Freshly Fried
Freshly Fried Compiled and Illustrated by Tiffany Giraudon
“Since 2005, the Big Tex Choice Awards have challenged State Fair concessionaires to step out of their cotton-candied, cornydogged comfort zones and wow us with something truly dangerous to our health. But as we enter the contest’s 12th year, in a post-fried-bacon-cinnamon-roll, post-deepfried-jambalaya, post-buffalo-chicken-ina-flapjack world, there’s one question that comes to mind: is there anything left to fry? The answer, for better or worse, is yes. Definitely yes.”
Graphic from State Fair of Texas, Quote from Alice Laussade
Carrot Cake Roly
What it Takes to Sell 50,000 Carrot Cake Rolls Christi Erpillo’s life has been a bit of a whirlwind since winning [2015] Big Tex Choice Awards at the State Fair of Texas. Her Holy Moly Carrot Cake Roly took top honors, imparting a great deal of responsibility to the fair vender. Winners can be expected to sell nearly 50,000 servings of their creations to fried food fans in the 24 days the fair is open. “It’s a big operation,” Erpillo says. Her 90 employees on the payroll work across three shifts, and then there are vendor negotiations leading up to the event. Erpillo says she’ll make the shell for her Roly only with Pepperidge Farm bread and she prefers a specific carrot cake from her vendor Ben E. Keith. While the rest of Dallas wonders whether or not they remembered to lock the front door as they try to sleep, Erpillo wonders if the 70 cases of carrot cakes she ordered will get her through the entire event, if she should charge $6 or $7 and what will happen if she runs out of panko? As a lifelong fair worker, Erpillo is no stranger to the logistical challenges levied on vendors serving at the fair. Erpillo worked her first fair when she was 17, and won her first Big Tex Choice Award in 2009 with Deep Fried Peaches and Cream, selling more than 4 tons of peach slices. She says state fair food runs in her blood, and that she thinks about state fair food every day of the year. “If you’re a food concessionaire, your mind never shuts off,” Erpillo says, describing an endless search for the next potential winner. “You’re constantly thinking, ‘I wonder how I could fry that.’”
Structurally, the Roly is actually a riff on her deep-fried grilled cheese sandwich, which sold nearly 20,000 units as a runner-up in 2013. Knowing that bread holds up well in the deep-fryer, Erpillo adapted the technique to her favorite dessert, carrot cake, and her Roly was born. “What we are trying to do is protect whatever we are frying,” Erpillo says. The bread for the Roly is pounded out and smeared with cream cheese before moist carrot cake, raisins and carrots are folded into the roll. The rolls are breaded in a mixture of panko, graham crackers, cinnamon and nutmeg and then flash fried to keep them from soaking up too much grease. Erpillo plans to make the rolls fresh daily, adding another layer of complexity to her process. Some vendors process, freeze and stockpile their deepfried creations leading up to the event. #Concessionairelife is more than just culinary logistics, especially if you’re a Big Tex Choice winner. This week, Erpillo picked her 89-year-old mother Fernie Winter up at 6:50 a.m. and drove her to the local KLUV studio for a live radio appearance. Winter is known for first bringing the funnel cake to the fair. She makes a similar claim on nachos. Together they mark nearly 50 years of clogging arteries at the fair, and while Erpillo quietly hopes someone else in the family will step up to maintain the tradition, she admits she’s hooked. “I can’t imagine not doing it,” she says.
Text by Scott Reitz
Ode To A Corndog
CORN DOG
Imitation meat, On a stick. Covered with batter, rich and thick. By “cholesterol count” it states “603”, then two zeros, a one, an “m” and a “g” Corndog burgers, corndog fries, corndogs, no doubt, will be my demise. I eat them often, as a snack, just waiting for, that heart attack.
Poem by Michael Caputo
Candy Apple Caramel and candy apples are fair and festival staples enjoyed by children and adults alike. Also, as gourmet candy-coated apples become more popular, these traditional fall treats are increasingly enjoyed year-round. While candy and caramel apples may appear pretty similar, they have distinct histories. Newark, New Jersey candy-maker William W. Kolb is said to have invented the red candy apple in 1908. As the story goes, Kolb first combined candy and apple when experimenting with red cinnamon candy he was selling for Christmas. Kolb dipped some apples in the red cinnamon mixture and put them in his shop window, for sale at 5 cents each. Soon, candy apples were sold at the Jersey shore and later at circuses and candy shops nationwide. Caramel apples were invented many years after the candy apple, in the 1950s, by Kraft Foods employee Dan Walker. Like candy apples, caramel apples’ invention also resulted from experimentation with holiday candy – Walker said he discovered the recipe when experimenting with excess caramels from Halloween sales; he simply melted them down, and added apples, and the rest is history. While caramel apples were made by hand for the first decade or so of their existence, Vito Raimondi of Chicago, Illinois made and patented the first automated caramel apple machine in 1960. Text by Gold Medal Products
Funnel Cake
Ode to a Funnel Cake Cake, Funnel Cake, I love you so dear. When life goes awry, I just want you near. I’d waited and looked for you all around town, Until at the Days of ’47 Rodeo you were finally found. I ate you with sugar all powdery white. Sometimes with chocolate, but not on this night. You make quite a mess, but I’m never surprised. Cause seeing your goodness brings tears to my eyes. Who knew such a simple thing like a fryer with batter, Could change my whole world, and make me get fatter? But weight gain or not, I’d do it again, Because when I eat funnel cakes, I can’t help but grin.
