No State Fair this year, but you can still get your fried food fix. Here’s the menu.
If there’s a hole in your heart the size of the North Carolina State Fair, a deep fried Oreo might help.
While the North Carolina State Fair is canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be something of a fair food festival in its place.
Every day from Oct. 15-25, the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh will open up for fair-goers needing their fix of deep-fried bliss. Vendor will be open from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily, with all orders served to-go.
Fair organizers said gatherings will not be allowed at the fairgrounds and that all social distancing and mask orders apply.
Guests will enter the fairgrounds through Gate 9 off of Trinity Road, park and walk toward Dorton Arena, where food vendors will be set up.
“We just know that everyone misses their fair food,” said Sarah Ray, spokesperson for the North Carolina State Fair. “We’ve had so many calls about how much everyone is bummed the fair can’t happen this year.”
Since Memorial Day, the fairgrounds has hosted a series of drive-thru fair food events, where a handful of vendors served up a rotating menu of sweet treats and deep fried favorites. It turned out to be the sugar rush some needed, Ray said.
“We thought it would go over pretty well, but we were pretty shocked by the response,” Ray said. “It gave people a pick me up, a sense of normalcy.”
More than 100 food items
The state fair typically features dozens of food vendors, collectively frying, grilling and candy-coating a wide spectrum of culinary wonders.
This year there will be 22 vendors, all from North Carolina, each serving up a familiar menu of fair grub. Look for funnel cakes and candy apples, “Redneck egg rolls,” Cheeto-dusted corn on the cob, Jerk pork, corn dogs, crab cakes and turkey legs. There will be more than 100 different menu items.
“Everyone has their favorites or their traditions at the fair; they say to us ‘I always eat that at the fair every year,’” Ray said. “We wanted make sure we provided something for everyone.”
In more normal years, food vendors introduce around two dozen new dishes to the fair food menu. This year there’s only one new offering: Mountain Dew hushpuppies with Mountain Dew buttercream frosting from vendor Ragin Cajun.
“We couldn’t just let the chance to do something new go by,” said Ragin’ Cajun owner Chris Wrenn. “If you like Mountain Drew and fried stuff, you’ll love this.”
Like dressing up for Halloween, the state fair is the only appearance each year for Neal’s Ragin’ Cajun. All the other days he operates Old North State Catering, specializing in weddings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wrenn said half of those weddings were canceled or postponed, and everything else was scaled back. Getting to deep fry some hushpuppies at the fair will be a bright spot in the year, Wrenn said.
“We’re just excited,” Wrenn said.
Hickory Tree Turkey BBQ, inventor of Crack-n-cheese, a turkey barbecue-spiked bowl of mac and cheese, will also be at the fair’s food festival. Owner Mark Neal runs the Hickory Tree restaurant in Greensboro, plus two food trucks. He said that in past years he does hundreds of events throughout the year, but has seen that cut to a handful a month.
“The restaurant has been the focus right now, but I’ve missed the outdoor events,” Neal said. “I’m giddy they’re taking some form.”
Neal also created a smoked turkey leg, stuffed with mac and cheese and turkey barbecue, which has twice won the N.C. State Fair People’s Choice award for favorite fair food.
“I’m looking for something I can’t get every day,” Neal said. “I think that’s part of the whole experience.”
Alas, no Chickenator
Last year’s fair food phenomenon was The Chickenator, a spicy, bacon-topped chicken sandwich with a cinnamon roll bun from Chef’s D’Lites out of Greensboro. Co-owner Felicia Turrentine-Daniel said they won’t be able to make this year’s food festival, the first fair event they’ve missed in two decades.
“I’ll absolutely miss my customers, and I’m going to miss our dysfunctional fair food family,” Turrentine-Daniel said. “The spot you’re in, that’s your spot for life. You get to know each other around you, but that’s probably the only time we see each other all year. You might not even know their names, just know them as the person from the corn stand.”
Turrentine-Daniel said they were still tinkering with a new fair food creation, now set to debut in hopefully better times next October. She said she couldn’t tease any details but that it will be like a head-to-head battle for your taste buds.
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she said.
Who’s cooking at the NC State Fair
▪ Angela’s Seafood: Fried fish, shrimp, scallops and frog legs.
▪ Brinkley Entertainment: Candy apples, cotton candy and caramel popcorn.
▪ Chester’s Gators & Taters: Alligator, shark and chicken kebabs, fried gator bites, ribbon fries.
▪ Cool Runnings Jamaican: Jerk pork and chicken with mango sauce, curry chicken, BBQ jerk ribs.
▪ Debbie’s Concessions: Funnel cakes, deep fried Oreos.
▪ Douglas Grover: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos corn on the cob, lemonade.
▪ Fat Boys BBQ: Redneck egg rolls, brisket mac and cheese, smoked chicken wings.
▪ Favor Desserts: Slices of homemade cakes, cake pops, brownies.
▪ Hickory Tree Turkey BBQ: Crack-n-cheese, smoked turkey barbecue, fried mac and cheese balls.
▪ Jenks Concessions: Candy apples, cotton candy, snow cones.
▪ McBride Concessions: Turkey legs, lemonade.
▪ Moose Joose Slush: Frozen sweet tea, half dozen flavors of slush.
▪ N.C. Fudge & Stuff: Varieties of fudge, gummies.
▪ N&T Concessions: Fries, bologna sandwiches, crab bites.
▪ Old Style Foods: Fried candy bars, fried pop tarts, fried s’mores.
▪ Party in a Pita: Falafel, gyros, shwarma.
▪ Ragin’ Cajun: Shrimp and chicken gumbo, Mountain Dew hushpuppies, fried alligator on a stick.
▪ Raleigh Downtown Lions Club: Kettle corn and soft drinks.
▪ The Gobblin’ Gourmet: Steak sandwich, gourmet funnel cakes, garlic ribbon fries.
▪ Tropical Delights: Pineapple Dole Whip, frozen fruit smoothies.
▪ Waypoint Oyster Bar: Fried oysters, crab cakes, clam strips, deep fried lobster on a stick.
▪ Zell Lucas: Cotton candy, caramel apples, Polish sausage.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 11:56 AM.
