CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS TOMORROW!
You know the drill by now…on opening day of the Sonoma County Fair, BiteClub takes five lucky winners (consider yourself a sort of Charlie Bucket, Veruca Salt, etc.) to scramble for all the delicious goodness that our midway can offer.
It’s the annual Fair Food Scramble!
From Pasta King to turkey legs, corn dogs, barbecue and beyond, we’ll snatch up whatever goodies we can find, bring it all back to our special reserve tables and feast like the true epicures we really are. (See pix of last year’s scramble)
You should see the looks of wanton jealousy we attract.
So how do you get to participate? Flattery is always good, but to really win my heart, your best bet is to convince me that you’re the ideal candidate. How much do you love fair food? Tell me some special memories. Write a poem. Be creative. Extol your eating virtues, but most of all, be you.
Leave your thoughts below, and five winners will be selected this on Friday (7/24) . You’ll get the details on our funtabulous food fest, but make sure you can be available around 1-3pm on Tuesday, July 27. (I’ll call your boss if you need me to. Cause dang it, this is really more important that whatever you’re doing at work.)
You also need to be fun and willing to share you food. Otherwise, we’ll make you sit alone. No whiners. No changies. No dramarama. Or again, we make you sit alone and make fun of you.
CONTEST CLOSED
It won’t rhyme and I’m going to gain five pounds just typing this, but here’s my entry:
Deep Fried Snickers…’nuf said.
Question: “and five winners will be selected this on Friday (7/24) .”
Did you mean Friday 7/23 (today) or Saturday 7/24 (tomorrow)?
Thanks!
Sorry. I sometimes don’t read the rules as well as I should, but the winners were picked yesterday. You know who you are. I’ll announce them monday.
I was 7 years old and I had saved my money all summer, about $8. Was standing in line to get the Cotton Candy I had waited for all year. Someone lifted my wallet from my back pocket at the Monterey County Fair! I didn’t know people did things like that until then, was a real growth experience. Always keep your wallet in your front pocket, expecially in a crowd! Don’t remember if I got the Candy, probably.
Best Fair Food is the Turkey Kabob, the Grilled Corn, the Corn Dogs, the Garlic Fries, the Pesto Pasta. Oh and don’t forget the Funnel Cakes, the Cinnamon Rolls, the Macinac Fudge, the Fresh Lemonade, the Mom’s Apple Pie and of course Clover Ice Cream!
YES
Oh Boy!
Lemonade apple pie
HOT dog on Stck
Fast Fun love 2 SHARE
Can I come along this Tuesaday
oh PLEASE always sample for the best
Chocolate covered stawberries at Laguna Beach Mmmm good
Corn dogs at all fairs sparkling waters at TraderJoes.
The 4 Hs Happy Hearty Handy and Hedonistic Oh BOY!
Hello,
Fair food only comes around once a year,
These foods I usually fear
But no matter how bad they are
My cravings are always never too far.
My favorite is the funnel cake,
If only I knew how to bake!
However it would not be the same,
Oh what a fun game!
Egg roll on a stick
Is a sweet trick.
My palette is going crazy,
I’m feeling kinda lazy,
I’m starting to fumble,
For I just had a Willie Bird Jumbo!
I wish to dine with you all,
So hopefully I will get that call.
Hey there heather, this sounds like fun, massive amounts of sweet, salty, fried, and meatyness usually in combinations! How can you not have fun. I think this is an awesome food adventure, after working in the kitchen all day it would be nice to get some sun. And where else can you walk around cattle and munch on a teriaki beef stick? Like I said I will sport the tux chef shirt, you can see the u.s.d.a. prime tattoo in real life too.
Chris H
Since I have arrived in my 40’s I have had to modify what I eat, and exercise alot. So when its fair time, I throw my dedication out the window and enjoy the food that I soooo much miss during the year.
Yes you can get the same food that is sold at the fair anywhere, but there is something about the fair that makes the food taste so much better than if you buy it at a store or make it at home.
For me the fair brings me back to a time when I was a kid and enjoyed going on the rides, eating cotton candy, candy apples, and winning my yearly goldfish. The fair brings me back to a more simple place in time. I think that’s why I enjoy the taste of a corn dog, the cinnamon rolls, pasta from Pasta King, turkey legs, and mexican food (not all at once though, I would blow up) more than any time during the rest of the year.
Once I have endulged all my fair food cravings, I go and run hard for the next week (or two).
The Sonoma County Fair is an annual ritual for me and a long time, San Francisco friend. The Biteclub Fair Food Scramble is the perfect prelude to this extremely important event. This Scramble, as the word suggests, will assure us the most and best food this years Fair has to offer in the most efficient manner, a crucial step to complete satisfaction.