Poem by Melanie Donahoo
Turkey Leg Rock Turkey leg, turkey leg, turkey leg rock Turkey legs bake and turkey legs shake Roasting and toasting to feed everyone And the Stove Top stuffing’s done
Turkey leg, turkey leg, turkey leg rock Turkey legs finished and turkey fans famished Serving and setting the turkey leg place Cannot touch till Dad says grace
Turkey leg, turkey leg, turkey leg vigil Turkey fans fizzle while turkey legs sizzle Sitting and waiting on turkey alert Empty stomachs hurt!
Turkey leg, turkey leg, turkey leg war Turkey fans fight and turkey fans bite Grabbing and stabbing for turkey to score Shouldn’t there be more?
Is it lunch time? This is crunch time Let’s make that turkey cook Turkey leg time is a tense time Don’t give the chef that dirty look
After mealtime is the heal-time To sleep our wounds away Turkey naptime is the last time To think turkey till Christmas Day
Hurry up, turkey leg! Crank up the heat It’s almost three o’clock Baste ‘n’ drizzle ‘n’ wait ‘n’ repeat Faster, turkey! Tick-tock!
Pack it up, turkey fans, head for the hill The hosts could use some quiet Don’t wanna see us again until The next turkey leg The next turkey leg The next turkey leg riot!
Turkey Leg Song by Randall A. Golden
The Inside Story of the Invention of Fried Jello The Reaves brothers submitted the idea for Fried Jell-O without ever trying to see if it would work. Just wrote some words down on a piece of paper and sent it in. And then, to their surprise, they made the tasting round. Brent describes their process: “We were like, ‘Let’s do Fried Jell-O!’ And we had no idea how it would work. I mean, we had sort of an idea of how it would work.” He pauses dramatically. “But none of that worked.” His brother Juan laughs. “This is how we operate. We’re like, ‘Let’s do it!’ ‘Okay! How?’ ‘I don’t know!’ ” They both laugh, and it’s contagious. Juan, Brent, and Ms. Ruth didn’t have any problems naming their items this year. Fried Jell-O and Deep Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider on a Stick are about as perfect as you can get when you’re looking to name freak-show food acts for the State Fair. Fried Jell-O brings to mind that Jeff Goldblum line from Jurassic Park: “[They] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” And Deep Fried Bacon Burger Dog Slider on a Stick is a name that includes every State Fair food trigger word. As the brothers carefully scoop the Fried Jell-O out of the fryer, they are eyeballs-popping-out-of-their-heads nervous. They hover around the
fryer, discussing the appearance of their Frankenfood. “I think it’s good,” Brent says. “It didn’t get too hot. I don’t know. I can’t tell.” We’re minutes away from judges’ tasting, and there’s no time to fry another batch. They cut into one glistening fried ball, and they breathe a sigh of relief. Spoiler alert: despite the Reaves’ “We’re just winging it here” attitude, what they created is outstanding. It’s essentially a beignet ball with all the happiest moments of your childhood inside, dusted with powdered sugar. The cherry Jell-O gives you a way-better-than-a-jellyfilled-doughnut moment. I follow closely behind as a State Fair employee takes a tray of Fried Jell-O to a secret room where the judges await. She’s carrying a lot, so I ask if I can help. Her response: “No.” Great care is taken to make sure that this is a blind tasting. Instead of walking straight to the judging room, we walk a different, increasingly convoluted path every time we ferry a food item.
The State Fair woman places the Fried Jell-O tray in front of the judges, and they lean in. “Oh,”one says, “is this the Fried Jell-O one?” They closely inspect the presentation of the fried balls of Jell-O before they pick up their individual servings. Glasses are pushed down on noses, then pushed back up. Sleeves are rolled. This is serious. “Okay, so that’s powdered sugar on top,” one judge says. “But they didn’t serve it with chocolate sauce like the description says. Hmm.” One judge gives the whole tray of food a McKayla Maroney notimpressed face. There’s a lot of nervous squinting going on in the room as the judges finally bite. And then the whole room erupts. “Oh, my gosh, how cool is that!” “It’s like a really good doughnut.” “With a surprise in the middle!” They love it. This is big.
One time we even took a ride in a golf cart, drove all the way around the building, and walked into a different entrance instead of taking the very short walk to the judging room.
Text by Alice Laussade
Fried Jello
Tater Twister
“This unending mound of shaved potato could double as a centerpiece — or provide the perfect greasy counterpart to a meal of fried hot dogs and hamburgers.”
Quote from Hannah Raskin
Roast Corn
“Most elotes look as if they could induce a heart attack at any moment, especially if you watch the elotes-maker squeeze in what looks like an entire cup of mayonnaise while layering in handfuls of queso fresco. But don’t let your trainer’s blathering on about ‘clean eating’ deter you from experiencing this hearty, flavor-packed snack.”
Quote from Amy McCarthy
All foods were taste tested in the making of this book.
Typography 2017