The amazing/gross new fried foods at this year’s N.C. State Fair, ranked
I grew up in Cary, about 10 minutes down the road from the N.C. State Fair, which meant I went at least once a year and ate ridiculous things (mmm … uncooked liver pudding) and rode rides and had a blast.
I haven’t been back as much since moving to Charlotte six years ago. But, based on this list of new fried foods, maybe I should head up to this year’s fair, which starts today.
We wanted to write about these new foods, but we didn’t have the gas money in the C5 budget to ride up to Raleigh for media preview day earlier this week. So we decided to rank them solely based on photos and descriptions.
There are other new, non-fried foods (you can find them here), but we decided to stick to just the fried ones because, really, isn’t that what you go to the fair for?
Sidenote: I asked Katie if she wanted to chime in on these rankings and she gave me this look that cut through me like a hot knife through fried butter.
(13) Chickpea fries. What? Why? “For all our veggie loving friends.” Aren’t potatoes vegetables, or is that my Southern talking?
(12) Deep-fried peanut butter pickles. I love peanut butter and I love fried, but then you had to throw a pickle in there and mess it all up. (Yeah, I’m the person that orders a Chik-fil-a sandwich with no pickles. I do love fried pickle slices, though. But this seems different.)
(11) Deep-fried corn fritters. Probably delicious, but a little too simple compared to the rest of this list.
(10) Peanut butter and jelly chicken wings. I love PB&J. I tried a PB&J beer once, though, and it did not work. That’s how I imagine these wings would be.
(9) Deep-fried s’mores. I’m the person at the bonfire that just eats all of the s’mores ingredients separately, unheated. I don’t actually like s’mores.
(8) “Fry Me Over The Moons.” All of these deep fried: A Moon Pie, a Hostess cupcake, three Oreos and two Reese’s cups. That sounds amazing in theory and overwhelming in reality.
(7) Deep-fried, bacon-wrapped Tootsie Rolls. Bacon makes everything better. But Tootsie Rolls aren’t always the easiest to chew, so I’m hoping the frying would melt them a little bit.
(6) Deep-fried Pop Tarts. I like my Pop Tarts cold, no toaster. Frying them seems unnecessary. Then again, what on this list is necessary?
(5) Deep-fried Klondike bar. There was a Tex-Mex restaurant near where I grew up that served fried ice cream. Whoever invented it should be sainted.
(4) “High on the Hog,” a “fried pork chop sandwich piled high with BBQ, bacon, cole slaw, pickles and secret sauce.” Mmm … Pork three ways.
(3) Carolina crab bites. This almost seems too fancy for the fair. N.C. crab, fried with a spicy Thousand Island dressing. I’m down.
(2) Deep-fried pimento cheese-filled wontons. I know pimento cheese is like a “thing” now, but I loved it before it was a thing. Like bacon, it makes everything better.
(1) Deep-fried Jalapeño (yum) pimento cheese (YUM) and bacon (yes!) hushpuppies (ohhhh) with Sriracha Bang Bang Dipping Sauce (OMG). Game over. Everyone else can go home. Just give me like 22 of these.
Photos: Chris Seward/News & Observer; N.C. State Fair website; Juli Leonard/News & Observer
This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 11:18 PM.