The 2012 Arkansas State Fair Food Preview.

As I always do, I've checked out the food you'll find at the Arkansas State Fair. Rather than rehash everything you already know at the fair, I'll direct you thusly to last year's compendium of absolutely just about everything you could find -- and introduce some new stuff right here, too.

The weird new food at the fair this year:  BACON LEMONADE.  I kid you not. 

Because it has actual bacon rendering in it, I cannot try it myself, but I am

told it doesn’t taste too far off from regular lemonade.  Coastal Concessions,

which is offering it this year, also has Peach and Raspberry versions, which

aren’t nearly as offensive and are actually quite good.

The tastiest of the new fair foods:  DO-RE-OHs.  These are

deep fried cookie dough wrapped Oreo cookies, and if you

get them when they are just out of the fryer, they are

phenomenal – 10 times better than a Chocolate Lava Cake. 

However, once they cool they’re kinda mushy and the charm

is lost.  The Fried What! Folks are selling these.

The folks that brought you Cheeseburger on a Stick are

branching out this year with Alligator on a Stick.  Yes, it’s been

offered at other fairs, but now it’s at the Arkansas State Fair. 

Tastes like chicken.

The Red River Catering Company is offering a tasty twist on

a classic:  Barbecue Nachos.  This is a pile of tortilla chips

topped with cheese, covered in your choice of shredded beef

or pork and drizzled with barbecue sauce.

Beef brisket sandwiches have been here before, but they're always yummy.

And yes, there is still Chocolate Bacon, first introduced at the Arkansas State Fair in 2009.

The Fried What! People are also offering Deep Fried Brownies. 

Served up with a hefty scoop of ice cream and whipped cream,

this is only a sharing dessert – total consumption by a single

individual might result in a sugar-related emergency.

Fried What! is also serving up Deep Fried Green Tomatoes.

Here's another shot of the Do-Re-Ohs, since I know some news folks might want a different image.  As always, yes, you can use my imagery... with attribution, of course.

This should have been a no-brainer... it's a funnel cake on a stick.  Of course.

Red River Catering is offering this meal-on-a-stick, a Chicken and Potato kebab, complete with bun.

Kathy's Kabana brings back a childhood favorite -- chocolate dipped bananas.

Colonial Nut Roll has your sweet tooth in mind with Black Walnut Salt Water Taffy.

Red River Catering will serve up a perfectly normal Fried Catfish plate if you ask nicely (and pay a little).

I personally find this a bit disturbing on a cholesterol level -- gravy covered deep fried steak bites.

Kathy's Kabana is selling steak and chicken quesadillas -- not unusual, but tasty.

You can also buy an oversized nacho plate at the Big Show Diner.

And finally:  The Walking Taco in all its glory, from Kathy's Kabana.

A Guide to Arkansas State Fair Food.

Before you head out to the Arkansas State Fair this year, you probably want to know what’s available to eat. Along with cotton candy, corn dogs and funnel cakes, you’ll find a large variety of items that will tempt your palate. Here’s a quick guide to those neat foods you’ll want to watch for and perhaps consume with the assistance of friends while you’re contemplating what rides you’ll tackle on the Midway.

BARBECUE RABBIT SANDWICHES: Shredded rabbit meat simmered in a sweet BBQ sauce and served up on a bun. While tasty, the sauce covers up most of the flavor of the rabbit. Yes, that means it tastes like chicken. Unless you’re just dying to try it or want to check that one
special fair food off your scorecard, go for the likely cheaper barbecue pork or beef sandwiches instead. An Arkansas State Fair original.

CABRITAS (GOAT) WRAPS: Tasty smoked goat tucked into a tortilla and served with your choice of regular or spicy barbecue sauce. Simple yet delicious -- by not covering up the meat with a bunch of condiments or vegetables, you can really get to that great goat flavor.

CHOCOLATE SMOOCHES: Original to the Arkansas State Fair, these are battered and deep fried Hershey’s Kisses. Thanks to the fluffy dough used and the relatively small size of said Kisses, you’re left with a confection half the size of a doughnut that’s both savory and sweet. A real winner. Pick up a tray to share with friends.

