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Aug 30, 2008 8:34 am US/Central
Good Question: Why Is Fair Food Only At The Fair?
(WCCO)
For many of us, the Minnesota State Fair is all about food.
"I think it starts with kettle corn, to the cheese curds, then you have to go to the fresh cut fries," said one man. "You save your calorie count until you get to the fair."
But why do fair foods only seem to work at the fair?
You can get a corn dog all year long, but it's just not the same. Mini-donuts are almost impossible to locate, as are good cheese curds. Frankly, when it comes to something like a deep fried candy bar on a stick, maybe we don't want to find these things outside the fair.
According to Minnesota State Fair organizers, they sell more than 2.6 million cheese curds every year. We eat at least 500,000 corn dogs. You'd think there'd be a market for this stuff outside the fairgrounds.
"You can get them at a restaurant except they're breaded," said Dick Muller, co-owner of the original Deep Fried Cheese Curds stand.
Muller said he talked with a local restaurant owner about featuring his cheese curds, but it was decided that the curds would be "too messy."
Also, for the fair curds to have their unique fritter-like flavor, the oil temperature needs to be extremely hot. For a restaurant to make it work, "they'd have to have huge crowds," said Muller.
People lined up inside Bayou Bob's Gator Shack to buy fried alligator, although you'd have to look extremely hard to find gator on a menu outside of the fair.
"I'm the largest alligator purchaser in the world ... just for the Minnesota State Fair," said owner Dallas Simonette.
Simonette said this year has been the biggest for gator. He expects to sell 12,000 pounds of alligator.
"Our original plan coming to the fair was to be a State Fair tradition and give people something that they could only get at the fair," said Simonette.
Many fairgoers agreed that there was something special about having foods they only eat at the fair.
"It's the different atmosphere, and when I'm not at the fair I'm usually dieting," laughed one woman.
"It's not as special -- it's the one time you come to the fair," said another.
"I don't think you can eat something that unhealthy outside of the fair every day," said one man.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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