Top 10 Food Finds at the Iowa State Fair

5. Deep Fried Cupcake on a Stick

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Ah, now this is a dessert we can get behind. What’s better than a Hostess chocolate cupcake? If you’ve been paying attention at all, you known the answer is obviously “a Hostess chocolate cupcake battered, placed on a stick, deep-fried, and covered in sugar.”

4. Chicken in a Jar

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Also, vomit in my mouth.

3. Deep Fried Snickers Bar

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An oldie but a goodie. Still hard to beat. Love that someone thought this needed added sugar on top.

2. Butter Neil Armstrong

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Legendary butter sculptor Duffy Lyon originally planned to carve a butter Michael Jackson statue this year, which clearly would have been a lock for the number one spot. Unfortunately, prude Iowans (and PETA) voted down the dairy MJ idea and Duffy went with the less controversial butter moon landing instead. No King of Butter, but still pretty amazing.

1. Pork Chop on a Stick

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Another year, another loss for the humble knife and fork. Sorry, utensils, but you will never, ever, beat stick and teeth.

Next: #10 – 6 Food Finds at the Iowa State Fair

Previously on ES:
The Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented
Cupcake recipes and commentary in Endless Cupcakes


(Photos: MsPatt, c r i s, Vanhookc, Slappy the Seal, kirkmwilkins, Heather Lucille, Simplerich, Linksman JD)

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22 comments

  • Summer August 24, 2009  

    Oh, yes, the giant pumpkins are scary. They remind me very much of the people featured in TLC specials like “Half-Ton Teen,” who are always shown oozing across their beds covered only by a sheet, because they’re too fat to stand up or wear clothes. Terrifying. But not nearly so scary as that cake. WTF? Who DOES that to food? Betty Crocker would be rolling in her grave, if she was real (and dead).

  • Maids August 24, 2009  

    Were there also busts of Beauty Queens from each Iowa county whose faces had been carved in butter (because if that wasn’t present, Iowa doesn’t have anything on Minnesota!) ?

  • Maids August 24, 2009  

    God…. this almost makes me miss the midwest….

  • Mike August 24, 2009  

    planning on visiting the minnesota state fair?? anything you can imagine on a stick

  • Mrs. L August 24, 2009  

    Almost makes me want to make a trip to my local state fair…almost…I think that Mystery Cake did me in (maybe those are pickles? shudder).

  • Nee Nee August 24, 2009  

    Aww…memories. How about the Minnesota state fair delight “Spudzza!” A potato pizza fair booth that grew into a Grand Avenue icon. Where magic happens.

    My parents did recently to express their delight at having their annual Viking meatball at the Montana state fair. Because who doesn’t need 1 lb. of fried beef, pork, and veal on a stick???

  • Amy August 24, 2009  

    Hey, I’ve been told canned chicken is really yummy. 🙂 In fact, my friend who has chickens was trying to get me to do it with her last summer when we snagged a pressure canner, but then her chickens wound up elsewhere. I don’t remember where. But she didn’t have extra chickens to use up somehow.

    I tell a terrible story, I know.

  • Unbelieveable Stuff August 25, 2009  

    yummie Food……

  • Jessie August 25, 2009  

    I know it’s bad for us but that snickers bar looks really good!

  • averagebetty August 25, 2009  

    Rodent Cake… LOL

  • Dean August 25, 2009  

    At the Minnesota State Fair it’s Walleye on a Stick. Only one source though – in the food building – but it’s well worth the quest.

  • hoss riser August 25, 2009  

    why do these people keep yakking about the minnesota state fair, which is so obviously inferior? maybe michele bachmann will be there to announce that god has asked her to run for pope of crazytown. minnesota sux.

  • Leah August 26, 2009  

    I would like to inform my bacon loving friends that at the Wisconsin State Fair you can get Chocolate covered bacon on a stick….

  • Veriphos August 26, 2009  

    EEWW, people over there actually eat this shit, no wonder your all fat…

  • Sandy August 27, 2009  

    Veriphos,
    If your going to be rude, don’t say anything at all… Grow up.

  • Cajun Chef Ryan September 1, 2009  

    State fair food is so much fun and an adventure too! NC State Fair is coming up soon….

  • Mrs.B September 2, 2009  

    So if I understand correctly, any unhealthy thing, deep fried and stuck on a stick becomes instant iconic fair food? I don’t get the whole “state fair” thing anyway, but this fried food thing is just strange.

  • Joel November 4, 2009  

    What’s wrong with canned chicken? It’s the tuna of the land.

  • Pingback: The Top 10 ES Posts of 2009 | Endless Simmer December 30, 2009  
  • Matt March 11, 2012  

    I am from Iowa and make it to the fair every year…best thing ever that no one seemed to know about…a corn brat…a bratwurst sausage on a stik fried in cornmeal batter like a corndog. tons of mustard and you are in heaven

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