Fair fare

Topics/tags: Miscellaneous, food, short

Like some other people [1], I regularly make bad decisions. Most are small. A few are large. And some, like shaving my beard, fall somewhere in between. Today I made a combination of small bad decisions.

I was at the legendary Iowa State Fair [2,3]. The fair is filled with fare. You probably know most of the litany: giant turkey drumsticks, meat on a stick, fried foods, and more. I’ve forgotten what all the new foods are this year. I recall way too many apple things (e.g., apple egg rolls, apple smoothies, fried caramel apples) and an equivalent number of pork things (e.g., maple glazed pork belly, bacon-wrapped pork rips). I was keeping myself mostly in check, but I broke down at lunch time.

I love funnel cake, which may be among the least healthy foods in existence. If you haven’t seen funnel cake, you can think of it as a creation by someone who embraces the fat, sugar, and carb model of donuts, but wants to make sure that there’s more surface area to get more fat around the sugary carbs. Basically, you use a funnel to pour a thin stream of batter into boiling oil, moving it around and around until you have a plate-sized concoction.

While I’ve been trying to avoid refined sugar [4], donut-like substances seem to be my downfall. This year, one stand seemed to have introduced what they called the Double Dutch Almond Funnel Cake [5]. I also love the almond pastries I buy in Pella [6]. How could I resist?

And then a friend had half of a left-over deep-friend Snickers bar [7]. As long as I’d compromised already, why not compromise more? Michelle also offered me some of her onions, green beans, and mushrooms. But, well, there was also fat in that.

My body is not accustomed to that much sugar. My body is not accustomed to that much fat. It was a bad idea. And my body let me know. But I’m feeling better now.

I may head back to the fair later this week. If I do, I’m going to try to find fairer fair fare [9].

[1] First I wrote, Like most other people. Then I wrote, Like many other people. But some seems like the right adjective.

[2] Some say that it’s the best state fair in America. I wouldn’t know; I have not gone to all fifty states. But I do know that it’s the only one that’s the subject of a Rogers and Hammerstein musical.

[3] Note that the binding of adjectives means that it’s the Iowa (State Fair) not the (Iowa State) Fair. It’s an important distinction.

[4] I haven’t been as successful as I’d like. But I try.

[5] It may be that it was introduced in a prior year. I’m not sure. It’s definitely the first year that I saw it.

[6] For those who recall my nut allergies, almonds are not nuts. I learned that from a colleague in bio, to whom I am very grateful.

[7] They were looking for the deep-fried butter. They couldn’t find it and decided that the deep-fried Snickers bar was the next best thing.

[8] They tell me that they got a lot of responses for the Facebook video of the cooking of that treat.

[9] Or at least healthier fair fare.

Version 1.0 of 2018-08-14.