Craziness over fair food runs rampant

I’m in Plains this weekend for the Sanders County Fair, soaking up the last of the fair season as I help my husband and his business partner peddle bratwurst and barbecue to the masses.

While it’s not the way I’d prefer to spend the last three-day weekend of the summer, duty calls and I enjoy the quintessential country fair atmosphere in Plains.

Coincidentally, just before I headed out, an email popped into my in-box about “Fair Food Faves!”

“There’s a fair food craze going on and it’s in full swing right now with end-of-summer fairs happening,” the advisory from allrecipes.com alerted me. Tell me something I don’t know, I mused to myself.

“Cravings for fair food are soaring,” the email continued, adding this “fun fact”: Fair food cravings don’t go away when the midway closes. Online searches for fair food are up 57 percent this year to date.

Really? People want to eat fair food all year long?

Of course the email was equipped with nine videos and accompanying recipes that show how to make delicacies like deep-fried pickles.

The fair food trivia is what caught my eye. If Allrecipes is to be believed, the deep-fried pickle was first introduced by Bernell “Fatman” Austin in 1963 at a drive-in in Atkins, Ark.

Deep-fried Oreos originated at the Texas State Fair, according to people who live in Texas. Others credit the grease-laden fried cookies to Charlie Boghosian at the San Diego County Fair.

There’s an ongoing dispute as to which fair can lay claim to the first chocolate-covered bacon strips. The Minnesota State Fair’s “Pig Lickers” are in the running, but the Florida State Fair began serving bacon with chocolate dipping sauce a few years ago.

Most state fair websites have their own set of fair food trivia. The Iowa State Fair — the mother of all state fairs that dates back to 1854 — offers more than 60 food options available on a stick. Among the most bizarre offerings is salad on a stick, but it doesn’t say how one assembles this snack.

Last year the Iowa State Fair added deep-fried butter on a stick to its array of battered wonders. It was invented by an Iowa entrepreneur who has spent most of his life inventing and selling carnival goodies, and was created as a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the fair’s gigantic butter sculpture of a cow.

Not to be outdone, the Minnesota State Fair — which also carves things such as diary princess heads out of butter — began serving hot dish (Minnesota slang for casserole) on a stick at a food stand appropriately named Ole and Lena’s. They dished up 30,000 servings the first year.

Minnesotans also serve alligator sausage on a stick, frozen coffee on a stick and deep-fried bacon cheddar mashed potatoes on a stick.

I was disappointed to see there was no lutefisk on a stick on the list.

We tried our own version of food on a stick at our bratwurst stand many years ago with a cheese-covered homemade hotdog on a stick.

It was a big flop. Montanans like their sausage in a bun, piled high with condiments. No frills, no gimmicks.

What’s great about fair food is that it’s eaten guilt-free. It’s a time-honored bastion of shameless self-indulgence. For most of us, it wouldn’t be summer without it.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.