MS State Fair

Mike took me to the state fair for lunch today! It's one of my favorite pasttimes, and of course my very favorite food there is Penn's chicken-on-a-stick. Leave it to Mississippi to develop the irony of a fish joint creating the best fair food known to man, with its juicy chicken-onion-pickle-fried-to-perfection-on-a-stick goodness. With ketchup.

We only indulged in the chicken for lunch, but wandering around the fair clearly explains to me how Mississippi is one of the most obese states in the nation. The Polish sausages, London broil, anything-you-can-imagine on a stick, takee-outee, ke-babs, gyros, crawfish, oysters, cinnamon rolls (HUGE CINNAMON ROLLS!), taffy, caramel apples, cotton candy, sausage dogs, corn dogs, lemonade, daiquiris, funnel cakes, elephant ears, turkey legs, and roasted corn produce aromas that are too good to resist.

So we walked back to the truck through the livestock show. Pretty cows. Nonappetizing smells.

But I am most fascinated by all the deep fried stuff. Pickles, onions, and chicken are just the beginning. Oreos, Snickers bars, Twinkies, oh my! Fried cookie dough, fried strawberries, fried bananas, fried Coke (yes, Coke), fried Swiss cheese. We even saw a sign for fried DOUGH. Isn't that also known as a donut, funnel cake, or elephant ear?

And a real live blogspotting occurred! We ran into Nick and Kelly. I was so happy to meet Kelly (love your hair, by the way Kelly!), and though Nick had never before met Mike, he recognized him from all the pictures I've posted on Facebook. Actually, that's how Nick saw us in the first place. Oops.

Photo courtesy of dev.nuzu.net.