Our usual ritual starts in Forestville with a large latte to go thus guaranteeing arrival at the Fair as the gates open. Then a quick beeline through Grace Pavilion directly to the mandatory first stop for cinnamon rolls, eaten with gusto (mine without the slurry but with nuts) in the Shade Park while the chances of winning the days horse races are bandied about. What a magnificent beginning!
The next food stop choice is difficult and time consuming. Should we go for the gyro, the posole, the garlic fries, the corn on the cob, a smoked turkey leg, or a Polish sausage? Of course the Pasta King and Mom’s Apple Pie are always on the agenda. And don’t forget Clo’s delicious ice cream cones.
So you see the dilemma that awaits us. With the Scramble we will have prepared the food agenda, giving us time for the cows, the sheep, the pigs and the goats. Don’t forget the chickens and rabbits.
HELP!
My favorite memory of fair food was from 1987 when I was 7 months pregnant, ate an italian sausage sandwich full of peppers and onions. A few hours later I went into labor. A healthy baby boy graced my life the following afternoon. The funny thing is I haven’t had one since. I have 1 corn dog a year and it’s the best thing the fair has to offer for me. And a cold beer.
Anyone remember the Pan Puffs vendor?!?! They disappeared several years ago and never returned. I know you can make them yourself with an Aebelskiver pan or a Pancake Puff pan/kit, but it’s not the same! They were so big and fluffy and you could get them with strawberries & whipped cream….I miss them…boo hoo
Nose knows, lips follow
Food smells everywhere at Fair
Bite Cluber eat all!
I’m not creative, and I’m no poet.
I just really like fried stuff- in case you didn’t know it.
Sing this to the tune of the “beverly Hillbillies” theme song. If you are too young to remember that show, then you’ll need to find a geezer to help you out.
Oh, I want to spend my day out at the County Fair
My kinfolk say that I can eat well there
I’ll spend my day out scarfin’ down some food
I’ll search until I find what tastes really good
Broiled, that is … Fried … Cooked to a “T”
I’ll eat ice cream, chicken wings and fries
I’ll eat so much, you won’t believe your eyes
Sonoma County Fair is the place I wanna’ be
Eating delicious food; and doing it for free
No carge, that is …. on someone else’s dime
I have been going to & enjoying the Sonoma County Fair food since I can remember & that is for at least 58 years (63 yrs old). I can never forget having to get to the
Fair to have a Corn Dog at one of the Wollcotts green stands. I started to have all the Fair food also, like Cotton Candy, Candied Apples, BBQ Beef Sandwiches, Fudge, Smoked Turkey Legs, Pasta & what ever looked good & it all did. Since then I have enjoyed watching my Kids & now Grand kids go to get of some of that good Grub. My one Grand Daughter that the family lives in Germany loves to come over at Fair time to have that Smoked Turkey Leg & this year is the first year(GD- 15 Yrs old & has lived in Europe all her life)that they will miss the Fair & not have the great food. You can not beat the Fair Food for it’s quality & memories.
part 2: By Logan Bello (with a little help from my dad)
Oh lonesome bratwurst
On the shelf,
How I want you for myself.
You go so well with fresh root beer,
Add garlic fries,
It brings me to tears.
Corn dogs on one stick
Egg rolls on another,
On my way to cinnamon rolls
With icing they’re smothered.
Pozole, turkey legs, teriyaki chicken.
The Pasta King and fudge,
It’s all finger lickin’.
A day with Heather,
An obvious pro,
What better way to learn,
And eat as we go?
great job Logan!
For my husband Vince, who has a slight obsession with one fair food in particular. He craves them at least once a month, dreams about them, and can’t pass them up if he spots anyplace selling them (I’m looking at you Wednesday Downtown Market.)
Anyway, a haiku. In praise of the simple, yet delicious and ingenious corn dog –
Cylindrical meat
On a stick in corn batter.
Deep fried, delicious!
Mmmmmm, corn dog. Dipped in mustard, washed down with one of Sonoma County’s fabulous and refreshing beers. I’m ready for the fair!
Aww, that’s sweet of you! I do love me some corn dogs! Getting them at the fair always seems to make them taste ten times better, too.
Sadly, I can’t make it to the fair on the 27th, but I’ll tell you one memory I have of fair food. When I was a kid I used to LOVE watching the animated adaptation of Charlotte’s Web (ok, ok, I still love to watch it). My favorite part of the movie was when Templeton got to run all over the fair, after it was closed, stuffing his face with all the leftover goodies that people had not finished: Bits of corn dog, cotton candy, candy apples, popcorn, burgers, etc. I always felt that, if I were reincarnated I would like to come back as a rat who followed the fair year-round, consuming all of that delicious fair food for my short but happy life. 🙂
Why are you so dang elusive, Vince? I was all hoping you’d come with us!
I tell ya, it’s rough working a 9 to 5! (No, really, I love my job, heheh.) One of these days the stars will align and I will be able to compete in a BiteClub event!
