By Jim Duncan CVFDude@aol.com
The Iowa
State Fair
After spending two weeks this
summer eating my way through eastern
Kentucky and western Tennessee,
I had a new insight about Iowa
State Fair food concessions: They
are mostly psychotic variations
of Southern food — as in the cliché
“a redneck will eat anything if
it’s deep-fried.”
The differences between Southern
fried foods and Iowa State Fair
fried foods are more interesting
than the similarities. Down south,
every place I visited offered
fried green tomatoes and fried
banana peppers. Fine dining establishments
featured both lamb fries (testicles)
and deep fat fried bacon. Tomatoes,
peppers, lamb and bacon are all
more Iowan than Southern, yet
I couldn’t find any of those foods
being fried at our fair. On the
other hand, the fair offered deep
fat fried versions of Twinkies,
macaroni and cheese, Oreos and
sausages battered in corn meal.
All of those foods are far more
popular in the South, but I‘ve
never seen them deep-fried there.
Since most carnies winter down
south, I figure that things like
deep fried Oreos originated as
manic experiments which led to
the conclusion: “We could sell
this crap to the Yankees.”
State fair concessionaires have
become relatively faddish. Almost
every Southern chef is loyal to
his or her favorite frying fat:
rendered lard, peanut oil, grape
seed oil or shortening. Most fair
vendors are switching to “trans-fat
free vegetable oil,” as if you
can make deep fat fried Twinkies
healthy. I found “apple fries”
that weren’t fried at all; they
were baked. One of Des Moines’
top chefs persuaded me to try
fried chicken and onions on a
stick. It wasn’t bad, but my favorite
fried food dish was potato chips
at The Bird‘s Nest, which also
served macaroni and cheese that
was as good as the deep-fried
version was dreadful.
Fair food can become a ticket
to childhood memories. Marketers
have figured that out and now
label all kinds of things as “old
fashioned,” particularly drinks.
I only found one such claim to
be genuine — that of lemonade
stands that use cane sugar, real
lemons and water, period. Every
“old fashioned” soft drink I found
was made with the new-fashioned
corn sweeteners that changed the
taste of American sodas in the
1980s. I did find good Italian
ices that were made in traditional
fashion, with real sugar, at Isabella’s.
I stopped by the Ag Building
for my favorite traditional treat
— strawberry shortcake from the
Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Association.
They told me they had to buy frozen
strawberries this year, for the
first time, because of Iowa’s
late spring freeze. A walk around
the Ag Building dramatized how
bad the weather was for Iowa food
crops. Display tables that normally
overflow with prize-winning fruits
and vegetables were sparsely covered.
Some tables only showed blue ribbon
winners — because categories only
drew one entrant. Some blue ribbon
winners this year wouldn’t have
won anything in an average year.
I needed a reminder of the high
quality of Iowa foods, something
that was sacrificed in my lifetime
for higher quantities of crops
grown to feed livestock and automobiles
instead of humans. At the campground,
I talked to members of the Betty
and Gene Burgett family of Lucas
County. They’ve been camping each
year for the duration of the fair
since 1948. They bring their own
food by slaughtering and butchering
a few of their hogs and cattle.
They store their food in deep
freezers and refrigerators, which
they also cart to the campsite.
They need all that to feed everyone
— the family members I talked
to could only count their number
through the first three generations,
about 30. The family feeds all
the campground workers, too.
I left feeling more hopeful
about the future of Iowa food.
Side dishes
Dragon House (10912 Douglas, Urbandale)
now serves Cantonese dim sum from
traditional mobile carts. The
menu includes multiple dumplings,
plus exotics like chicken feet
and chicken wrapped in lotus leaves.
They also make their own hand-pulled
noodles. CV
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