Fun fair food photos

Do you guys know what these are?

They're Dippin' Dots. I'm not sure how they're made but they're delicious. They're super-cold ice cream pellets. 8-Year Old Daughter and I are in love with them. The above example is the vanilla/strawberry combo. We got them when I took 8-Year Old Daughter to the county fair back in Ohio. 4-Year Old Daughter couldn't go because of an ankle injury, poor thing.

My mom use to take us to the Berea Fair every year when we were kids. It was the highlight of our summer. Now that I'm taking my own kid, the circle seems complete. Happy news: It hasn't changed one bit!

County fairs are about a lot of things. They're about rides and farm displays and shows and animals and politicians who want to shake your hand. But for me, they're mainly about food. Good bad food, if you know what I mean.

This is the grilled turkey leg man. I ate them for years and finally decided that I didn't really like them all that much and I was eating them out of a sense of tradition. I wonder what they do with the rest of the bird?


Here's the stuff of dreams. Grandma Ski's Polish Food truck. Just look at that menu. All of the major food groups are represented. I had a big 'ole kielbasa sandwich. Daughter, much to my disappointment, turned her nose up at these gourmet delights and had an utterly ordinary slice of pizza. Kids. They don't know what's good.


They still have a side show. It's now called the Palace of Illusion, but when I was a kid it was the Freak Show. During those unenlightened times, you paid money to stare at people who had physical deformities. It was a parade of social rejects. It's still a bit strange but it's definitely been softened since then. That's probably for the better, don't you think? That's my brother in the foreground. He is not part of the show. This year.


Here's daughter coming out of the fun house. [That drum was rotating.] All I need at a county fair are the bumper cars and the fun house. I'll have nothing whatsoever to do with all the sick-inducing rides. This ride would have been a perfect place to take LSD, if you were so inclined to do that sort of thing.


The Berea Fair is a true county fair with 4-H displays and lots of farm animals entered into blue ribbon competitions. Here's a massive pig, almost as big as Daughter, and her young piglets. They were cute but looking at them just make me HUNGRY for a bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo sandwich on toast. Yum-yum. Eat 'em up.


The evening we attended, they held the Demolition Derby. Have you even been to one? Fantastic entertainment. This particular evening was the Suburban Mom Minivan Edition. An all-minivan demolition derby! We couldn't attend because we had to leave for New Jersey the next morning. There was also a Pink Floyd tribute band later in the evening. It killed me to miss these unique events. I won't make the same scheduling error next year.