State Fair ot Texas 2016

It's been a long time since I posted on this blog, but this morning as I was getting ready to upload some pictures to Facebook from our state fair visit yesterday, I felt like writing a little more than usual.  So here we are.  Dusting off the old blog for a little more chatty writing.

So yesterday was our 16th year at the State Fair of Texas.  We started coming the first year we moved to Texas, when Breighton was not even a year old.  We always make the trip with my brother Robert and his family and over the years we have really become silly obsessive about it.  Robert and I start emailing links to fair foods and new attractions about 2-3 months in advance.  As soon as the dates are posted, we scan for the best weekend to go (by the way... here is our formula: not the first weekend, not the last weekend, not the Texas-OU football weekend.  That leaves one weekend. You will find us there on that Saturday every year!).  Once we pick our day, we anxiously look forward to it like kids going to Disneyland.

Side Note: Please know that when I use the word "we" I mean Robert and I.  Although Breighton also looks forward to it, he just doesn't show it as enthusiastically.  I am not sure how much Robert's kids are looking forward to it and both our significant others begrudgingly allow us our day.

Everything is bigger in Texas! Including the ferris wheel!

With our info books in hand, we began mapping out our journey of delicious, innovative, totally bad for you fair food.  We really are masters at this.  Even Breighton was navigating us this year, although unfortunately we never found the Dr. Pepper Chocolate Chip ice cream he was looking for.  I didn't take as many pictures this year so I am going to steal a few from the internet.  But here is a run down of some of the best:

Fried Jello
It was the winner this year.  It won Best Tasting.  Although, I would have thought it would win for Most Creative. Regardless, it was the winner so we tried it.  It was much better than Fried Beer fiasco of 2010. The insides just sort of ran out and became more of a syrup that you dipped in, but the breading was yummy and overall it was a good desert.  I don't know if it was the best tasting thing I ate, but it was good.

Deep Fried Pulled Pork "Funyon" Dings
Even the name is a mouthful!  These were yummy. I didn't know how to describe them, but I found this on the state fair website:

A “FUNYUN,” the traditional crunchy snack, is stuffed with pulled pork, pepper jack cheese, pineapple slices and bacon. It is then dipped in a flavorful batter and deep fried and served with a multilayered sweet BBQ sauce.

Bottom line: It was good. It was Robert's favorite, and I might agree with him - at least my favorite "savory" dish.

Injectable Great Balls of BBQ

So these are basically balls of brisket breaded and fried.  They were tasty.  The gimmick (there always has to be a gimmick!) was the little injector.  So you buy the balls (it's funny... the lady at the counter yells "3 balls!" when you order) and the little injector is stuck in one of them. But it's empty.  I think I have defective balls, but then they explain that I have to go over to their seating tent to find the BBQ sauce.  I then squirt that into my tray, use the injector to suck up the sauce, try to jam the flimsy plastic injector into the hard crunchy crust, to "inject" a millileter of BBQ sauce.  Let's just say we dipped the balls into the blob of sauce we had squirted into the dish.  So, good - yes.  Original - no.  Save your tickets for a fried twinkie or something.

Deep Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider ...

ON A STICK

This really wouldn't be a proper State Fair blog if it didn't mention at least one food with the words "on a stick" in the title.  So here you have it.  This was sort of excessive, and not really anything amazing, but it was just so many things together that you had to try it.  Here's the official description:

A miniature, handmade seasoned ground beef patty is stuffed with shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, and an all-beef hot dog on a Hawaiian roll. It is then placed on a skewer topped with a pickle, dipped in a tempura batter and deep fried to perfection. 

Southern Fried Chicken and Dumplings

These were yummy.  I think the insides were a little doughy and it maybe could have been fried a little longer - but coming from someone who is always around to steal a bite of raw dough from the pasta maker, I still enjoyed it.  The little potato looking things were actually fried "biscuit bites" and were really good dunked in the country gravy sauce.

Cookie Fries

We had the ones with the rainbow sprinkles and the strawberry dipping sauce.  They were a nice treat.  Nothing amazing, but again - a cute gimmicky fair food.  They come in the little french fry container and in terms of number of fries based on number of tickets, it may be one of the most "generous" items you can buy!

Fried Cannoli Bites

These were delicious!! The batter was light and fluffy.  The insides were not too sweet.  Again, probably not that original (pretty sure you can get some variation of this at any good Italian restaurant), but the kiddo wanted them and I am glad we gave them a try!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Funnel Cake

All day long we had not stopped to take pictures of our food.  Maybe because we had not been overwhelmed by the visual presence of what we had up until we arrived here.  But then, we got this.  Now - we are a family who grew up eating peanut butter on pancakes (thanks Paw-Paw Landry for that addiction!) so this was no brainer for Robert and I.  This was hot and melty, and OH SO DELICIOUS.  I almost wish (or maybe not) that someone had videoed us eating this. We had to look like vultures swooping down on a feast.  

It was well worth the tickets - - and the slight tummy ache that followed!

Nick grabbed this great shot of the World's largest grill - look at all of those turkey legs!!! Of course there was a turkey leg in our day. And a Fletcher's Corny Dog.  But we all know what those look like... and they get devoured so quickly you can barely snap a picture.

As the day was rounding down, we passed through one of the auto pavilions and snapped this picture.  That's right... I met a Kia Hamster and took a picture.  What a better way to wrap up a fair day than that!  Until next year...