You’ve all heard of deep fried Twinkies and Oreos, no doubt, but what about some of the more out of the ordinary heart-cloggers at your summer festival or state fair? Have your cardiologist on speed dial and get ready to pop a Zantac; here are some of the craziest fried foods available at state fairs.
Photo credit: jlwelsh, Flickr
11 Deep Fried Bubble Gum
This won the Most Creative award at the 2011 Texas State Fair. That’s all well and good but…deep fried bubble gum? Dafuq is that? Are you supposed to chew it? Are you supposed to swallow it? So many questions…so few arterial valves.
Photo credit: Collin Harvey, Flickr
10 Deep Fried Kool-Aid
If you didn’t think deep frying something that was a liquid and making it into a solid (okay, a really oily solid) was possible, then you’ve never met a state fair. This debuted in San Diego in 2011 and was sold at a rate of about 500 balls per day.
Photo credit: jlwelsh, Flickr
9 Deep Fried Coca-Cola
Ah, nothing like taking a crisp, refreshing soda and making it into an edible creation. In the same vein as fried Kool-Aid, fried Coca-Cola is Coke-flavored batter that’s been deep-fried and topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream and cinnamon-sugar. This bad boy debuted at the 2006 Texas State Fair. Is there anything Texans can’t fry!?
Photo credit: Stephen Witherden, Wikimedia Commons
8 Deep Fried Beer
This holy conglomeration of fried food and beer made its debut at the Texas State Fair in 2010. The beer is poured into a pretzel dough pocket and deep fried for about 20 seconds. So it’s still alcoholic. Perfect.
Photo credit: medea_material, Flickr
7 Deep Fried Bacon
This isn’t crazy so much as crazy delicious. And it’s bacon.
Photo credit: YouTube/Travel Channel
6 Deep Fried Spaghetti and Meatballs on a Stick
The Minnesota State Fair has made their contribution; it’s Italian, it’s American and it’s something else altogether. It’s a mash of meat and pre-cooked spaghetti formed into balls, dipped in a garlic batter, deep-fried and then served with marinara sauce. It’s a meal on a stick.
Photo credit: YouTube
5 Deep Fried Cactus Bites
These chicken fried cactus bites are – as you may have guessed – a Texas State Fair offering. Hand-picked prickly pear cactus pads with a slice of chicken, chicken fried and then served with a jalapeno ranch and sweet nectar dipping sauces. Why does that sound so good?
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4 Deep Fried Picnic on a Stick
The deep fried Picnic on a Stick is spicy chicken, tater tots and pickles battered and fried around an unassuming wooden stick and served with a choice of sauces. God damn you Texas for making awesome food even more awesome.
Photo credit: Rodolfo G., Yelp
3 Deep Fried Sugar Cubes
Oh my good god-ness. This was available at the Texas State Fair in 2012. You could go with fried sugar – a fried sugar cube topped with caramel (which, as you may know is a gooey substance also made of sugar). But why would you decide to go on a diet when the state fair is happening? Instead you may want to go for the deep fried sugar cube double-dipped in chocolate or vanilla batter.
Photo credit: imgur
2 Deep Fried Cinnamon Rolls
A vendor at the California State Fair offered this one to customers in 2012. It’s the food equivalent of asking, “Would you like to get fat, today?”
Photo credit: YouTube
1 Deep Fried Sticks of Butter
Since butter is something already used to fry things, we can only consider this the ultimate in fat-ception. America out America’s itself with this one that debuted at the Texas State Fair in 2009. It consists of an entire stick of butter on a stick dipped into a cinnamon-honey batter and then deep-fried to perfection. Betcha can’t just eat one…without also going to the emergency room.
Photo credit: Ryan, Flickr