Camacho Watcho

Our recent visit to the Iowa State Fair was a first for me. Although I have been to the Minnesota State Fair, I felt the need to go to Iowa to visit the only state fair listed in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. With the hype of that book, as well as our friends’ build up, we had some pretty high expectations for both the food and the spectacle.

We ate a LOT of food - steak sandwich, fried pickle spears, funnel cake, pork chop on a stick, taco, corn dog, pork tenderloin sandwich, and corn on the cob - and washed it all down with several beers, very large diet cokes, and the occasional sip of water. Besides the food, we also saw the animals, including a 1,250 pound boar, many cows, sheep and the largest bull. And the people watching…oh what a spectacle!

But back to food…the highlight of the trip was the corn dog. I don’t know why I always think something is going to be better, but time and time again the corn dog pulls though. Other good eats were the steak sandwich, funnel cake, fried pickle spears, corn and pork tenderloin. The disappointments were the taco and the pork chop on a stick. There was nothing special about the taco, certainly not the “best in taco in Iowa”. After trying it, my friend John said he’d had better at Taco John’s (yikes!). The pork chop had potential, but ours was a bit dry. That just doesn’t cut it when eating pork in Iowa.

All in all, we left the fair happy…six hours, lots of grease, sunburns, $80 spent in food/beverage and full bellies…our high expectations were definitely fulfilled by this weekend getaway. Check that off the list of things to see before I die.

Addendum: I realized after posting this, that I forgot to mention the cheese curds we ate. These were actually the most disappointing…lightly breaded and hardly fried. They were also yellow cheese - overall not good…at all.

Posted on August 11th, 2008 by katiejocannon
Filed under: Customs, Entertainment, Food, Travel