CREAM PUFFS: Big fluffy bigs of crispy dough stuffed with a Bavarian style cream between the layers. Served with a little powdered sugar or topped with chocolate and almost as big as a baby’s head.

DEEP FRIED APPLE SLICES and DEEP FRIED APPLE DUMPLING: While both are similar in taste, go for the apple slices instead. They’re both served up hot, but you get a better texture on the slices and besides, they’re far easier to share. That, and have you ever tried to eat a hot apple dumpling standing up and holding it?

DEEP FRIED CREAM CHEESE AND BACON ON A STICK: This might have gone too far. You end up with a corndog style breading around a lump of cream cheese about the size of a box you’d get at the store, studded with Bacon bits. Unless you really like bacon and cream cheese, go for the Wisconsin Fried Cheese instead.

DEEP FRIED PEANUT BUTTER CUPS: Seen at the Texas State Fair, these are simply Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrapped in dough, deep fried and topped with sugar. Tasty but very, very sweet. Go for the Chocolate Smooches instead unless you’re a huge Reese’s fan.

DEEP FRIED VEGGIES: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini and onions are all batter dipped and dropped in the fryer for this treat. Tastier than it sounds -- and the one sure-fire way to get your kids to eat veggies at the fair.

EGG ON A STICK: This is a hard boiled egg, battered up and deep fried just like a corn dog. It’s not as icky as it sounds -- in fact, it actually sorta works, if you like hard boiled eggs. Get yours with Jalapeno Ranch sauce -- or if you’re a mustard sort of person, they have a nice stone ground sauce, too.

ELEPHANT EARS: Big (12-14”) oblongs of thin dough deep fried and topped with one of many toppings -- cinnamon sugar, icing, cherry topping, blueberry topping, strawberry topping or chocolate. They’re meant for sharing and are very light. Eat them quick, though -- as they get cool they become harder to tear apart.

FRIED DILL PICKLES: They’re spreading everywhere! The difference is (like with the Fried Green Tomatoes) is that they’re deep fried with a tempura like batter. Don’t forget the sauce.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES: Not your Whistle-Stop Café variety, these rounds of green tomato are dunked in tempura batter instead of cornmeal before they head to the deep fryer. Have yours with Ranch or Honey Mustard.

GATOR ON A STICK: Chunks of alligator battered and deep fried on a stick. It’s exotic, sure, and if you’ve never had gator before you might as well give it a shot. Tasty, a bit salty, but some folks are going to say it tastes like chicken. Sorta.

GIANT COOKIES: Can you ever really go wrong with a big cookie? Probably not. This year’s varieties include M&M and peanut butter.

HILLBILLY HOMEBREW: A sweet yellow blend of orange and pineapple juice with lemonade, sweeter than lemonade and not as harsh. Pretty good, actually.

HOT FUDGE BROWNIE A LA MODE: A big chunk of brownie with an impossible for one person to safely consume scoop of ice cream and whipped cream on top. Tasty, but you can get this almost anywhere.

HUBCAP BURGERS: These massive one pound burgers come served up on a Community Bakery baked bun for roughly $8. They come across the bar just meat and bun; vegetables and condiments are also provided. Other variations include the Hubcap Chicken Sandwich and the Hubcap Fried Steak Sandwich.

ONION BLOSSOM: Twenty years ago this was a novelty. Now the big reason to get this at the Fair is if you really like onion rings but don’t want to worry about dropping those rings everywhere. Still tasty, just not that unusual.

PEPPERONI PUFF ON A STICK: Basically a pepperoni pizza, rolled up and tucked in and skewered on a wooden rod. The idea is good and the execution is nice, but our experience is that it’s similar to a Totino’s Pizza Roll in flavor. You can have pizza at home.

PINEAPPLE WHIP: I know far too many people who swear by these to argue. A delicious blend of vanilla soft serve and pureed pineapple, served in a cup or cone.

