Get on the stick

Spaghetti? Cobbler? Other states point the way in one-handed midway munching.

Fellow fairgoers, I have been enlightened.

I have looked into the deep-fat frier, and I have seen the shimmering possibilities. Clearly, North Carolina State Fair eaters deserve more when it comes to food on a stick.

It came to me this summer when I attended the State Fair in Minnesota, where, it can only be assumed, people while away the long winter months pondering ingenious ways to make portable, crispy food.

This is what I found: Spaghetti and meatball on a stick. Sloppy Joe on a stick. Macaroni and cheese on a stick. Scotch egg on a stick. Reuben on a stick. Corned beef and cabbage on a stick. Walleye ... on a stick.

And my favorite concept of all, at a stand named Ole and Lena's: Hot dish on a stick.

For those of you who don't know, Minnesotans love their hot dish, what we here would call casserole. A church-function classic is tater tot casserole made with cream of mushroom soup, ground beef and tater tots. On a stick, it becomes alternating mini-meatballs and tater tots, battered, fried and served with a side of cream of mushroom-soup dipping sauce.

That is innovation.

Having seen and tasted what is out there, I am no longer satisfied with North Carolina's food-on-a-stick offerings.

It is a medium well worth expanding, the one-handed meal. You don't have to sit down to eat. You don't have to ask your friend to hold your lemonade. You can keep moving, taking in more of the fair's dazzling sights: the giant pumpkin, the pig races, the pygmy goats.

You can even eat food-on-a-stick while riding the Ferris wheel, not an activity to be attempted while wielding a fork.

And so, I want North Carolina to step up. I want to see ingenuity. I want vendors fighting for the food-on-a-stick spotlight. I want to hear people marveling, "How did they do it?"

This is not to deride North Carolina's existing food-on-a-stick staples: deep-fried candy bars, corn dogs, chicken, candy apples, caramel apples, pork chops and chocolate-dipped frozen bananas.

A visit last week to the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem softened me a bit with the discovery of Miss Debbie's Specialty Apples, caramel apples with crazy toppings, including four kinds of chocolate, marshmallows, Oreos, coconut, pecans and M&Ms. I also found apple fritters on a stick at Smitty's Concessions. Both will be at the State Fair. And I talked to a vendor who may revive his honey bun on a stick for this year's fair.

Maybe one day we'll usurp Minnesota, where this phenomenon took off 12 years ago. Its state fair today boasts more than 40 food-on-a-stick offerings, says Dennis Larson, who oversees the fair's food vendors.

"Pardon the pun, it fed on itself," Larson says. "Every year, it was about one-upmanship."

Arvin Breiwick understands the pursuit of new stick-worthy creations. He co-owns the Minnesota-based Concession Food Concepts, likely the only company in the country that creates foods on a stick for fair vendors.

"It is part of the intrigue to get them to come look at it and buy it," Breiwick says. "How can they do that? What will it look like? What will it taste like?"

Breiwick is responsible for the spaghetti and meatballs and Reubens on sticks. The meatball is made with spaghetti, covered with an Italian herb batter, fried and served with a side of marinara sauce. The Reuben is corned beef, sauerkraut and swiss cheese in a pumpernickel batter.

And, while you are wondering, Sloppy Joe on a stick is Sloppy Joe mix stuffed inside a hot dog casing, cooked, covered in a hamburger bun-like batter and fried. The macaroni is breaded into nuggets, fried and skewered. And a Scotch egg is a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, covered in bread crumbs and of course, fried.

Also on the food-on-a-stick forefront are Texas and Iowa. Texas' state fair has sponsored a food competition among its vendors for the past three years. Among this year's finalists was a Country Fried Peach Cobbler on a stick. And Iowa offers something I can only dream about since alcohol is not served at our state fair: Beer on a stick. (It's not fried. It is a cup of suds that rests in a plastic, sticklike cup holder.)

I do have hope for North Carolina. Among this year's cooking competitions is a food-on-a-stick category. Maybe next year, I'll be able to stroll the midway, eating this year's blue-ribbon-winning creation -- with just one hand.