NC State Fair 2010 - Food Fest

I approach the State Fair like I approach all things in life - all or nothing, take no prisoners, burn the boats, eat until you explode.  I've never been good with all that moderation, kumbayah stuff.

So in preparation for the attack - uh, I mean our visit - I went to the State Fair website to get a list of all the new food items http://www.ncstatefair.org/2010/General/FoodFinder.htm
I performed two dramatic readings of the list on the way to the fair.  There were two items I absolutely wanted to try - fried Chips Ahoy cookies and fried pumpkin pie.  I also decided I would try a Kool-Aid pickle.  I mean, you only live once, right?

My fellow warriors and I had already decided we would begin the attack by having lunch and decided we wanted to try deep fried bacon and cheese mashed potato bites.  Now, just think about that for a minute - cheese, bacon, mashed potato -sounds so good, right?

Would you believe we saw that booth first?  AND they had the fried chocolate chip cookies?  Score!!

As we got in the line, we noticed the sign:

Yes, that says "Chocalate Chip Cookies".  Almost as bad as the embroidery entry we saw in the arts and crafts section that read "Merry Chritmas."  Dear God....uh, I mean Jesus.

Here are the mashed potato bites:

These were horrible.  The "cheese" is on the side, the bacon is like Bacos, and the mashed potatoes were instant.  GLAACK!  A beautiful dream destroyed.

These odd shrimp shaped things are the deep fried chocalate cookies:

It was more like deep fried chocalate chip cookie dough and IT WAS AMAZING!

If you go, you have to get these - so damn good!!!!!!

A cute little candy booth:

The festive midway - we strolled this only in search of food.  No distractions until the mission was completed.  And the mission wouldn't be completed until they had to call EMS.

Then we saw this booth - it mentioned deep fried Chips Ahoy which I thought might be different than deep fried chocalate chip cookies.  I felt no risks could be taken and we should check this out.  They also had a deep fried Ho Ho and a deep fried honey bun which I still want to try.

Here's the display of their wares - the red things are the Kool-Aid pickles, the fried thing is a honey bun? (who the hell knows) and this is one version of the Krispy Cream doughnut hamburger.  None of us wanted to try that.

When I saw the Kool-Aid pickles, I wanted to retreat.  Those things looked heinous!  But my fellow warrior Larry tried to convince me that the pickles looked so yucky because they had been sitting out in the sun on display.  I said if they were $3 I would try them, but not if they were $6.  They were $3:

And they looked just like the ones on display.   Oh well - I tried one:

And it was horrible:

Think cherry and pickle.  Gross.

But there was still the fried Chips Ahoy!  This is what Chips Ahoy look like when you put them in a fryer.  FDA?  EPA?  CIA?  Where are you guys?

There's the finished product:

We tried to eat them but they were WAY too hot.  So we strolled along for a bit.  It was kind of like being in Heaven.

This was the big new thing this year:

Go ponytail man!!!!  (Love the looks on their faces.)

Really?

The Chips Ahoy finally cooled down enough to eat.  See how they are nowhere near as gooey as the chocalate chip ones?

They were pretty damn good.  Not as good as the chocalate chip ones, but damn good nonetheless.  We strolled some more.  I bought some pumpkin fudge which was amazing and delicious and I already ate it so no pictures.  It was like pumpkin frosting.  Yummmm!

I like this ride - it looks like candy:

Ah-ha!  Deep fried pumpkin pie!!  Pineapple lemonade!  And chocolate batter funnel cakes!

Here's the pumpkin pie with caramel drizzle and the required confectioner's sugar (which I was covered in from head to toe.  I kid you not - it was on my shoes when I got home.)

This may not look good - but I thought it was awesome!  It had real pumpkin pie filling.  Yay! Yay! Yay!

I couldn't eat these - just no room, but I really wanted to.  This is a turtle brownie funnel cake with chocolate batter, chocolate chips, caramel - if only my stomach wasn't so full and funnel cakes weren't so big!

And they had loads of other great flavors - chocolate obsession, black forest funnel cake, pecan praline, blueberry, apple..... So much food, so little space in my stomach.

 I did get the pineapple lemonade:

Didn't like it - too sweet.  Ha, ha, ha - did you read that?  I thought it was too sweet!  A woman covered in confectioner's sugar!

This man (who I found very creepy) was selling the world's largest gummy bear - which I had to touch:

And the world's largest gummy worm, which I did not touch.  See what I mean?  Kinda creepy.

