So my family came into town for the State Fair this week, and we had a blast. I always enjoy hanging with my cousin Ryan, since we never really sit around doing nothing. No, ever since we both began driving, we have left the confines of home for larger adventures. But today is not a day for one of those stories. Today we went to the fair, and ate some pretty awesome food- not much, but still all awesome.

Now I had never been to a state fair before- even when I was down in Mississippi, I really had no desire to ever go. However, with the state fair being 15 minutes from my school, and my family coming into town, how could I NOT go? So let's go!

I'm tired even as I write this. I drove back and forth from my place to the fair to Sherman, where my mom and two of her sisters were staying. It was a really nice bed and breakfast, but man did it cut into our travel time.

Actually, 15 minutes was an optimistic time of arrival from my place to the fair, to say the least. With very little parking, and many home and business owners out along the front of the fairground entrance, I didn't have much choice. But with so many lots to choose from, there was a lot of price cutting. We only paid $5, which was a steal.

Young Abe Lincoln greets you at the fairground entrance.
He's got an axe, so I wouldn't piss him off.

So the fair looked exactly as I thought it would...lots of carnival rides, people trying to sell you homemade trinkets, and a lot of food. Oh, the food was plentiful...and expensive. But I guess that if I were to compare its prices to the Taste of Chicago, I'd consider them about the same. So the first booth we came across was called Fried What!, and it sold just about anything you could imagine in fried form.

 Ryan and I chose to try the Fried Kool Aid. For $5, we got these three balls about the size of hush puppies. From what I saw behind the cashier, it looked like packaged Kool Aid mix was added to a special batter and scooped into little balls to be deep fried.

Powdered sugar- one of the four food groups of a state fair.

The fried Kool Aid was surprisingly good- think of a warm cherry Pop Tart in hush puppy form- that's the taste and texture I got from it. Anyway, the three balls were enough for me- I needed to make room for more food anyway!

 After walking for a while, Ryan and I found this stand selling these incredibly long mozzarella sticks. We split an order, and let me tell you- those were the best mozzarella sticks I have ever had in my life. EVER. The breading was light and airy- kinda like the breading Chili's uses for their chicken tenders. The cheese was fresh, too- I have been looking to see if I could find the seller online, with no luck. If you know where to find him, drop me a line!

 And, of course, we had to finish with the mandatory Elephant Ear/Funnel Cake purchase. this one was pretty darn big. If you know how big my hand is, you can tell how big this elephant ear was. It wasn't the best one I have ever had, but it was far from disappointing.

 I drank a lot of lemonade that night, too. Lots of money went to those lemonade stands from my wallet, but it didn't bother me any- I was helping independent vendors, and the lemonade was fresh, so everybody wins!

All in all, it was a great time. We hit the Lincoln Museum the next day, and it was time for my family to go. If you're not from the Springfield area, believe me when I say you should hit up the fair. Everybody will have a great time.

So Sick of Being Sick

This is my first post of August, and let me tell you something- if my life so far this month was a person running the 110m hurdles, I would have tripped out of the blocks and a few hurdles as well. I've been sick and sleepy for the better part of a week now, and I would like some sort of magic pill to make me feel better. Either that, or a week's paid vacation with a live-in butler and a large LCD TV.

Things always work out though; I'll be fine. In the meantime, stick your head out soon as I'll be posting more content before you know it. Later days!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Farrrr From The Tarrrrget

So I have new employee orientation today. One awesome thing about being in government orientation is that I get a 75 minute lunch; on normal days I get just 30. Springfield has a lot of food options available, but one that caught my eye was Long John Silver's. I haven't eaten there in about six years, so I decided to give it a go. Two things you should know about me before I tell you about my food: One, I love to cook; Two, I love to pan sear fish. It's simple, heathy, and if you luck up, affordable as well.

So I happily place my order- two pieces of fish, fries, and hush puppies. It took longer than I expected to get my meal, but I knew it would be worth the wait.

So it came in this really neat little box- this was very cool and compact....except my food was hopping around in the box. Take a look.

Now just about everything in this box was fried, so it didn't mean a whole lot to me for it to come like this from a "my food can't touch" standpoint. But are you serious? Just about all of the meals at Long John Silver's are the same; there couldn't be a compartment for fish, one for fries, and one for the hush puppies? I know fast food isn't all about presentation so much as it is about selling the product, but this is kinda bad. I barely got any fries, the ones I got were soft, and if you look closely, there's a bunch of deep fry crumbs in my box. It's like someone said, "Hey! You know what I think you need? More minuscule crunchy pieces!"

So I delved into the meal, hungry as a bear. Everything would have been incredibly tasty except for one small problem: Everything was WAAAAAAAY too salty. The fish was salty, the hush puppies were salty, and by the time I started eating the fries, my taste buds were devoid of registering anything less than super salty. It's a real shame too, because everything except for the fries had a great texture. The hush puppies had this nice hint of garlic, and the fish was crunchy on the outside and hot and flaky on the inside. It's almost like they were trying to mask flavors with salt. Fast food isn't very healthy to begin with, but I'm kinda scared to see the nutritional value for that meal, just because the sodium level has to be extremely high.

Just as a word to the good people who run this company: I'm no professional cook, but I'm pretty sure fish doesn't need a whole lot of salting before it's deemed "too salty". Now I see why I hadn't eaten here in so long. Disappointing, to say the least.