Fair Feast 2009!

Get out the elastic-waisted shorts! It’s Fair Time!

If you know me, you know I love me a county fair. I love the livestock. I love the 4-H-ers. I love the canning displays. I love the Demolition Derby. I love all the marginally useful stuff hocked inside the nice air conditioned building. But most of all, for 10 days a year, I love to throw Jenny Craig under the bus to count her own silly Weight Watchers Points while I eat just about everything I can get my sticky, greasy, artificially flavored fingers on. Mmmm. Fair Food. There is simply nothing so scrumptious.

So here is a pictorial recap of Day 1’s Gorge-o-Rama:



I've found it very helpful to start each feast with a cob of corn. Helps the digestion and gives the impression to others that perhaps I'm a health-conscious eater. HA! Also, my favorite corn vendor provides free samples of frozen lemonade. I always choose the fullest cup. That's some strawberry lemonade there on the table.













Coming to the conclusion that that is indeed one tasty corn dog. Mmmm!


















Time for a beverage. Good ol' fashioned lemonade.














Rib in a Cup. No better example of truth in advertising. And yes, there was lots of sauce in that cup.












In the mood for something sweet, Rob and I decided to give deep fried cookie dough a try. Mmmmm!!! I would have preferred a bit more chocolate and a bit less sharing.















One of my all-time favorite Fair finds: Fried Green Tomatoes. Tangy, crunchy, just the right amount of cornmeal, and secret spices.











I braved a swarm of bees to get this tasty lemon and lime Hawaiian ice. The unusually hot and dry summer seems to have brought way too many bees to our area this year...and they all seemed to be angling for sno-cones.









Other non-food highlights of the day:

• Watching the parents of 4-H-er llama kids compete in a Showmanship competition. It was quite fun to watch the parents gain deeper respect and understanding for what their children go through trying to control a llama under the watchful eye of a judge holding a clipboard.

• Overheard as a teen girl was reuniting with her parents: “And I saw two of my friends named Jasmine!” Thus leaving open the distinct possibility that this girl knew more than a couple girls named Jasmine. Was it really that long ago that Disney’s “Aladdin” came out??

• Meeting a Pygora goat named Latte. She is a mix of pygmy and angora. She is soft and short and sweet and cuddly…and owned by friends who will now see me more often than they really want to. OOOOH! And next year Latte will likely have babies! Ramona and Aaron are now under strict orders to let me know when I can come visit the Tall Lattes.

• Enduring nearly 2 hours of a new event called “Knights of the Realm Medieval Jousting Tournament.” Really, it boiled down to about 15 minutes of questionable Middle Ages-inspired competitions involving horses and brass rings and watermelons and bales of hay. The rest of the time was spent with lots of over-acted fanfare, bad English accents a la King Arthur’s Court, and choreographed fight sequences that had opponents ducking and dodging pre-maturely enough that I laughed out loud. The flow of the event was a bit choppy, resulting in the chain-mailed announcer having to scream – at two different times -- “Do not leave! The competition is not over! They shall fight to the DEATH!” Rob and I looked at each other at the end, rolled our eyes, and surmised that this event will not be returning next year. So -- we being the pulse of what our county wants in entertainment -- it shouldn’t have surprised us that we overheard two comments on our way out of the grandstands: “Wasn’t that FANTASTIC?!?” and “That was the BEST thing the Fair has EVER HAD!!” Apparently our county will be jousting for years to come. Huzzah.

• It was with great despair that I discovered a favorite vendor did not return this year. The Grizzly Kabob Hut -- serving chocolate dipped strawberries and pineapple chunks on skewers -- was nowhere to be found. My heart and stomach sunk. Optimistically, Rob pointed out that in the Hut’s place is a new vendor selling slices of melon and cantaloupe. “Yeah, but there’s no chocolate! Just boring old fruit.” Who wants healthy at the fair?

Which brings us back to food. Naturally. Stay tuned for Wednesday’s update when Rob and I return to the Fair for more food and fun and…bull riding!