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Fairs, Fried Food and Building a Community

By: Christine Luelf | 09/12/2011

How do you spell awesome?

In Texas, they spell it F-R-I-E-D.  

Earlier this month, the Texas State Fair named the 2011 Fried Food Champions.  In 2010, you'll recall, Fried Beer garnered the title.  What on earth can top that?  (Drum roll, please).  The 2011 Fried Food Champions are:

Buffalo Flapjack - Best Taste

A buffalo chicken strip coated in flapjack batter, rolled in jalapeno breadcrumbs and served with syrup.

 Fried Bubblegum - Most Creative

A bubblegum-flavored marshmallow coated in batter and drizzled with icing and powdered sugar.  (This is likely to be supper tonight at the Luelf house.)

Just the mention of fair food can still make the most health conscious of us get misty eyed with longing for cotton candy, fried cheese and any sort of food-on-a-stick.

When you really think about it though there is something much bigger in play here (and not just because we're talking about Texas).  Fairs and Festivals are celebrations of our communities --- of our friends, neighbors and childhood loves. Virtually all fairs and festivals have very strong agricultural ties.  These events have a common thread, if not a common cuisine.

As a lover of everything related to fairs - food-on-a-stick, tractor pulls, livestock tents and the occasional polka band (bonus!), my family was raised attending events such as Collinsville's Horseradish Festival (Horseradish capitol of the world) and the Morton Pumpkin Festival (Punkin Chuckin aside - pumpkin chili is pretty awesome.)  Along the way, they may have even learned a few things about crops, livestock and the importance of sharing our talents and making important connections.

Fairs and festivals, as silly and wonderful as they are, speak deeply to our sense of community. They bring us back to our roots (sometimes quite literally), acquainting us with our neighbors. And that's the point, right? If we need to make those connections over a Fry Daddy, I say go for it.  Our waistlines can handle it for a day. . . . . . . or so.

What's your favorite fair food or experience?  Anybody a Burgoo fan?  Cheese fries? Bull riding?  Tractor pull?  In Washington, Missouri, a beautiful grape growing region along the Missouri river (and the wine capital of Missouri according to their ads) you can get an entire bottle of wine in a 32-ounce cup - I'm not saying it's a good idea but...

With fair season in full swing from mid summer through late fall, there's plenty of opportunity to make connections over some good old fashioned fried Twinkies.  It may also explain why March in national nutrition month. 

Posted in Agriculture and Nutrition