Glenn writes to us after surviving a San Diego fair that’s gone a little wild with the fry vat. As if a sandwich with Krispy Kremes as the bread wasn’t deadly enough on its own, the carnie folk have gone and fried it good.
Fairs have never been known for caloric restraint, but the ad display Glenn shot and sent us signifies that the fair is pushing the fry-everything craze into sign-of-the-apocalypse territory.
He writes:
We went to the Del Mar Fair in San Diego this past weekend (think County Fair) and was totally blown away by one booth that totally focused on everything fried! The Chicken Charlie’s booth promoted fired Klondike ice cream, fried Twinkies and get this, fried Krispy Kreme donut chicken sandwich! I can just imagine the gut busting calories of each of these artery clogging desserts. I have to say that the line to get food at this concessionaire was intense!
What’s your favorite fried food that really shouldn’t be fried?
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Oh man. I missed lunch today and am slobbering at my desk over that fried zucchini weenie. I love fried zukes.
Yeah, fried zucchini is a staple here in the South, I don’t know anyone who eats it any other way (Steamed, boiled, etc).. You can get it (fried) at many restaurants.
Oddly enough, when I lived in NC, it was (almost) never available on restaurant menus or at the “down home country buffet” type places. Okra? yeah. Zucchini? No.
Perhaps it depends on where in NC you go. I cannot speak for the rest of NC, but the southern parts (particularly the SE part) near the SC border, you see it a lot.
Haha: Look up the Mermaid in Las Vegas, NV.
We can’t help ourselves, we stop in at the Mermaid every time were in Vegas. We specifically plan a trip downtown just for that. Sad? Yes. Delicious? Um….eh?
I’ve had deep fried Twinkies and deep fried bacon, they’re both delicious..
I wouldn’t want to make it a weekly (or even monthly) indulgence, though.
Deep Fried Bacon with a crispy, almost imperceptible Tempura batter FTW!!!
I am generally not a deep-fried ANYTHING person, though my husband (from the South) makes me have a deep-fried Oreo every couple of years when we make it to a county fair.
Now, that said — a deep-fried S’more sounds as though it would actually be wonderful, in that “I can feel my arteries hardening” kind of way.
How do you fry an avocado?
Slice, roll in panko crumbs, fry. They are AMAZING.
wow! i would like to try that creation…
Here in Austin, Torchy’s Tacos makes a taco with deep-fried avocado pieces. SO GOOD.
Umm, he didn’t see the Fried Butter Stick? I remember seeing a fried hamburger there as well. Seriously, he went to the wrong vendor. Also, this isn’t new, tons of fairs have this, just watch Food TV.
Deep fried Mars Bars are delicious!
I wonder how long it is before these murderous fairs are banned from our fair land?
How do you actually do this? Is there some type of breading applied before deep-frying?
Usually, yes.. a light seasoned flour & egg batter generally.
I want to say that the majority of them are deep frozen before going into the fryer so they don’t melt/disintegrate. On the plus side, that meant that the fried twinkie I got had a delicious warm cake outside balanced by a cool cream center.
It really depends on what you get.
Most stuff of the sweet stuff (candy, cookies, etc) is dipped in funnel cake batter, then fried. The savory stuff is often dipped in a cornmeal batter (a la corn dogs). When frying icecream, it’s deeply frozen first and then possibly dipped in a batter.
Fried Uni-corn
Pickles!
I have had fried pickles before, and fried macaroni and cheese. The pickles were good but the mac and cheese was kind of weird.
Fried pickles are pretty common here in the south. Most sports bars and casual restaurants have them as appetizers.
They’re superb with comeback sauce.
Some people call the fried mac and cheese (on a stick, of course) at the MD Ren Fair “Mac and Crack”. I’m not a fan, but some people love it. My kids were split.
However, the fried candy bars/ Oreos are a once a season treat, my arteries can’t handle them more than that.
At least they have fried veggies.
http://damnthatlooksgood.com/
Look, Im not saying to eat it every day (or week), if you did the whole country would look like it was from Pittsburgh, but an occasional insanely over caloric treat won’t kill you if you eat a balanced diet and work out regularly
(I didnt do either and am currently working my way through a 100lbs weight loss.)
You mean you DON’T eat Primanti’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Have you heard of fired butter? Yep, that exists.
I would not like to eat a fried twinkie from the same vat as frogs legs. I do hope they keep them separate.
My favorite? I read a recipe for fried pizza today (only the crust is fried) that sounds pretty awesome!
You can get deep fried Coca-Cola at one fair.
Fried PBJ was good in an odd sort of way. Fried Oreos were good and so were fried pickles.
They do this at Chip Shop in Brooklyn.
My friends and I came to the conclusion that the best possible fried dessert would hands down be a deep fried Choco Taco.
Chip Shop on Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, US of A? = heaven
yummyy!!
Homer: And you said they couldn’t deep-fry my shirt!
Marge: I didn’t say they couldn’t, I said you shouldn’t.
My roommate made deep fried snickers – he used the “funnel cake” batter. (sp?)
Ooooh funnel cake and elephant ears, my most favorite of carnie foods.
The only slightly-out-of-the-ordinary fried things I’ve had are Oreos (oh my god so good) and ice cream (pretty good).
But I like what’s going on in the photo. Everything … totally fried! S’mores … totally fried! Twinkies … totally fried!