Hi Heather,
Will you be wearing the can-can outfit you wore to the Canine Companions for Independence gala last year? If so (or not) please consider the following as my entry to sit at the table:
To eat so much delicous food at the fair seems to me like a dare
Is it Big Jim’s curly fries that reach toward the skies
Or maybe a turkey leg from WillieBird is the magic word
Anything from Mary’s will never make me wary
I’ll sit at your table without a care even though I’ll be hungry as a bear
I imagine a corndog from Hot Dog on a Stick will be worth a few bites and a lick
Bubba’s pulled pork will be worthy of several stabs with my fork
A freshly cooked burger with all the trimmings will not help my attempt at slimming
I all ready know what I’ll wear, sweat pants with an elastic waste that will not tear
I will not be able to speak as my mouth will be full of Gyro from the Sleek Greek
I’ll wash that down with a Fish Taco that will have me wish my name was Paco
I’ll try some Tempura but I can say Sushi or raw fish is certainly not my dish
There will be no need to pull out my hair as there will be plenty of food to share
Top the food off with Ice Cream by Clover and it will be all over
Although I can’t leave before I try some of Mom’s wonderful Apple Pie
And since I’ll resemble the shape of a bowl I might as well as get a Cinnamon Roll.
But to top off this whole food fair thing it will take a trip to the Pasta King!
Scott, this is INCREDIBLE! Well done!
Thanks Vince , 20 minutes and a little research helped.
Pigging out at a fair would be a new experience for me. I grew up in Sacramento, so every year my family went to Cal Expo for the gigantic State Fair. I remember fondly the many buildings full of displays, the noise of the carnival, etc. Money was always tight, so we didn’t buy much of anything. My once-a-year treat was the beef jerky. That was my definition of “fair food”. When I moved to Sonoma County as a college kid, my friends and I would go to the Petaluma Fair or the So Co Fair. I tried my first corn dog at one of these fairs. Now a corn dog is my “fair food”. I worked at the fair a couple of years (long ago!), so I had the fortune to eat lunch there every day. That is the only reason I can say I have tried many of the fair’s food offerings. I always wonder how a person can afford to “eat their way through the fair”? Maybe you can show me?
The fair….
I love food….willing to share
I have been going to the fair…..since 1974
Foodie…sure but fair food is in a class all of its own
Favorite food…..anything paired with wine
Stomach….will try anything
Experience….priceless
Heather,
Fair food is what my sister and I live for! lol I’m 46 years old now, and she 49.
I can recall a time when I was 7 and she and I were craving a corndog, and a candied apple, from the fair which was in town but our parents were not going to take us. So we went to the garage and made wooden signs and posted on them UNFAIR WE WANT TO GO TO THE FAIR!! and we picketed our parents front lawn until they finally caved in and took us! Cars were driving by honking their horns and giving thumbs up! We have never missed a year together going since then. We hit up every food booth it seems! our favorite is egg roll on a stick!! lol I would love to be chosen for this! Thank You. Jay
The earliest memories I have of fair food are really not of fair food themselves, but of food I remember because of fair time. Some of my favorite memories of my grandfather come from his giant garden, and as a child I knew the fair was coming not by ads or other means, but when the plums were ready to eat. I remember thinking in my child mind “I’ll just eat some yummy plums before we go to the fair and I won’t want to eat any “fair food”. Mom and Grandma would take the kids during the day to ride the rides and then Dad and Grandpa would meet us at the music stage in front of the horse racing stands and have a picnic of fried chicken and potato salad that Mom and Grandma made earlier that day. I always as a kid wonder what all those fair treats were all about…..and now as an adult, I’ve tires most of them…..pesto pasta…yummy!, corn dogs and a big pickle are a must for my family….but sorry to say that to me…plums from grandpa’s garden and Grandma’s fried chicken and potato salad are my favorite fair food momeries!!
