Ahh, county fair season. It’s that special time of summer when you skull back a case of whatever beer comes in camo cans, stuff a wad of Skoal in your lip, and wander the puke-soaked sawdust discussing the varying grades of meth with carnies and eating whatever fried food you can get your hands on. Yes, it is indeed that wonderful.Camo and America-themed beers aside, the most competitive realm of the county fair is in the fried food department. Formerly limited to corn dogs, french fries and rippers, the deep fat fryer has since been transformed by legions of brilliant food technicians into a pit in which nearly anything can be battered and dipped.At the notoriously fried food-heavy Iowa State Fair, last year’s fried butter on a stick is already passé. This year, batter-pusher Eric Campbell has a new trick: spicing up your regular lame-ass hot dog with an insane amount of fried bacon and batter. Welcome to double bacon corn dog country, baby.Jennifer Miller, in a hilarious exposé for the Des Moines Register, has the scoop:It's a pretty straightforward recipe: Wrap a hot dog in bacon, deep-fry it, dip it in "bacon-bit-enriched" batter and give it another hot grease bath. The technique is a little more complicated, though, and Eric Campbell, fry master extraordinaire, said these dogs are labor intensive and the method is proprietary.
"Keeping (the bacon) on the hot dog took a lot of experimenting," he said. So don't even try to bribe the sweaty teenagers working the stand for the secret.Seriously, you need to read Miller’s story, for the not-sure-if-ironic trash talk about other state, if nothing else. Hot damn, I have got one hell of a hankering for Stuff on a Stick.
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