The Topsfield Fair

[nonelvis]

We spent a long day at the Topsfield Fair today, looking at prizewinning animals and vegetables, wandering through the carnival midway, and eating things that were, on the whole, not terribly good for us. (Lunch today: hand-cut french fries, a soft-serve twist cone, and fried Oreos. columbina had corn dogs.) I was actually a little disappointed by the lack of inappropriately fried food -- I was really hoping for some of that deep-fried macaroni and cheese on a stick they serve at the Minnesota State Fair -- but I guess that delicacy hasn't made it this far east yet.



I took a ton of photos, some of which I'm very happy with, many of which I wish I'd had more time to compose properly, but composition isn't easy when you're a) a rank amateur, like me, and b) there are tons of people milling around. Here's the complete Flickr photoset, if you want to see all of today's shots; these are just some highlights.

Pumpkins and pickles for sale in the fruit and veg exhibit.


Theoretically, this is a rabbit. It may actually be a tribble. I'm not sure.


There was a gigantic sand sculpture being built (theme: "Piglets of the Cowibbean"). I did not realize that bondage was an appropriate topic for a family-oriented fair.


I am not sure how heavily sedated I would have to be to get on this ride. In fact, it's possible I might have to be legally dead.


[Please repeat previous caption here.]

Comments

[platypus]

Tribble!

Deep-fried macaroni and cheese? On a stick? But how do you even... *flail*

[nonelvis]

I DON'T KNOW BUT I MUST HAVE IT.

[platypus]

I imagine something like a very long toothpick, skewering individual elbow noodles.

[haineux.livejournal.com]

Step 1 is to freeze a cylinder of mac and cheese on a stick, using something like a popsicle mold

Step 2 is to dip it in thick cornmeal batter, and immediately fry it in very hot grease

Step 3 is to eat some drano to get rid of the utterly huge amounts of saturated fat that are now in your blood stream.

[nonelvis]

I figured it had to be something like that, up to and including Step 3. But I figure if I eat like this one day a year, and it takes a day off my life, well, at least I had that one really happy day full of fried food.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

I ate a deep fried brownie today. So wrong, and yet, so tasty.

The fair here has an assortment of improbable foods for frying: Snickers bars, cheeseburgers (!), Twinkies, Oreos.

I love the Tribble.

[nonelvis]

I've had deep-fried Twinkies before, but not Snickers bars, cheeseburgers, or brownies, all of which I would happily try.

There's a new cupcake place that opened up not far from here that makes deep-fried cupcakes. This may also be worth a try. Fortunately, they're about a mile away, which means I could walk there and back and work off oh, about 10% of the calories from the cupcake.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

In the name of science, I say you have to take the walk and eat a deep-fried cupcake.

[nonelvis]

It's a sacrifice, but somehow I'll manage.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

The Chip Shop is about five-six blocks from my house. It'll deep fry pretty much anything for you, if that's an incentive for you to come visit again.

[nonelvis]

Not that we need an incentive to visit ... but this certainly doesn't hurt!

[vahepeatus.livejournal.com]

Pickles! But I am disappointed not to see black currant leaves in the jar of cucumbers, as picked cucumbers taste right only when done with black current leaves (in fact my mother keeps some black currant bushes in her garden especially for cucumber pickling, as otherwise the bushes are old and annoying).

[nonelvis]

What kind of flavor do black currant leaves add to the pickles? I think the farm where we get our CSA share may have currant bushes, so it might be possible to get some leaves, but they are definitely not a traditional pickling ingredient around here.

[vahepeatus.livejournal.com]

I am not sure what words to use, but slightly spicy tang that you can imagine if you crush some leaves between your fingers.

Over here old people sometimes sell black currant twigs (and it has to be BLACK currant, white or red would not do at all) during the cucumber pickling season.

[ms-hooligan.livejournal.com]

Someday we need to go to the State Fair in Dallas. I don't know why we haven't, especially since I just learned that Chip has never had a funnel cake. I'm sure we can find a funnel-cake opportunity for him in Austin, but still.

I once read a very naughty bit of erotica set at the state fair and involving a very long and thin lollipop. And maybe a corn dog too.

[nonelvis]

I suspect in order to get the really inappropriately fried foods, we'll have to go to the state fair in Springfield. I think that's in early September, so we've already missed it.

Also, I must confess that I think corn dogs are nasty, and even sing them in erotic fiction would probably not change my feelings about them.