OC Fair 2011 - Let's Eat!

OC Fair Green Gate

Oh, the fair... where gluttony meets fried with a dash of overpriced. mMm... This was my first time ever going to the OC Fair (I've always gone to the LA County Fair) and fittingly enough, their slogan this year was "Let's Eat!" Okay, don't mind if I do!

Fried Fair Foods

But boy! There were so many choices! Deep fried butter... chocolate-covered bacon and corn dogs... Baby Ruth-stuffed fried jalapenos... Nothing appealed to me here, but around the corner was Chicken Charlie, who's famous for frying up some of the wildest fair foods!

Chicken Charlie Fried Menu Prices

New this year (or at least new to me) were the Fried Thin Mints, Fried Brownies, Fried Klondike, and Fried Kool-Aid. My friend (who got there about 3 hours before we did) tried the Fried Kool-Aid and said they tasted like weird donuts. I was really tempted to try the Fried Thin Mints, but didn't think they were going to be worth $6.75. (I can buy a box and a half of regular Thin Mints for that price!)

Krispy Kreme Chicken Sandwich

Several of my friends did buy the Krispy Kreme Chicken Sandwich though. It's a fried chicken breast patty sandwiched between a Krispy Kreme glazed donut with raspberry jam and a packet of honey on the side. I took a small bite and just couldn't understand why anyone would willingly add honey to this sugar overload! The chicken was surprisingly moist, but this combo of sweet and savory wasn't my thing. Out of the 3 friends who ordered it, 2 of them really, really liked it. The other just thought it was "eh... *shrugs*."

While doing a bit more exploring, I started craving a pulled pork sandwich. My friend (who had recently come back from a year of teach abroad in Taiwan) had the exact same craving so we went looking for a stand selling pulled pork.

North Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich Stall

 We found this booth and decided to split a sandwich (so we'd have room to eat other yummy fair foods ^_~).

Pulled Pork Sandwich

The sandwich came plain so you could add whichever BBQ sauce you wanted from the condiment station next to the booth. I thought the pulled pork was okay - not particularly tendor nor noteworthy. The BBQ sauce we used was a little sweet and didn't have the smokiness that other BBQ sauces have. I'm not really well versed in the different regions and tastes of BBQ sauce, but I thought it was good.

OC Fair Caramel Apple Slices

After the sandwich, I felt like eating a caramel apple - one of my all-time favorite fair foods. I love getting them in the sliced form because it makes everything easier to eat.

Caramel Apple Slices

I got it with nuts but without the whipped cream. Honestly, I thought it was a little small for $4.50. I remembered getting a massive sliced caramel apple while at Knott's Berry Farm so this apple seemed puny in comparison, but considering I still wanted to try other fair foods, I didn't fuss too much over it.

Carnival Game Prizes

I'm not sure if it's typical for the OC Fair, but I thought the prizes were a whole lot better and more interesting this year (in comparison to the prizes I've seen at the LA Fair over the years). There were Pokemon, Domo-kun, and Minion plushies! My friends and I tried to win one of the Minions, but sadly, we weren't able to. When I went to touch it to say goodbye, I was surprised at how hard it was! It was like touching styrofoam! I was expecting something soft and squishy, but since it wasn't... I didn't feel as bad not being able to win it.

Giant Pillow Pet

The prize that really struck me though was this GIANT PILLOW PET! It was more like a blanket pet or maybe a small mattress pet. Either way, it was HUGE! I wonder if anyone ever won it.

No trip to the fair would be complete without seeing some farm animals. Various goats, sheep, cows, and calves that were raised by students in the local high schools were on display. Out of all the animals, I was highly amused by this fellow:

Mr. Piggy

Piggy :P

Piggy Yawn

He just seemed so content and cheerful! Life must be good as a pig! *oink oink*

We did a bit of browsing around the marketplace area, but no one found anything they wanted to buy. Around that time, our next wave of hunger hit so we went back to searching for something to eat.

Maple Bacon Donut

The Maple Bacon Donut caught my eye, but I didn't want to pay $8+ for it. For the same amount of money, I could buy a full dozen donuts! It was at the Texas-sized donut booth so I am assuming it was huge, but an $8 donut is just too expensive.

Deep Fried Cany Bars

Instead, I chose to get the Fried Reese's. Last year, I had heard it was really good so this year I thought I'd give it a try.

Fried Reese's

It came out looking like a corn dog with powdered sugar!

Fried Reese's Cross Section

 I split it with my friend and thought it was delicious! There were whole peanuts in it, which threw us off and made us think they had given us the Fried Snickers instead, but you could taste the peanut buttery goodness. It sort of reminded me of a funnel cake with chocolate and peanut butter. I loved it, but was glad I only had half. I'm pretty sure I would've been grossed out and overwhelmed by the sweetness if I had to eat the whole thing. But by far, one of my favorite fair foods of this trip!

Gyro Pita

The final thing I ate was the gyro pita. I had heard that the falafels were pretty good at the fair so I couldn't decide between getting a falafel pita (which I normally love) or a gyro pita (which I normally don't get, but have friends who like it). When I asked the cashier which one she thought was better, she said she liked them both, but whichever pita I chose, she would give me a sample of the other. Talk about great customer service! I ended up selecting the gyro pita and she gave me one falafel with tahini sauce. I'm glad I chose the gyro because I found the falafel a bit on the dry side and the sauce was a bit too bitter for me. I probably should've split the pita with someone because partway through, I was getting sick of it, but it was a decent pita. The gyro meat sort of reminded me of finely ground sausage though. (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like that since I don't normally get gyros. )

My friends and I stayed almost til midnight (when the fair closes) just talking, hanging out, and enjoying ourselves. Compared to the LA Fair, the OC Fair seemed smaller, but it was a lot cooler weather-wise. The one thing I didn't like about the OC Fair, though, was parking. We had to wait nearly 30 minutes circling around the fair grounds and waiting to get into the parking lot! Other than that, I enjoyed this adventure to the OC Fair and my tummy was content! *oink* :P