It’s state fair time!
Which state fair has the most fried foods? Which state fair has the oddest fried foods? You can make nominations in comments.
State fairs drive local economies, sometimes, and occasionally a bit of history gets made there. Certainly they are places where culture and history are on display.
Minnesota’s State Fair is so good even Teddy Roosevelt visited — it’s been an almost annual event since 1859. I’ll bet Roosevelt had a good time, though I wonder if the Fair served him a bag of their famous mini-donuts — 388,000 bags of donuts served last year (do they rival corny dogs?).
Then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt tell Americans our foreign policy should be to “speak softly, and carry a big stick!” September 3, 1901. President William McKinley was shot on September 6, and died just over a week later; Roosevelt was sworn in as president on September 14.
Corny dog, called a Pronto Pup, at the Minnesota State Fair. Pronto Pups are wan copies of Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, from the Texas State Fair. Image from Travel.Garden.Eat
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
That’s not a corn dog she’s eating; it’s a pronto pup. (Corn dogs are made with corn meal, pronto pups with wheat flour. There are a couple of corn dog stands at the fair, but the rest are pronto pup stands.)
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I’ve been gone from Minnesota for more than 40 years, went to the state fair once in about 1955, and got 261 on the quiz. :)
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I lived in MN my whole life and oddly never made it to the state fair! However, I’ve heard wonders about their fried foods.
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VA state fair has captured my heart (stomach) with its recent fried food selections:
Fried Snickers bars are still king – best thing ever put into a frier.
Fried Oreos.
Fried 3 Musketeers.
Fried Coke – strange but tasty.
Fried Ice Cream – seems odd, but again, tasty.
And funnel cake, of course.
I am sure I am missing some, but those are some highlights for me.
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