Speaking of creepy, you could (in theory) win this:

Or this Rastafarian Simpson banana:

We had pretty much conquered the food list and decided to go see the award winning cakes (I love these things).   Intricate holly leaves (Merry Chritmas!):

My fav - so colorful and festive:

Cake sushi!

This is way too frilly and sappy for me, but the detail is amazing!  See the pacifier, the bottle and the shoes?

I like this one too:

And how damn funny is this wedding cake?  A pumpkin and a squash!  Love the veil and the bow tie.

Then we saw this and angles flew down from heaven and I could hear harps playing:

I think they got a little carried away with the confectioner's sugar (this is when it got on my shoes):

I knew my warriors were tough when one of them said, "What?  Only three?"

I wish this picture were clearer - there was probably confectioner's sugar on the lens.  But you can see that delicious Reese's peanut butter cup in there.  We decided this was a tie for the best of the day.  Deep fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are just so over the top, decadent and delicious.  But that deep fried chocalate chip cookie dough was to die for!!!  (Of course, at this rate I will be dying for it.)

On the way out we cruised through this really great show of NC flower power.  I thought I was taking a picture of these pretty mums, but apparently I was taking a picture of that blockhead waving. 

Festive candy land!!!

Do painted rocks count as flowers?

Pretty!!!

This is a random (but pretty) CD clothespin butterfly:

This is the whole CD display - which actually looked pretty cool with the sun hitting those babies:

We spent some time people watching before we left (which was very scary) and overall, had a blast.  It was a gorgeous day and a celebration of food, fun and friendship.  And maybe fall, frosting and freaks.  Possibly flowers, frying and felons - but I'm not sure about the last one.



The Patron Saint of Single Women!

Let ME Eat Cake!

World Market has a pretty good rewards program (you all know what a sucker I am for those!). You get a $10 credit for your birthday and $10 for every $100 you make in food purchases. I had $20 in credit burning a hole in my pocket, so I tried some stuff I've been eyeing. I like to try the seemingly improbable.   Cake on a shelf for some indeterminate amount of time seems improbable. 

The picture on the top is the outer package, inside are six individually wrapped cakes:

Now this doesn't look a dang thing like the cake in the picture:

I didn't see any chocolate filling.  Maybe the cake absorbed it - they were pretty moist, I have to admit.  But not that chocolately.  These (cherry) were actually better!

Again, nothing like the picture, but moist and tastey!  These would be great for a lunch box - YUM!  Made in Italy - I should have known they would be pretty good.  The Italians know their food.

I was certain this would be terrible.  I mean - these cakes are just sitting on the shelf!  How can they be any good at all?  This is decorated sponge cake with strawberry jam and custard filling:

Looks kind of scary, right?

I can't believe it, but it was pretty good!  The jam and custard made it.  This one is made in Portugal.  Wow - cakes from around the world!  How cosmopolitan is my birthday celebration?  Looks crummy, but tatses light and sweet - pretty good!

I got this one from A Southern Season - a peanut butter torte - holy smokes!!!!  But it's in a box, so I had my doubts:

But look at this - it looks great, right?

But when you cut it - holy God!  Is that radioactive?  The orange really is that shocking!

WOW!  It might look weird, but it's pretty damn good!!  And pretty damn dangerous - OMG!!!  I can't stop eating this thing!  Thank God my birthday only comesd once a year!  Made by Sweet Treasures, distributed by Green County Foods out of Monroe, WI.  Screw Portugal.

And you can't have a party without cookies!  These are new by Oreo:

I was surprised when I opened the box and there were so few inside - Oreos are usually packed!

These are Oreos without their tops, covered in fudge and they are damn good.  No kidding!  Pretty rich with all that fudge, but this is a mighty fine cookie.  It doesn't look like much, but it brings it, I promise!

These are a new limited edition flavor - Oreo Blizzard:

Zzzzzzzzzzz.  You gotta be kidding.  These did nothing for me.  Taste like regular Oreos.  Not even DoubleStuff.  Don't waste your money.

Sprinkles seems so festive and springy to me!!  Whee!!  So let's look at some nonpareils with colored sprinkles. These are by Choclatique:

And these are by a German company - Horst Schluckwerder:

And while I like the cute flower shape of the German chocolates, those by Choclatique are WAY better.  They have more chocolate and thus fewer sprinkles.  Way, way better.  But nonpareils are not my fav - those round balls always taste a little stale to me.  Great for decoration, not so great for flavor.  But that's just my opinion - my best friend, Missy LOVES these things.

Yay!!  Cake, cookies and chocolate!  And a lot of it was free!  Happy Birthday to me!!!  The only thing that could have been better was to have you all here to share it with!