If you fry it, they will come

By ‘they,’ I mean ‘we.’

We met my parents in Dallas yesterday for the Texas State Fair, the USA’s official proving grounds for all manner of fried foods.  Did you know that there are people in this country who spend a couple months a year frying fair food, and make enough money that they spend the rest of the year thinking up new things to fry?  (If you don’t believe me, you would if you had seen the line at the tent selling fried butter, the one thing I would really have liked to try but didn’t.)  If that’s not the American dream, then I don’t know what is.

A sampling of the things consumed by our party, starting with my holy grail, the fried s’mores pop-tart (the funnel fries were conveniently offered at the same stand):

I consider myself something of a pop-tart connoisseur in the way Imelda Marcos is a connoisseur of shoes, or Elizabeth Taylor is a connoisseur of husbands.  As such I eagerly awaited this treat, and it did not disappoint.  I hope it shows up at the Houston Rodeo this year!

I was on the hunt for fried sweets, so I left the fried frito pie and fried broccoli to the others:

I did make an exception for chicken-fried bacon, because bacon is meat candy.  The stuff at the fair was far better than what we got at the rodeo a couple years back:

I didn’t try the dipped cheesecake, but it looked good enough that I may have some at the rodeo this spring:

The one thing I tried but couldn’t finish was the fried gummy worms.  They were like mini-churros with a hot, liquid candy center — delicious, but overwhelming:

Other fried items seen but not eaten: fried cookie dough (I was going to have some, but it was at the same place as the fried butter and I didn’t want to wait in that huge line), fried lattes, fried margaritas, fried grilled cheese, fried Texas caviar (black-eyed peas), fried club salad.  I read that there was also fried beer and fried chocolate, but I didn’t see those.

After eating our way through the fair, would you believe that we went back to our hotel and ate?