I am an avid fan of the Travel Channel. I am also a fan of Food Network, mainly because they cook things on that channel that I will never be able to copy. Both channels sometimes have shows about the best food to be found at fairs across the country. The host will go to a particular fair, search for the best food, and try to explain how it tastes to the camera as he or she digs in.
I never quite understood the motivation behind the concept for this type of show. When I see such a show, my mind fills with questions: Aren't all fair foods pretty much the same? Isn't one fair's steak hoagie pretty much the same as another? I am by no means experienced with fair food or fairs in general. This past week, however, I went to the Hookstown Fair, and the above questions about fair food were drowned in the grease from the best cheeseburger I have ever had.
I have a friend who lives in Hookstown, and she has been to the fair every year of her life except one. Her name is Lynn. Because Lynn is so familiar with the fair, she is also familiar with the fair food, and knows who makes the best of what's available. She became my tour guide for Hookstown Fair foods. If I had had a video camera with me on Tuesday, I would have recorded her tour and submitted it to the Travel Channel.
On Tuesday, I was treated to dinner, which was a cheeseburger from the band boosters' stand, which Lynn told me was built in the 1970s and has been painted approximately every five years since then. She promised me the best cheeseburger of my life, and she was correct.
Oh, how unaware I was of what a cheeseburger should taste like before Tuesday.
The band boosters put onions, green peppers, tomato, and lettuce on my cheeseburger, which was delivered to me on wax paper while it was still hot enough to burn my tongue. I couldn't help wondering, with cheeseburgers like this floating around, why fast food burger chains are still in business.
On Thursday, Lynn continued the gastronomic tour with curly fries from the Camp Fire USA stand. The fries were light and crispy. They were delivered in a heap on a paper plate, so we split them between ourselves. How do the Travel Channel gurus manage to eat so much fair food when they do a show? There must be a trick. I bet they don't eat more than one or two bites of each item. The curly fries were followed by a spicy sausage sandwich (piled with onions and green and red peppers) delivered in aluminum foil, courtesy of the Horstman's stand. I wondered if it were possible to buy something like that in a store. The answer to that question: Maybe you can buy spicy sausage in a store, but will it taste the same? Not really.
So far, in my two-day experience with the fair, I have learned that the allure of fair food is that it is a one-of-a-kind, once-a-year treat. I would not want to buy any of it in a store, anyway. Doing so would take away the fun. I have also learned that the best fair food is from the local stands, not the traveling vendors (sorry, traveling vendors).
Travel Channel or Food Network gurus we may not be, but Lynn has promised that if I return before the fair ends (I am writing this on Thursday), I will get the dessert tour.
