My son, DIL and grands shared an order of Fried Oreo's (I don't even like Oreos right out of the package) and we all shared a Blooming Onion, Pizza and Funnel Cake; the boys also had cotton candy so we were bad but hey, the fair only comes once a year. Of course there is also the Swamp Cabbage Festival, Coconut Grove Art Festival, Black Gold Festival, Sugar Festival, etc. so I guess we are bad a little more than once a year l................... Oh well, you only live once but if I attend too many of these festivals I probably won't live as long. ;^(

I saw advertised, but had no desire to become any more closely aquainted with it, "Maggot Melts". Yes you read that right. The advertisement pictured a hamburger bun with cheese and on top of that the squirmy little critters. I made sure not to buy anything from that vendor...........didn't know where one of the little varmits might have crawled to. I looked it up online and supposedly it is a big seller all over the country. My eight year old grandson thought I was kidding until I showed him the advertisement. He said "Now that is just plain disgusting". Yep, an eight year old revolted by it and adults buying them??????

Where was this fly gypsy?

I think you are right. It is one thing using whole food ingredients whether butter or oil, etc and we know this is fattening and in moderation...but then she would add an extra brick of cream cheese (just coz) or make things like the donut buger. It is so excessive that when she now says she preached moderation it is an eye roller!

YUCK !!

We built the Hoover Dam, the Empire State building, the Sears Tower, Mt. Rushmore... we sang songs about the vast majesty of America, and its fields of waving grain, from sea to shining sea... even our military is so vast that the Pentagon defies actual audit. We even sport some of the world's biggest egos and a sense of entitlement.

Even our dogs got bigger... with the APBT being bred to top out at around 80-90 pounds, when anyone who knows dogs realizes that a real Pit Bull tops out at 35-65 pounds, with 65 being a genetic freak!

My point is, we were once a very rich nation pretty much across the board, with a huge middle class, and excess was just part of the American lifestyle. Even our music is louder, our celebrities bigger, but more to the point, our meal portions grew to outrageous size. And what about the ever popular All-You-Can-Eat Buffet?

Little did we know that all this excess would reach out and bite us quite hard, right where it hurts the most... our health, and that of our children.

While other nations on other continents enjoyed food more fully than we did, they enjoyed it in moderation. They put down their utensils between bites, chewed and savored their foods, ate smaller portions, and were more about the flavors and textures than how much they could stuff in their gullets in one sitting.

We have no one but ourselves to blame.

We fry everything in fat, after coating it with a batter... we use ungodly amounts of sugars... mostly from corn. We drink gallons of over-sugared liquids, beers, and we coat everything with butter, mayonnaise, gravies, and sauces.

And the size issue is only one variable. So is the corn sugar/high fructose corn syrup issue.

They used to say... never trust a skinny cook... but that was before obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and other health problems began to plague our country in epidemic proportions. Anyone cooking publicly that is obese is quite obviously not preaching moderation.

At numerous towns in South Florida Maggie. We have a few festivals that we try to attend every year. Some are a couple of hours from home but enjoyable enough in our opinion for us to make the drive. I took my son when he was a kid and now the tradition is being carried over to the Grands.

Oh yes Mrs Kajun, Fried green tomatoes are in a category of their own. How do you make yours? I like to dip mine in an egg wash then in cornmeal. If I'm making them just for myself I like to add some crushed red pepper to the cornmeal.

Ohiomon, I love candied apples too but have caps on my front teeth and am afraid I'll break one or pull one off. I forgot to mention the alligator and frog legs. They had those at the fair too but living in South Florida, I am used to seeing them offered and didn't consider them unusual.............didn't say I eat them mind you, just that they aren't unusual in this neck of the woods. I look forward to getting the swamp cabbage at the Swamp Cabbage Festival. Last year tho it wasn't that good; vendors didn't know how to cook them. The swamp cabbage fritters however were great. Then they have a Black lady who has a booth called "Pearl's Home Cookin" and let me tell you, Pearl can cook some Southern food. I always hit her up for collards, black eyed peas, and cornbread. At the Coconut Grove Art Festival there is a lady from the Bahamas who makes the best conch fritters you have ever put in your mouth and a church that makes onion rings to die for. Both of these festivals are held next month..........good thing because I've already talked myself into HUNGRY.

The rest of junk deep fried--no way.

Now I am hungry :)

Are those people crazy??? Those are some of the most disgusting things I've ever seen and people pay money to eat them at a fair?

But I do predict some friend okra (from my garden last year) on the menu this weekend :)

Wiki explains and even has a picture. I think it also has calorie count............which is absolutely sinful....but delicious if you get them right out of the fryer. We usually order one for an appetizer when we go to Outback Steakhouse. I don't care as much for Chilli's.

Oh, I have fried foods too. I like fried green tomatoes and no steak is complete without fried onions and mushrooms.

But fried ice cream inside a cheeseburger? Candy apples coated in mealworms? Koolaid pickles?

BLEH!

This will get you salivating (or retching as the case may be)... fairly new are two types of bacon on a stick, one called "Pig Lickers" - chocolate covered, and the other, called the "Big Fat Bacon" is a quarter pound of maple glazed bacon. Maybe Paula Deen picked up some culinary tricks here.

We tried the fried koolaid this year -- it tastes pretty like a red koolaid flavored donut. I thought it was awful tasting, he thought it was okay.

We also tried the chocolate covered bacon, which I thought was surprisingly good. Nice mix of salty and sweet. Not something I need to eat on a regular basis, though.

Part of the problem with fair food is that they give you way too much. I'd rather just pay a buck or two and get a much smaller portion. We usually end up throwing away half of what we buy.

And yes, moderation is the key. We don't normally eat like this, but it's fun to do it once a year when we go to the fair. I might try the fried butter next year, LOL.

Haven't been to a Fair since the children were small, and these foods were not on the menu then thank goodness :)

As for me, I don't know any adult who has ever tried that stuff, but I know more than a few kids who have - including a couple of my own. :)

I don't want to live forever... but I do want to feel good and be as healthy as I can be while I'm here.

Now fried fish, fried shrimp, calamari, tofu, yum! I suppose I indulge in "common" fried foods such as french fries more often than I should, and the rest, only on occasion. Butter? Love it!

I'm not overweight and I don't have high cholesterol. So for now I seem to be coping. Maybe it's all the red wine I drink ;)