What Are They Frying at the Fair This Year?

Was there ever a time when deep-fried food was not a staple at fairs? Sure chocolate and peanut butter go together to create a new taste sensation, but at what point did someone think, “Hey, deep-fried Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!”

It seems every year there is some new item that gets the deep-fried treatment at fairs across the nation and this year is no exception.  Ben Hilberg, CEO of Premier Services, the food vendor company that runs the Totally Fried booth at the Puyallup Fair, is debuting deep fried-bubble gum, deep-fried Kool-Aid and deep-fried butter this year. Yes, deep-fried butter.

“It’s not like butter goes dribbling down your chin when you bite in to it,” Hilberg said. “We take butter, sugar and cinnamon, mix it together and get it real cold, form it into a ball and then roll it in the batter. Sprinkle it with a little powdered sugar or drizzle with chocolate and there you go.”

The deep-fried Kool-Aid has the powdered drink mixed into the dough, he said. So is the bubble gum rolled in the dough and then fried?

“No we don’t deep-fry actual bubble gum, that’s just not right,” Hilberg said laughing. “We take an oversized marshmallow, infuse it with bubble gum extract and then cover it in dough and deep fry it.”

Looking for a savory rather than a sweet? Totally Fried has deep-fried macaroni and cheese, made from Hilberg’s own recipe. The mac and cheese is rolled in panko bread crumbs, then covered in dough and fried. “We serve it with a marinara sauce,” he said.

What will they come conjure up next year to deep fry?

“I don’t know yet, but we’ve got a very creative staff who spend 365 days a year thinking about what to do next. We’ll come up with something,” Hilberg said.