Deep Fried Deliciousness: The North Carolina State Fair

This past Saturday, my husband and I went to the NC State Fair, on a mission to try some fabulous deep fried fair food.

And we weren't disappointed, once we finally got there! But it was quit an ordeal just getting parking, since we went on probably the busiest day of the season. We got to the fairgrounds just after 12:30pm, but it took us over an hour to find parking and make our way to the gates!

Once we finally got inside the gates, and solidified our meet up plans via texting with Jill and her husband, we found the first row of food vendors that we came across, and stood in line for at least 10 minutes before we had our hands on some Nathan's hot dogs.

I didn't snap a photo of the hot dogs because we literally took 5 steps to the side of the line and inhaled them. Neither of us had had more than yogurt that day, so we were famished. But I did get a picture of the Nathan's hot dogs putting ketchup on themselves while waiting in line.

Once we were feeling a little better after finally eating something, it was time to make our selections of deep fried food. And in true state fair fashion, there were a lot of choices!

Can you believe how crowded it is in all of these photos? After a while the crowds, and not being able to even take a full size step made me (as The Bloggess would say) feel a little stabby.



We finally came across the mecca of all deep fried food stands though, and promptly got in line.

It was really hard to narrow down which deep fried foods to try! After another, oh, 15 minutes or so in line, we had in our hands a deep fried blooming onion, deep fried mac and cheese and deep fried kool-aid.

And then we had the fun of trying to walk in the crowds with our hands full of food, to make our way to the pot bellied pig races, where we were meeting up with my friend Jill and her hubs. Let me just say, that wasn't the highlight of the day!

Once we found our friends, I could finally snap some food pics before digging in. Here is the deep fried kool-aid, that Jill so kindly held for me. I was wondering how exactly they deep fried kool-aid when I first heard about it, but basically it's just dough that's flavored with kool-aid, deep fried, and topped with powdered sugar. It was gooood!

A look at the blooming onion and the deep fried mac and cheese. Since my husband was only carrying the onion, and I was holding the other two items on our long walk to the pig races, he'd managed to eat about half of it before we got there. 

The mac and cheese certainly tasted good, but didn't look like I imagined it would inside. It was more of just a blob of cheesy gooey goodness, rather than defined noodles.

Once we ate our fried foods, it was time for the pig races! I'd read about them a couple of weeks prior to the fair, and little piggies that race for cheesy poofs sounded right up my alley.

They also had goats and geese, on top of the baby pigs (above) and pot bellied pigs.

My friend Jill was in a better position to get photos of the races, so go check out her pics to see the cute little pigs running around the track!

After the races were over, I really wanted to go to the petting zoo next door (I'm sure you're surprised I wanted more animals!), but sadly the line was super long. So instead we walked to the other side of the fair to check out the cattle barn.

Moo!

After side stepping the cow poo covered floors, we went into another building that housed a bunch of agricultural displays. Things like giant pumpkins, apples and lots of potatoes, all with their winning ribbons. Also, there was some really random stuff, this potato from the previous year...yeah, lets just say, I wasn't very entertained by these exhibits.

But around the corner they did have what was called the "State Fair Ark," with many different kinds of animals.

I'm guessing the petting zoo would have been similar to this area of the fair, but there we could have pet and fed the animals, which would have been a lot more fun in my opinion.

The baby piggies were my favorites though, so adorable. I wanted to wake up this little guy and feed him a cheesy poof!

After we had our fill of barn yard animals, we parted ways with Jill and her husband, and slowly made our way back to the entrance gates, stopping to look at a few exhibits along the way. But we were getting tired, and still had about a mile walk back to the car, so I didn't bother taking out my camera again. It was mainly more of the same, lots and lots and lots of people!

So, that was our first North Carolina State Fair experience! Next year we already decided we'll go on like a Tuesday evening or something, to avoid the crowds. I'd really have liked to go on the ferris wheel, sample a few more deep fried foods, and of course, visit the petting zoo, but I couldn't handle standing in one more line, since just walking through the fair grounds felt like standing in a line at some points! But there's always next year!

Have you gone to any fairs recently? Ever tried deep fried kool-aid before? I definitely recommend it if you ever have the opportunity!