State Fair 2012 Food Retrospective

Next year, I need to be a little more strategic. My plan this year was to eat very little during the day, then eat a ton at night. While good in theory, this plan actually caused me to get full pretty fast, which meant I couldn't  fully enjoy my two favorites that I saved for the end of the night. So my plan for next year is to eat the deep-fried Oreos first, then maybe something dinnery, then the cookie dough on a stick. Or even maybe skip the cookie dough on a stick next year (gasp!).

Anyway, my friends T and E and I decided to start the night with dinner-type food. E got the Reuben roll from Slim McGinn's I think, which she tasted last year and loved. T tried ravioli on a stick from Miller Lite Sports Bar, and she said it was just OK, but it didn't hold a candle to the toasted ravioli at the Big Screen Bistro inside the Marcus Majestic movie theater. My first food of the night was the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger. Machine Shed also had a bacon cheeseburger option, but I figured this was crazy enough already.

T was kind enough to take pictures of my first reaction (stolen from Facebook).

We tried it without ketchup first, and it tasted weird and not great — just how you would expect. It tasted like a doughnut on top of a burger. The ketchup really saved it. The condiment served as a nice buffer between the doughnut bun and the burger patty, and the sweetness of the doughnut just made the ketchup taste a little sweeter, a little like barbecue sauce without the tang. I would actually not be opposed to eating it again that way except that I'm sure there will be something else I want to try more next year. Also while we were at Machine Shed, T tried the deep-fried PB&J on a stick, and she loved it. I'll definitely have to get that next year.

Our next stop was Rupena's, where I bought deep-friend stuffing (pictured below), and E bought deep-fried mac and cheese (not shown). The deep-fried mac and cheese was sooo good. I would definitely get that again. As for the deep-fried stuffing with its side of gravy, it tasted just like Thanksgiving. I thought if they found a way to put turkey in there, too, it might be even better. Otherwise, for me, trying it once was enough.

We took a little break from food and each got something to drink. I got a Blue Moon, which tasted weird to me for some reason. Apparently Blue Moon doesn't pair well with stuffing on a stick.

Although we were all pretty full already, I had a couple more things I had to cross of my list. We located the deep-fried cookie dough at Emma's Cookie Kitchen and shared a plate of that. It had a wonton-like shell with the warm, gooey cookie dough in the middle, then was topped with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar with ice cream on the side. It sounds heavenly, and it was good, but we concurred that we preferred our cookie dough more solid and on a stick, in this case.

My phone died after this, and I didn't think to have the girls take pictures, but our next food picks were my still current state fair favorite – deep-friend Oreos – from some random stand and deep-fried pizza on a stick for E from Brew City. She intended to eat the pizza earlier, but we couldn't find where it was. I loved the Oreos of course, and the bite of pizza I had was pretty good. It wasn't something I'd get myself since sausage is one of the only pizza toppings I don't really care for.

I debated for awhile whether I actually wanted to close the night with the cookie dough on a stick or skip it. After walking around for awhile and letting our food settle, I decided to go for it. I went with chocolate chip dipped in butterscotch without nuts or sprinkles. Even sharing it among the three of us, we still couldn't finish it.

So that's it for this year! I'm definitely over fried foods for awhile.