Central Florida Fair Food

I visited the Central Florida Fair and had some carnival food. I avoided deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, deep fried bacon, or anything else deep fried and got food from a booth selling steak. The food was being cooked in big skillets and smelled much better than much of the other fair food.

I tried a sandwich called the Big John. This featured a roll filled with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and sirloin tips. The steak was nice and moist with good flavor. Mashed potatoes on sandwiches always seems strange at first glance to me, but it worked here. Overall, this was a much better choice than a corn dog...

Central Florida Fair 2012 in Orlando, FL

I returned to the Central Florida Fair this year for some carnival food. It is like getting food from Orlando's gourmet food trucks, only you actually need to worry about whether or not the food is actually up to health code! Seeing a carnie in a food stand with the ashes from the cigarette in his mouth falling onto a pizza is never a good thing. Needless to say, I avoided food from trucks like this...

The gyro stand looked good and I didn't get a vibe that I could potentially get sick from eating their food, so it was a winner!

The pita was filled with sliced lamb, lettuce, tomato, onion, and tazitiki. Greek food from food stands in fairs is always good for some reason. I'd take this over fried oreos or fried pizza any day.

Besides the gyro, ribbon fries were shared. Three large potatoes were run through a drill-powered slicing machine resulting in very long strips of potato. They were then deep fried into a crunchy mass of fresh potato chips.

 

Some horribly overpriced grilled corn was also consumed. At $3 each, the corn was definitely not worth the money, but then again, it was tasty.

 

After the fair, the food all seemed to agree with me so I must have made wise food choices!

Space Coast State Fair

During the first weekend in November, I found myself at the Space Coast State Fair in Cocoa. If you're reading about a fair here, it means I consumed some fair food while I was there!

I had some freshly cut french fries. There was a scary amount of oil dripping off these...

For something a bit less greasy, I also had an ear of hot roasted corn! I love how they grill these still in the husk.

I also came across a taco truck in a camper called Authenticos Tacos Mexicanos. These fairs generally don't have taco trucks serving stuff like tongue tacos...

Osceola County Fair Food 2010

I visited the Osceola County Fair in Kissimmee, FL. They had all the good stuff that a fair should have such as a huge selection of farm animals, circus acts, and plenty of rather scary rides. But this blog is not about any of that stuff, it's all about the food. While I didn't see any of the famous fair foods like doughnut burgers or deep fried butter, the Osceola County Fair still had a pretty good selection of food served from trailers. The following are random photos of some of the various food vendors at the fair:





I tried the Ribbon Fries from this cart. Fresh potato chips like this are normally pretty tasty, but the potatoes near the bottom of this plate were somewhat soggy.


I also got some roasted corn from this stand (Little Richard's?). How can you go wrong with an ear of corn roasted on a grill, dipped in butter, and then served by grumpy carnies?

Central Florida Fair Food 2009

The 2010 Central Florida Fair starts at the end of February, so I thought now would be a good time to finally post some food pictures from last year's 2009 Central Florida Fair. Fair/Carnival food is an interesting concept. Countless mobile food stalls that are constantly traveling around the country all assemble in one place for a week or two. While most people would be hesitant to eat food from the back of a truck in another situation, people have no problem eating like this when in the context of a fair. These food vendors can sometimes have good food, while other times the food is horrible. Some sell traditional fair food such as corn dogs and funnel cakes, while some stands sell more international foods like Greek, Chinese, and Mexican. I even saw a vegan food vendor at the fair, but it didn't look like they were doing much business. It seems the real fun starts when you start deep frying stuff that shouldn't be fried, stuff like candy bars, soda, Twinkies, and butter. Follow the consumption of some of these foods with a ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl, and you're in for a fun time...





I got food from a stand selling Cajun food called Herbert's Grill. I ordered a plate of Jambalaya, which perhaps wasn't the wisest choice from the back of a trailer. I hate to say it, but this was some of the worst Jambalaya I've ever had. The globules of pork fat that coagulated in with the meat really were unappetizing. But then again, I suppose this should have been expected when ordering something at a fair that wasn't deep fried on a stick.


While I was getting my food from Herbert's Grill, someone I was with scored these freshly made potato chips for free from another stand when they were left in the fryer too long and came out extra crispy. Even being well done, these fresh chips were really tasty, much better than my Jambalaya. Stick to the fried food at the fair I suppose...

Of course, being that the Central Florida Fair is one of the good local fairs that actually does the animal stuff besides from carnival rides, you could always buy yourself some fresh lamb chops...

Happy 4th of July!

What better way to celebrate July 4th than to visit Coney Island for Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest?

I visited Coney Island back in 2007, back before this blog existed, and enjoyed some of the very varied food that is for sale on the boardwalk. I started out at Nathan's in honor of today's hot dog eating contest. I'm not a big fan of hot dogs, but this place is classic. I wish I knew they had frogs legs, lobster rolls, and clam chowder before I ordered from the outdoor window that only served hot dogs.





Besides from Nathan's, Coney Island had all sorts of other interesting food.









Ralph's Italian Ices had a stand set up on the boardwalk.

Over the past few years, Coney Island has been going through some controversial redevelopment. A company named Thor Development has been buying up property and evicting the occupants in order to build mostly condos and a few new rides. In 2008, Coney Island's Astroland park had it's last season. This food stand from the park has since been removed. The famous rocket on the roof was once an early simulator ride and has apparently been bought by a Coney Island history museum.



And what visit to Coney Island is complete without a ride on the historic Cyclone Roller Coaster after eating the boardwalk's food?