TATER DOG: The Tater Twister, but with a hot dog inside. Actually, this is a pretty neat idea -- taking a hotdog and inserting it in a spiral cut potato before deep frying it. The frying process gives the hotdog an unusual texture; you might ask that they go light on the salt, it can be way too salty otherwise.

TATER TWISTER: The name is almost more interesting than the dish. What you get is a single long potato that’s been spiral cut, deep fried and sprinkled liberally with salt and seasonings, served up on a stick. More potato chip than French fry but more fun to eat.

WISCONSIN FRIED CHEESE: Cheese curds and cheese fingers from Wisconsin, battered tempura-like and served very hot. Better than cheese sticks at your local restaurant and highly addictive.

Click here to watch Kat talk about the cool new foods at the Arkansas State Fair on KARK Today at Noon with Mallory Hardin.

Fried Belches.

Every year there’s something that just turns the heads of fairgoers, some amazing idea for food that catches on and sweeps the fair circuit in a blaze of “what the heck?” glory that brings people in from far and wide. Last year it was fried butter. In previous years, we’ve had Pig Lickers, Fried Coke and the granddaddy of them all, the Fried Twinkie.

I keep my ear to the ground year-round to see what’s coming up at the big fairs, since that’s my gig. The Arkansas State Fair is of course my home beat, but this year I wanted to run down bigger fish and catch a preview of what might be coming here by heading to the Texas State Fair. And the big buzz this year has been over Fried Beer.

Mind you, there’s actually a contest. Each year vendors who plan to sell their wares at the Texas State Fair submit their menus, and the most exciting of the entries compete against each other. The Fair chose eight fried items to feature in their promotions, their on-site booklets and such. And Fried Beer took the title of Most Creative in the Big Tex Choice Awards.

I saw it talked about all over the media, even saw photos and a demonstration of how to make them. But no one talked about the most important thing to me -- how does it taste? And that, to me, was the most important thing. So photographer Grav Weldon and I packed up and headed to Big D on a quest.

Mind you, getting into the Fair isn’t so big a problem -- the parking lots stretch out for miles, sure, but there are trams to shorten the distances and even the DART to take you to one of the main gates if you don’t want to take your car (parking, by the way, is $15 a car -- admission is $15 a person). Still, once you get in and get your map, you really realize just how massive the Fair is, and just how far you’re going to have to go. In our case, the route to the nearest Fried Beer vendor took us north of the Cotton Bowl and what felt like miles down a food-lined boulevard on an amazingly beautiful and cool Sunday morning.

We passed by all manners of shopping opportunities, an Ocean Spray cranberry bog booth, the Food and Fiber pavilion and dozens of food vendors with growing lines of folks ready to try things like Deep Fried Pizza, Fried Lemonade and Fried Cookie Dough. Grav and I both had our cameras out and I was taking notes as well… we weren’t going to just cover Fried Beer, after all.

It took us about an hour of shooting here and there and scanning the area before we finally made it to the booth down by the Esplanade. The same booth was also selling chocolate covered strawberry Belgian waffle balls, which sounded a heck of a lot more appetizing. But you knew what we were there for.

This is the point where I need to pause and explain Fried Beer. It’s not like Fried Coke or any of that jazz. It’s a pellet of concentrated beer frozen and placed in what the vendor said was a pretzel case, then dropped in the deep fryer. In fact, the Texas State Fair folks quote creator Mark Zable as saying "Nobody has been able to fry a liquid before. It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer."

Now, I had hypothesized that this creation could be a source of a liability lawsuit if served incorrectly. After all, the process takes something that freezes near the point of water, namely beer. It’s put in grease which I am assuming is pretty darn far past the point of boiling. I worried that on opening the little pockets that they’d explode.

This wasn’t the case. When we walked out a woman was putting out tray after tray of these little beer raviolis, five to a tray, to cool on the counter. I grabbed one shot around the glass and she offered to show them to us. To me, they appeared to be pasta, not pretzel. She emphasized that we needed to get the Shiner Bock logo on the side of the tray. You couldn’t see the little raviolis that way, though.

After a short interlude and break, we came back and forked over the 10 coupons (everything at the Texas State Fair is purchased with coupons, which will run you 50 cents apiece) and got our little tray.

