State fair's same-old, same-old is just fine
Jennifer Wood of Cary uses her car headlights to illuminate the Apex Lions Club food booth as she paints illustrations on the windows. The fairgrounds open at 3 p.m. Thursday ROBERT WILLETT - rwillett@newsobserver.comBy Matt Ehlers Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010
RALEIGH, In her 36 years, Kim Hammer has gone to the N.C. State Fair at least 25 times, and each time the highlights are the same: baby ducks and Al's french fries.
"As long as I've eaten those french fries and held a baby duck, I'm good," said Hammer, who lives in Raleigh. "If I couldn't do those things, it wouldn't feel like the fair to me."
Each year, the State Fair adds a few new twists to the experience. Sometimes it's a ride or a game. Always there is a new delicacy. This year, the brave can try a 1-pound hot dog or a hamburger served on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
But what really brings people back year after year is the comfort of sameness. For 11 days each October, the fairgrounds becomes a visual, aural and gastronomical pleasure zone for fair veterans who have waited 11 months to sink into their routines. They park in the same lots, eat at the same stands and visit the same attractions year after year.
When the 2010 State Fair opens Thursday afternoon, longtime visitors will find nearly everything they love in the same places they always do. Two trailers selling Al's fries will be parked near the Expo Center. The Apex Lions Club will sell its famous biscuits from a lunch-stand spot not far from Dorton Arena. The Raleigh Jaycees will have shotguns set up for target practice.
House-Autry will fry about 300,000 hushpuppies in the commercial building and give them away, near the place where the state's weights-and-measures people place a scale upon which fairgoers may weigh themselves. Both low-frills presentations attract long lines.
After all, it's not as though you can pick up a giant smoked turkey leg on every street corner in the Triangle. That's why the meaty treat is on the must-eat list of Cary's John O'Connor, who always augments his foil-wrapped delicacy with a visit to the old-style craftsmen in the Village of Yesteryear. He's particularly awed by the guy who carves and paints intricate wooden duck decoys.
"They are so much a work of art, you'd never actually use one," O'Connor said.
In the realm of art, but of the edible kind, are the gigantic piles of fries served by Al's. Hammer describes carrying a mountain-size plate of Al's fried potatoes as a "major, strategic balancing act," and that's before they're dressed. She likes salt and malt vinegar, and the kids like ketchup, so a part of the process involves eating a few of the fries to carve out a place for what Hammer called the "ketchup depot."
All this happens as soon as the family walks through the gates. Her husband likes to push for a stop at a biscuit stand first, but Hammer will have none of it. After the fries are down, she's happy to do whatever, as long as the trip ends with a stop to see the baby ducks and chicks.
From The Charlotte Observer.
RALEIGH, In her 36 years, Kim Hammer has gone to the N.C. State Fair at least 25 times, and each time the highlights are the same: baby ducks and Al's french fries.
"As long as I've eaten those french fries and held a baby duck, I'm good," said Hammer, who lives in Raleigh. "If I couldn't do those things, it wouldn't feel like the fair to me."
Each year, the State Fair adds a few new twists to the experience. Sometimes it's a ride or a game. Always there is a new delicacy. This year, the brave can try a 1-pound hot dog or a hamburger served on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
But what really brings people back year after year is the comfort of sameness. For 11 days each October, the fairgrounds becomes a visual, aural and gastronomical pleasure zone for fair veterans who have waited 11 months to sink into their routines. They park in the same lots, eat at the same stands and visit the same attractions year after year.
When the 2010 State Fair opens Thursday afternoon, longtime visitors will find nearly everything they love in the same places they always do. Two trailers selling Al's fries will be parked near the Expo Center. The Apex Lions Club will sell its famous biscuits from a lunch-stand spot not far from Dorton Arena. The Raleigh Jaycees will have shotguns set up for target practice.
House-Autry will fry about 300,000 hushpuppies in the commercial building and give them away, near the place where the state's weights-and-measures people place a scale upon which fairgoers may weigh themselves. Both low-frills presentations attract long lines.
After all, it's not as though you can pick up a giant smoked turkey leg on every street corner in the Triangle. That's why the meaty treat is on the must-eat list of Cary's John O'Connor, who always augments his foil-wrapped delicacy with a visit to the old-style craftsmen in the Village of Yesteryear. He's particularly awed by the guy who carves and paints intricate wooden duck decoys.
"They are so much a work of art, you'd never actually use one," O'Connor said.
In the realm of art, but of the edible kind, are the gigantic piles of fries served by Al's. Hammer describes carrying a mountain-size plate of Al's fried potatoes as a "major, strategic balancing act," and that's before they're dressed. She likes salt and malt vinegar, and the kids like ketchup, so a part of the process involves eating a few of the fries to carve out a place for what Hammer called the "ketchup depot."
All this happens as soon as the family walks through the gates. Her husband likes to push for a stop at a biscuit stand first, but Hammer will have none of it. After the fries are down, she's happy to do whatever, as long as the trip ends with a stop to see the baby ducks and chicks.
From The Charlotte Observer.
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