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Fried Coke at the Texas State Fair
Inspired by the previous post and the video of the making of deep-fried Twinkies, a couple of intrepid readers filed reports from the field.

So I happened to be in Dallas this year at the time of the Texas State Fair, known as “Big Tex”. Aside from it being just a heap of fun for this Yankee-boy to wander around and see pig-races, show-bred chickens, great carnie rides and such, there was no end to the amounts of strange and interesting deep-fried foods. Twinkies ( I missed them, but my fiancée tried one, just to try it, and said it tasted pretty bad), “Cosmopolitans” (apparently some sort of flavored cheesecake that was deep fried), Coca-Cola (dumplings made with Coke syrup, heaped in a commemorative cup, covered with whip cream, more Coke Syrup, and a cherry), deep-fried avocados (self explanatory, on a stick), deep fried peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwiches (also on a stick) plus all sorts of pseudo-Tex-Mex that was deep fried. Seriously, I think some of those folks would deep fry just about anything.

And another:

This reminds me of the new 2006 invention of fried Coke balls. Just when you thought we were becoming intellectually stagnant as a nation, someone invents Coke-balls. Yeah!
Yummmm…..not. What is it with county/state fairs being a hotbed for crazed “Frankenfood” inventors? I went to the West Virgina State fair some years back (was working in the area at the time and thought it would be entertaining) and they were selling these 2 lb cinnamon rolls and for just a few dollars more you could get a side of insulin. Just kidding….about the insulin. The line to get one was at least 25 yards long (and a few yards wide!). You see people with cotton candy in one hand, a funnel cake in the other standing in line to get fried Coke-balls. State/county fairs should come with a black box warning!

I can’t even begin to imagine how awful this stuff is. And people are lining up to eat it. Is there any wonder there is an obesity epidemic.

2 Comments

  1. Of course here in Scotland lots of the chips shops serve deep fried Mars bars and deep fried snickers. The standard way of cooki a pizza in a chip shop is to deep fry it too…..
    from the BBC news:

    Deep-fried Mars myth is dispelled
    The deep-fried Mars bar is alive and well in Scotland with more than a fifth of chip shops serving up the delicacy.
    A study by NHS Greater Glasgow found 22% of Scottish take-aways had the foodstuff on its menu and another 17% used to sell them.
    Researchers surveyed 500 chip shops and found children are the main buyers, with one shop selling up to 200 a week.
    The first report of battered Mars bars being up for sale appeared in the Scottish Daily Record in August 1995.
    Scotland has had a reputation as the home of the deep-fried chocolate for many years and it has become something of an urban myth outside of the country.
    We can now confirm that there is no doubt, the deep-fried Mars bar is not just an urban myth
    Dr Morrison
    Greater Glasgow Health Board
    But the findings of the health board has proved they are actually for sale.
    The shops they interviewed also reported they have been asked to deep-fry Snickers, Creme Eggs, and pizzas in the past.
    Dr David Morrison, consultant in public health medicine, said, “We live in Scotland but we’d never actually seen deep-fried Mars bars for sale.
    “We thought they might be fictitious. But the Scottish diet is a major health issue and it’s important to know what the facts are.
    “We can now confirm that there is no doubt, the deep-fried Mars bar is not just an urban myth.”
    American mention
    Dr Morrison and his colleague Dr Mark Petticrew decided to conduct the survey after they received a recent mention on US television’s NBC Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
    Their study is published in the December issue of the medical journal the Lancet.
    The Mars bar was first produced in 1920 by Frank and Ethel Mars in Tacoma, Washington, in the US.
    It was locally named the Milky Way bar but called the Mars bar in Europe.
    Story from BBC NEWS:
    Published: 2004/12/17 02:18:55 GMT
    © BBC MMVII

    or another link to a similar story.
    Hi Chris–
    There is apparently no length to which people will go to satisfy their lust for the salty, sweet taste of these fried concoctions.  After reading about all these products, nothing will surprise me any longer.
    Cheers–
    MRE 

    Reply

  2. Reminds me of the article about the guy that would deep fry anything you brought to him. I think he was in LA, but I can’t locate the article. The author brought the Deep Fry King gummy worms, yogurt, Pop Tarts, and some number of other things and he deep-fried them all. His specialty was a buffalo chicken sandwich on a Krispy Kreme donut sliced in half. He actually caught flak for not deep-frying the whole thing, his justification being that the donut was already fried. The sad thing…he’d sold $27,000 worth of that sandwich in 3 months. If we assume one sandwich is $5, that’s about 60 sandwiches a day…I have to assume some of those are sold to repeat offenders too.
    Hi Scott–
    One of my favorite H.L. Mencken quotes is: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.  In the case of the guy in your comment this holds true literally as well as figuratively.
    Cheers–

    MRE

    Reply

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