1st Favorite Thing About the 2009 State Fair of Texas: Good New Food
As you can see, the Countdown has stopped… and I have not. I couldn’t just leave everyone hanging like that, could I? It’s great to hear what the Fair HAS BEEN like, every year I’ve so excitedly attended, sure. But now you want to know what it IS like, THIS YEAR, in 2009.
So here we go. Since I do have a Season Pass, I plan on attending the 2009 State Fair as often as possible (we are now 3 days in, and I’ve gone twice, if that gives you any indication), and posting as many of my Favorite Things About the 2009 State Fair as possible. It may be 30. It may be 300. It may be 3 (yeah, right!). We’ll just have to see.
I will tell you that these will be in no particular order (I’m just going to post ‘em as I see ‘em).
I know many of you (Amy Young) have been waiting with bated breath for information on the new foods this year. I have not yet sampled them all (give me time, people), but I CAN provide intel on a few:
Fried Butter
Shocked as I am to report it, I REALLY liked the Fried Butter. I was with my parents on Opening Day when I tried it, and I have to say that I stood near a trash can in case I had to spit it out. But it was surprisingly, miraculously yummy. It comes 4 butter-balls to an order, like so:
You may order original, grape jelly, strawberry, or garlic. Mom, Dad, and I decided on Original. No need to make this too complicated on the first go-round. As you can see, the butter balls are not all that large, but I still suggest sharing an order with your Fair co-attendees. These babies pack a punch.
A little nibble reveals this:
Hard to tell, because it’s a bit blurry, but what you have here is many layers of dough with the outside fried golden brown. In the center is a healthy dollop of melted butter.
Many of you may still be thinking that this sounds disgusting. I admit, I’d be right there with you if I hadn’t tasted it myself. But it’s GOOD! It tastes like warm, buttery biscuits. Yum-Yummity-Yum, people. Who DOESN’T like warm, buttery biscuits??? My MOM, who rarely ever allows ANYTHING fried OR buttery pass her lips (Dad calls her the “Food Nazi”), ate her morsel with gusto AND gave it a thumbs-up.
I do have some suggestions for the Fried Butter purveyors, however.
- STOP using the plastic squeezable grape jelly bottles to make the “Grape Jelly” fried butter. The whole process simply looks gross to those waiting in line. The bottles make a yucky sound when you squeeze them, the jelly looks terrible coming out of the bottle and plopping onto the butter balls, the whole thing is just unappetizing. My mom even stage-whispered in my ear as we got close, “we are NOT eating the jelly ones – no way!” The sad part is that grape jelly would taste great with this food. We just need to figure out a nicer-looking way to make that happen.
- How ’bout a little honey with those buttery biscuits? Honey was exactly the thing I MOST wanted to dip my fried butter into, but alas, no honey was available at my booth. Let’s fix this, stat.
- I’m guessing that the “Garlic” version of fried butter tastes a little like the very best garlic bread you could find. What about some pizza sauce to go along with that yummy stuff?
Fried Peaches & Cream
If you’ve been keeping up, you know that I held out much hope for this to be MY favorite new food of the year. I tried it today, and I have to say that it’s a solid attempt, but I’m not entirely won over. Take a look:
So, um. Yeah. That’s raspberry sauce drizzled over the entire affair, and a little whipped cream on the side. What’s missing, folks?? ICING! This product was supposed to come with A SIDE OF ICING for dipping! No icing. Mmmffft.
Fried peach wedges are actually tasty, and dipping them in whipped cream was okay… I guess. But dipping them in ICING would have been MUCH better! A disappointment, all in all.
Experiencing the product was saved however by my delight at witnessing the “uniform” worn by those making the fried peaches. THIS is clever:
Niiiiiice Steve Miller reference. I feel like Steve Miller belongs at the Fair. No doubt as a former Dallasite he has visited many times. This makes me want to give Fried Peaches & Cream another chance. We’ll see.
Fried Twisted Yam on a Stick
Boys and girls. We have a Winner-So-Far for Nancy’s Favorite New Food of 2009. AND this one wins extra points for being well-located at the front gate of the Fair, only a few steps from the Green Line DART stop. So I was able to consume it last-thing Friday night before hopping on the train to head home. It left me with a happy feeling in my heart.
Here is a photo of the deliciousness:
That’s some cinnamon and sugar stuck to the twisty fried yammy goodness. And it is tasty!
I’m always working to tighten up the Fair food, though, so I have a suggestion for the Fried Twisted Yam on a Stick people as well:
Think about choices for this one. You could offer BOTH sweet AND savory versions. For the sweet version, do nothing. Fry and dress it up as pictured.
But for the savory version, just fry that baby up and let your customer add salt or perhaps some cajun spice. But here’s the killer. Serve with either ranch dressing OR bleu cheese dressing (or both, if desired). Ahhhhhh. Heaven.
(I’m thinking that lack of appropriate condiments in these new food situations may make it necessary for me to fashion a condiment utility-belt of some sort for Fair use. It’s awfully disappointing to eat something good, but just a few hairs shy of wonderful for want of the right condiment.)
New food. There you have it. Obviously, I’ve got oodles more to sample. I’ll get to more. It’s a marathon people, not a sprint.
