of chopped up Snickers bars, Granny Smith apple slices, vanilla pudding, and whip cream mixed together and drizzled with caramel sauce.
- Italian Dessert Nachos – Forget traditional Mexican nachos, now we’ve got dessert nachos which use sugar and cinnamon cannoli chips in lieu of tortilla chips, and topped with ricotta cheese, fruit, chocolate chips, candy, and nuts. Fun fact: the common Northeast convenience store, Wawa, actually sells a somewhat toned down version of this in the form of cannoli chips with a side of a sweet cheese-like dipping sauce.
- Kimchi and Curry Poutine – The Minnesota State Fair is introducing a few new food items at this year’s event, one of which is the kimchi and curry poutine, which honestly sounds pretty intriguing. It combines potatoes and braised pork, covered with curry gravy and cheese, layered with kimchi, and finally topped with a poached egg.
- Kool-Aid Pickles – That’s right. Kool-Aid Pickles are pickles that are soaked in liquid Kool-Aid to provide a refreshing (?) snack that’s geared towards kids. Apparently it’s got a sweet and sour flavor that’s got quite a kick.
Would you – or have you – ever eaten any of these state fair foods? Share your story with us in the comments!
