Chicken Feet & Clam Chowdah

After not attending the North Carolina State Fair the past couple years, we were lured to the event Friday afternoon in part by the list of new foods available this year. Among the items we were eager to check out were crawfish etoufee, beignets, and giant gummy bears. In addition, I was also curious about the Krispy Kreme burger, which we had seen featured on TV food programs.

Here are the items that comprised our menu at the fair:

Fried alligator tail on a stick

We saw this on the menu at the Cajun stall where we were looking for crawfish etoufee and decided to give it a try. It was good. The texture of the meat resembled that of poultry, but the flavor was more like pork with a dash of the faint swampiness (in a good way) you might detect in frogs.

Fried crawfish tails

We wanted crawfish etoufee, but when we got to the Cajun stall that was supposed to be selling it, all they had on the menu was fried crawfish tails, and I settled for this since I was already in a crawfish state of mind. It was pretty good, though it didn't have that distinctive spiciness one usually associates with crawfish. It tasted more like popcorn shrimp, which is not a bad thing.

Fried cheesecake

After our light lunch of alligator and crawfish, we were in the mood for some sweets and opted for this fried dessert. The name is misleading because it's not really a piece of cheesecake, but rather a clump of cheesecake batter coated with dough. While the taste was good, it probably could have stayed in the fryer a little longer, as the center of the batter was still frozen.

Fried pumpkin pie

The medley of fried munchables continued with this item, which might've been the best thing we had today (Courtney certainly thought so). The crust was fried to crispy perfection, and the filling was effusing that delectable spicy pumpkin aroma. 

Muscadine slushy

We got a small cup of this in a stall in one of the buildings. It pretty tastes exactly as the name would suggest -- an icy slush of muscadine grape juice. It was very muscadiny and, for my taste, a tad on the overly sweet side.

Giant gummy bears

Say hello to my (not so) little friend.

Being a gummy bear freak, this was one of the main reasons I went to the fair this year, more out of curiosity than anything else. It took us a while to find the stall that was selling these (it's between Dorton Arena and the area near one of the gates where all the tool and utility sheds and jacuzzis are on display). As we approached, I saw a vendor standing in the window and holding a gummy bear in his hand, and it did not disappoint. The thing was huge for a gummy bear -- FIVE POUNDS!! It's the size of a teddy bear and sold for $25. Tempted as I was to get one of these behemoths, I thought better of it. Based on past experience with large bags of gummy bears, I knew that by the time I get through five pounds of gummy bear, it would have long since turned stale and hard. Instead, we went for the less intimidating but more manageable 4"x2"x1" gummy bear on a stick, which I have yet to tear into since I'm still getting off the sugar rush from all the other sweets.

Ostrich burger

After assaulting our tastebuds with a succession of sweet treats, it was time for dinner. The stall with the giant inflatable ostrich had caught our eye earlier in the day, and the previous time we had ostrich -- as satays at the Angus Barn in Raleigh -- we really enjoyed it, so we circled back to the ostrich stall. The ostrich patty was tasty, though, as Courtney and I both agreed, we still prefer ostrich in steak form than as ground meat. The patty was pretty lean and tasted a bit like gamy beef.

Krispy Kreme burger

As I mentioned above, I had been intrigued by this item since seeing it on TV. After Courtney got her ostrich burger, we were looking around for a stall where I can pick up a giant turkey leg when we spotted one of the many stalls that were selling Krispy Kreme burgers. I had taken a look at the burger earlier in the day and it didn't look all that great, but on a whim, I figured "What the heck," and decided to give it a try. BIG MISTAKE! 

The burger was basically a beef patty sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts, to which you can add cheese, bacon, and other condiments, though I decided to keep things simple with just cheese. One bite into the burger and I was regretting my decision to pay $6.50 for it. The issue wasn't the seemingly strange combination of the sweet doughnuts with the savory patty. I can see how that combination might work. The problem was that this was a pretty pathetic piece of beef patty. It was small, thin, dry, and, worst of all, cold. I asked for cheese in the burger and it came in the form of an individually wrapped slice of American cheese, which was also cold. That, coupled with the cold doughnuts (which would be ok by themselves), basically made it a case of biting into a cold cheeseburger. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? When I saw the Krispy Kreme burger on Man vs. Food, they were actually grilling the doughnut (instead of two whole doughnuts, they sliced one in half) and the patty and cheese and assembled the burger fresh off the grill, and the end product looked a whole lot more appetizing than what I had tonight. Honestly, the beef patty I usually cook up on my little George Foreman grill is way better than the patty I had tonight. It was a waste of two good Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Beignets

Courtney got these as a post-dinner snack. Another item from the Cajun stall, they were made fresh upon being ordered and very tasty. They are similar to malasadas, except you pile on the confectioner sugar instead of the regular fine-grain sugar you would sprinkle on malasadas.

Giant turkey leg

After forcing myself to down the Krispy Kreme burger due to my dislike of wasting food, I felt unsatisfied and decided I couldn't end what was a pretty good day of eating at the fair on that sour note. So I went in search of something meaty and warm and eventually decided that my initial gut feeling was right: Go for the ol' reliable state fair favorite -- the giant turkey leg. Nibbling bites of hot, juicy turkey leg on the walk back to the car satiated my cravings and set me back in a good frame of mind. And now I also have lunch for tomorrow.