“Now, you need to make sure you put them all the way in your mouth before you bite into them,” she warned us.

“All the way?” Grav asked.

“Yes, and shut your mouth. It will explode in your mouth and it WILL cause a mess.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, and he mirrored the move. We moved a bit away to find good light to shoot the little pieces in. I made a point to see if they were hot. They were lukewarm.

After our cursory shots, I invited Grav to go first, partially so I could get that reaction recorded without my own reaction on my mind but more out of fear and concern. I mean, it looked very questionable. I really didn’t know if I was going to care for it or not.

Grav picked one up, looked at it and grinned, and tossed it back in his mouth. The look of what had been a slight adventurous glee immediately disappeared and was replaced with a rather regretful look, a momentary wish that maybe he shouldn’t have stuck that in his mouth. He managed to swallow it, though, and to keep from saying anything about it.

“Was it that bad?” I asked.

“You need to try it. I don’t want to color your opinion.”

“Really? I mean, it can’t be that bad.”

“It’s… edible.” I doubted that from the look on his face, but he shook his head. “Remembrer, I’m not real big on beer.”

“Oh, well, all right.”

I picked one up and tried to grin at the camera Grav had on me. Then I got up the gumption and popped it in my mouth.

At first, all I tasted was what came across as underdone pasta, like a not-too-well-fried T-Rav. Then I bit in. This gush of warm beer filled my mouth, and it was… well, it was not good. I mean, I’m not a great domestic beer fan, but I do like a good dark stout and can enjoy from time to time a decent pale ale. This was neither, and I couldn’t quite determine what was in it. What it was, was warm beer in a pasta pocket that was certainly not salty or crispy enough to even bring the idea of pretzel to mind.

Grav started to laugh, and I opened my eyes. He’d caught the whole thing on camera.

“Pretty bad, huh?”

I winced and stuck my tongue out. “It tastes… familiar. But not in a good way.”

“Do you want anoth-”

“NO!” I told him, looking down at the remaining 3/5ths of our $5 investment. “But I want to see what it looks like on the inside.”

“The woman over there said it’d explode.”

“It’s nowhere near hot enough to explode,” I stated, pretty darn sure of that. I estimated the beer inside was about 80 degrees, nowhere near the point of popping. I balanced the little tray on a light post and Grav tore one in half. The weak liquid of the beer instantly dampened the bottom of the tray. We shot it the best we could.

I think part of the disgust was the blandness of the whole thing. It was just meh. Very meh.

“Can you try another, in case maybe we were wrong?” I asked Grav, and he shook his head.

“There’s no way I’m eating another one of those.”

“Then what?”

He took the tray and turned towards three guys that were passing by. “Hey, have you tried the Fried Beer?” he asked.

I just gawked for a moment, then joined in the act. “We’re trying to get a good opinion on this. We’re journalists.”

The guys, curious I guess, looked in the tray. Two of them took a ravioli each. The look on their faces pretty much told us we weren’t far off.

“That’s… that’s pretty bad,” one of them said.

“Thanks, now I won’t have to buy it and find out,” said the other.

We had tossed the tray and wiped our hands and were heading in the direction of a Fried Cheese Curd vendor when it came to me, where I’d tasted that flavor before.

“It tasted like a beer belch,” I spit out, and Grav grabbed my shoulder and looked at me.

“You’re right. That’s it.”

“I mean, yeah, a bad beer belch, like with cheap beer.”

“Like the belch you have before you get sick.”

“I wouldn’t go that far!” I told him.

“I would! It was vile!” Grav said back.

The Fried Cheese Curds managed to get the taste out of our mouths. We spent the rest of the day sampling different fried foods all over that fair, but there was nothing else that just turned us off. I can’t quite get that flavor out of my head, either. And as I’m writing this piece today, I look back at my notes and see the notation:
“Fried Beer: God, Why?”

UPDATE: We thought that was bad. We hadn't tried the Fried Bubblegum yet from the 2011 Texas State Fair. See my reaction on Serious Eats... or check out my Texas State Fair Food Primer.