Joey Harris and his wife, Katrina, made a beeline for the deep-fried Ho Hos when the N.C. State Fair opened its gates Thursday afternoon.
"Wow. It's good," declared Joey, 31, after taking a bite of the treat, breaded, fried and dusted with powdered sugar. "It melts the chocolate inside and the cake."
Katrina, 29, was less enthusiastic. She prefers a deep-fried Twinkie.
So what was next for this Fayetteville couple? "He wants a turkey leg," she said.
Turkey legs, grilled ears of buttery corn and cotton candy were once enough to satisfy a fairgoer's palate.
But now state fairs across the country are embroiled in a battle of deep-fried one upsmanship. Deep-fried candy bars begot deep-fried Twinkies, then deep-fried Coca-Cola and, now, this year's jaw-dropping creation that debuted at the Texas State Fair: deep-fried butter.
Besides deep-fried Ho Hos, the attention-grabbing new item at this year's N.C. State Fair is chocolate-covered bacon.
"You look around and ask, 'What else can we fry?' We're doing a Twinkie, why can't we do a Ho Ho?" said Paul Amburn, manager of the Murphy House, the concession stand that always seems to come out with something new. It's where the Harrises went to taste-test deep-fried Ho Hos.
The fair food connoisseurs did not let Thursday's cool, dank weather deter them. There were deep-fried delights to consume, everything from macaroni and cheese and pecan pies to cheeseburgers and Snickers bars.
Lori Lancaster, 37, and Jennifer Arthurs, 17, both of Dunn, savored the deep-fried macaroni and cheese -- deep-fried breaded triangles of the Kraft variety. With their manicured fingernails sporting rebel flag detailing, they daintily dipped their treats in ranch dressing. "It is sooooo good. I had to get them three times last year," Lancaster said.
This was Arthurs' first taste, but it was no surprise she found the deep-fried macaroni was to her liking, too. "I live on Kraft," she said.
Even experienced fair food eaters like Luann Wilson of Winston-Salem occasionally have their heads turned. She couldn't believe it when she saw the THK Food Shop Inc.'s stand selling chitlins, collard greens, even streak of lean. "I cracked up," she said.
Her sister-in-law, Charlotte Wilson, ordered a serving of streak of lean, a piece of pork fat with a little bit of meat in it. It's deep-fried until crisp.
This is the first year Tim Keith of Johnston County has had a stand at the fair, and his sister, Rose Crowder, said they have had a lot of questions.
"The biggest question is: 'What is a chitlin?'" she said. (It is fried pig intestines.)
Charlotte Wilson, who enjoyed Keith's streak of lean, said: "When they say you can get everything at the fair, this year they mean it."
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Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata defended today a plan to change the schedules at most of the district’s schools this fall while also saying school leaders may reconsider where they relocate Panther Creek High School’s freshmen. 
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Deep-fried Ho Hos are being sold for $4 each at a stand run by the Murphy House in front of the Sam G. Rand Grandstand, to the left of the grandstand's ticket booths. This booth has a total of 15 deep-fried offerings from pecan pie, candy bars to a cheeseburger.
Chocolate-covered bacon is being sold four slices for $5 at the Fairgrounds Deli concession stand inside the Education Building, across from House Autry Mills' stand.
Chitlins, collard greens and streak of lean are being sold as sandwiches or separately in a stand on the left if walking past the Kerr Scott Building and the Got to Be NC tent away from Gate 11.
Buffalo chicken rangoons are being sold for $4 at the stand operated by the owners of Woody's City Market in Raleigh and Woody's Sports Tavern and Grill in Cary. Their stand is located to the right just past the row of permanent food stands if walking toward the grandstand. The stand is topped with a large inflated Gatorade bottle.
Country-fried bacon strips, which are battered deep-fried bacon strips, and a deep-fried banana sundae, which is deep-fried bananas with ice cream, whipped cream and a cherry, are at the Chef's D'lites stand across from the women's bathroom outside the Sam G. Rand Grandstand.