TOTALLY!
So… if I want mine only partially fried, what?
I made chocolate covered chicken fried bacon once.
Represent.
You are my hero…I’ve participated in making chicken-fried bacon with a cream gravy sauce before, but chocolate? You rule!
How did it taste?
Fried, re-fried beans…try it out. I haven’t & they’re gr8 !
Mmm, Jersey breakfast dogs…
From the “How the hell?” department, I had deep fried Coke syrup at a boardwalk in New Jersey once.
lol… I saw a sign for that once… “Deep Fried Coke.” I’m still not sure how, exactly, you “deep fry” Coca-Cola… or any liquid for that matter.
It is frozen then scooped into balls.
Actually, it’s batter balls laced with coke syrup. There’s no carbonated water involved, just syrup. They’re kind of like really sweet doughnuts.
If you’ve had gulab jamun in an Indian restaurant, deep-fried Coke and Kool-Aid are a similar idea – a deep fried doughnutty ball soaked in syrup.
How did Glenn miss the biggest news maker at this year’s Del Mar Fair: Fried butter?
Texas state fair… Fried Butter! If anyone knows how to post pictures I have some on my phone.
Upload them to flickr or something then post a link !
Damn, a fried Pop Tart sounds like the greatest thing ever.
But as far as actual extra-ordinary fried items I’ve tasted, I’d say my favorite is fried pickles.
I ate deep fried butter, mac n cheese, cheesecake, cookie dough, snickers, and oreos at the North Florida Fair last year.
One bite of each, though.
I put a photo of the Coronary Combo in the consumerist flickr pool
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elpicoso/4723012263/
Oh… dear… God… WHY? Just, why?
It’s official… the fair is trying to kill us all. Warn the people!
Deep fried Oreos are surprisingly good. My favorite is fried food is fried pickles, though. Yum.
MY buddy went to that fair and he stated that they were selling deep fried sticks of butter! Yeow
That’s part of the Coronary Combo that I linked to above.
Blah, my diet is almost completely devoid of fried foods as I feel baking/smoking/roasting, etc is the best way to go. I do have a deep love for fried okra from church’s (okra is not popular where I was born and raised, and since I’ve moved to Texas, I’ve found it to be a wonderful treat) and onion rings from Sonic that I indulge maybe once or twice a year. My mum always told me that it’s not what you eat, it’s how much and how often you eat (it).
This sounds like a mobile version of Jones’ Goodass BBQ and Foot Massage. I wonder if they would deepfry a dinosaur for me.
How about deep fried Tootsie Rolls, Sugar Daddy’s or Milk Duds? You can have a heart attack and pull out all your teeth at the same time!
This reminds me- does anyone know what happened to the This Is Why You’re Fat blog?
I was wondering the same! I went to check it for any updates and it says it was deleted. The members of the Facebook group for the website are also wondering about it.
I’m going this weekend… straight there
I was unimpressed with fried Snickers, but the deep fried grilled cheese was awesome. The best deep fried thing I ate at the fair was deep fried chile con queso. OMG!!!
last year was Elvis themed and they had a deep friend banana and PB sandwhich and one booth had deep fried coke.
They used to have rattlesnake too, but that booth couldn’t afford the high prices of the fair.
I worked there for 4 years in high school at the information booths
Ask me anything about the fair, and I’ll probably know it 
Deep fried Chicken, Though it’s grilled form actually taste better to me. Sometimes the grease makes me queasy just to look at and eat from the first bite.
I love me some sauce slathered smoky BBQ’d chicken….nom nom nom nom
The only things I’ve ever had from Chicken Charlie’s were the deep fried spam (started out ok, but didn’t finish so well) and the relatively tame chicken kabob.
I want to get the frog legs but I just can’t get past how unnatural frogs are.
| The only things I’ve ever had from Chicken Charlie’s were the deep fried spam
| I want to get the frog legs but I just can’t get past how unnatural frogs are.
I don’t think you know what the word unnatural means.
What no squash, okra, pickles,cheese curds, or butter? These people are amateurs.
Well thank god. I’m going through Texas too early for their state fair. Didn’t know what I was going to do!
This is news?
In the grand state of Ohio, our state fair finds something new to fry every year, but I think the favorites are still fried Snickers and fried ice cream.
I’ve NEVER been to the state fair, but, sadly, this is common knowledge around here.
very easy question to answer, cause i have had it, and it sucks : bacon. When i was in college, the breakfast cook in the cafeteria would get lazy and instead of frying on the cook top, he would deep fry the bacon to save time – it would come out like sand, crumbling into nothingness, with no flavor.
Anyone notice the neon sign says: “…Broasted Chicken”? What in the world is broasted chicken?
But it’s fried in oil free of trans-fats, so it’s o.k., right?
I’d eat that deep-fried avocado, no questions. Hell, I might make some at home myself! I’ve perfected deep-fried sweet tea*, after all.
(*no, this is not a regular food in my house; I did it just to see if I could.)
Is deep frying really THAT bad for you? I once heard (I forget where) that the food does not actually absorb a significant amount of oil until you have overcooked it. Given that fried chicken etc. is very greasy, if you wiped it clean of the topical oils would it be much worse than baked chicken?
Certainly not contesting the healthiness of fried butter though…Then again, if you’re bent on eating a stick of butter you might as well make it good.