i am one of those who prefer to make home made food from scratch and have the honor of making my own corn dog. my modus operandi go to my internet, google a certain recipe in the and voila! i have my food masterpiece. i would like to be the expert in cooking a delish, gourmet corn dog! so each year, when the county fair arrives, i have this big plan of watching the corn dog vendors how they make their masterpiece. so each time i visit the fair, i would order a corn dog and watch how they make this simple ‘meal’. it is a meal, the protein- hotdog, carbohydrate s- batter and some vitamins going on in there. this is how the miracle happens–they take out this hotdog on the stick. i would watch the process intently, a generous bathe follows with a pancake consistency mixture. then…they submerged this mixture to the bubbling hot oil bath, i consider this as the hot tub spa..one minute, two minute…i can’t wait any longer…so i close my eyes and patiently wait and wait and wait…and then occasionally peek at the hot oil bath to see if it is turning golden brown…see i do not call it a fryer!!! whoever calls this a fryer…should not eat corn dogs!!! and then i see it, i see it, it is cooked and turned golden brown…a jewel…gold…golden…brown. i snatched this jewel from the vendor and shell out my $. the fun did not stop there…i have this jewel in my hands now, examine it, but it is still hot…i want to take one bite already…so i took that first bite…and burned my mouth… i have to be very careful, took the second bite, i am very careful now,,,fanning it with air, lots of air…then it is finally manageable, i took the third bite and noticed the crunch! of the golden crust,…opps, i forgot something, have to dip it in mustard, dip it in catsup…mustard catsup catsup mustard until the condiments turned brown…munch munch munch…and they were all gone! awwww i said to myself…i want some more…but there is this mantra playing in my head “moments in your lips forever in your hips” over and over again… so i took a deep breath and said to myself, lady, better luck next time or make your own at home or go to costco (not)… when i go to the fair again this year, i will tell the corn dog chef, ” I WANT SOME CORN DOG PLEASE, pretty please, with no cherry on top”. corn dog you’re my BFF!
hi my name is nick i’m from santa rosa. i’m 18 , i’ve seen my share of fair food and gourmet food (cyrus zazu ad hoc ) i can remember the first time i got my braces off when i was 10 i went right to the fair and got a caramel apple after 2 years it was great. the fair always leaves you with a craving for something for me i’ll wait a year to get it (its usually cotton candy)
thanks for your time nick
Hey Heather!
What about kids like me who are creating and making memories?
When it comes to fair food I’m the one! I will be there helping out my friends in the barn with their animals…AND let me tell you, in the past few years that I have gone I’ve tried a lot of stuff…the pozole in the Mexican Food area, the hand dipped corn dogs, the most AWESOME sausage wrapped in bread dough and fried…it’s over by the animal barns, the egg rolls on a stick and of course the garlic fries (my dad’s favorite) and the cinnamon rolls! I know I’m a kid, but you know me…I love good food! I never whine and I promise to share AND I am always willing to try new things. After all, kids are people too…so, what do you think?
I’m working on a poem or something else to grab your heart….that’ll be part 2 of my reply. But to start, you are the most awesome food reviewer around. I learn a bucket load from you and I hope that I can do what you do when I grow up AND I really like what you eat.
Oh, Heather – pick me, pick me!!! Seriously, though (well, who wants to be serious when it comes to the fair!), some of my fondest memories of the fair are of “fair food” when my daughter was small. She is grown and gone now, and it’s just me and my pups now. But I LOVE fair food and here’s why it’s so special to me…
When my daughter was small, we started a tradition. On our mother/daughter day at the fair, we’d skip breakfast and head to the fair early. The first time we did it, she was very little, and was a little miffed about missing breakfast – “Mommy, you forgot to feed me.” She was such a serious little one and very matter of fact. When we got to the fair, her first time to go, she was blown away by the sights, sounds and smells. Of course, I immediately started hearing, “I want”…and I started saying yes, much to her amazement. We grazed our way through the Ventura County Fair that day, eating everything from hot, gooey cinnamon rolls, home made fudge packed with nuts and marshmallows, and freshly made funnel cakes smothered in whipped cream and strawberries, to huge deep-fried corn dogs, corn on the cob and garlic fries that a day later we were still regretting we ate – oh, that garlic smell.
We ate to our hearts’ content and then some. We played the arcade games and rode the rides. And then we ate some more. If you can imagine a 6 year-old with cotton candy-stained fingers, eyes beaming at the sight of a huge candy apple and a ride on the carousel and squealing with delight at winning a tiny goldfish in a bowl – oh, what fond memories! We continued our mother/daughter tradition when we relocated to Bakersfield, visiting the Kern County fair year after year, making piggies of ourselves each time the fair came to town.
My daughter left home at 17, but for years, we continued that tradition of “grazing through the fair”. And I still do that, on occasion, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends; although the older I get, sometimes my tummy can’t handle it as well. But oh, do I love fair food!! I’m far from my home town of Ventura and am enjoying the Sonoma County Fair instead of the Kern County Fair nowadays – but no matter where one lands, fair food is “the bestest ever” – and always brings fond memories of that little girl with cotton candy fingers and squeals of delight…
Heather, I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time, faithfully reading your blog, love it! Every year for 20 years my family has gone to the fair. The men {brothers, sons, uncles} head to the races, and the women, we go wander around, watch races, but mostly, we eat! Cinnamon rolls to take home, fried zucchini and garlic fries to share….we generally make a mess and hang out all day. The best memory has to be my grandmother, who was in an electric wheelchair, making the trip….she hated to be around people, but I would not bring a cinnamom roll back to her unless she came out at least once! If I were chosen, I would share and pick at peoples food, encourage myself and others to try something that we hadn’t before, and eat!