“The Brad” eats his way through fried foods at 2008 State Fair of Texas

by The Brad of The Brad's Adventures in Food

DALLAS — It's that time of year folks! The 2008 version of the State Fair of Texas. Over the next 24 days, visitors will spend almost $30 million at the 200 food service locations throughout Fair Park. We hit it on opening day, Friday September 26. Might as well get started!

Couldn't wait to hit the Fletcher's corny dog stand...

This year I started with the jalapeño/cheese variety.

I just stand by the mustard dispenser and squirt a fresh glop on each bite...yummm. Of course, Corny Dogs were invented in 1942 by State Fair concessionaires Carl and Neil Fletcher.

No time to 'waist' - on to the fried stuff!

Here we have some fried cookie dough... mmm hmmm. From the outside:

And here's the inside:

OK, we REALLY liked these Waffle Balls (yeah... who knew).

These chocolate-covered strawberries dipped in waffle batter were an early favorite to win our ribbon.

This is "Fire & Ice": "A pineapple ring is battered and deep-fried, then topped with banana-flavored whipped cream that’s been frozen in liquid nitrogen." Pretty neat, but I dunno - On ours, the strawberries were frozen. In the liquid nitrogen? Refreshing though, with those super cold berries!

Fried PB&J, with bananas. Yep.

I love Moon Pies, particularly the banana flavor... well, here's one fried up. You can see it kind of just disintegrated in there - leaving molten goodness.

Here was a real surprise: Fried Honey Bun - we fought over the rest of this one.

And finally - the Chicken Fried BACON, winner of Best Taste in the Big Tex Choice Awards competition...

and deservedly so - man, GOOD STUFF. They provided all kinds of condiments: mustard, ketchup, ranch, honey mustard, etc. I added some Tabasco to the ranch dressing and just sent this dish over the top. Crazzzy!

That's all we could get in on this trip - but there are many more fried delights to be had. If I recover, I'll head back in a couple weeks.

The Brad's Adventure in Food covers food and dining in and out of Dallas.