It was our lucky day. No traffic on the way up. Easy and FREE parking at the Horse Park. Got there by 10 am and in by 10:15 through the Will Call gate.
Oh, and the SD Fair didn't open until 11 am, so yay special tickets!
This post will focus on all the crap food we tried...part 2 will feature the exhibits...
The theme this year was "Out of This World" (seen above). The other side of the UFO was this, so you would see it as you walked out later on.
It was really cool getting there early and checking out all the food stands without crowds. Many were just setting up but were ready to sell! Like the Icee Stand!
Here is TC's Cherry Lime, which was green (not red). This was the large size ($4.25) which we shared. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a "purple" (grape) flavor of Icee even though the stand had drawings of icees in practically all of the colors of the rainbow.
Our first "snack" was garlic battered mushrooms by Roxy; their other stand is across from Bing Crosby Hall, near the Cream Puffs stand)...
We enjoyed the view under our umbrella covered table...This is the Paddock area where they would parade the horses for the Del Mar Horse races.
The Garlic Battered Mushrooms ($7) with Ranch sauce:
The mushrooms were nice and fresh, the batter crispy and garlicky!
TC wanted one one of these ($6):
As we sat down, a couple of ladies were smiling at TC as she prepared to bite down on this mess of a lunch!
I think TC will eat almost anything dipped in chocolate. I tried a bite of this and man, was it messy! Plus, the taste of chocolate with a hot dog didn't do it for me.
Here's the other Roxy booth (recommended by Cathy of Mmm-Yoso)...
Unlike the Fairs past, Bert and I wanted to try a healthier alternative to the ubiquitous fried-@$$ offerings, so we got the artichoke sandwich ($9) with avocado ($1 extra). It also came with a side salad which was nice!
TC had some of the salad as well and a few bites of our healthy sandwich which was packed with artichoke hearts, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, and olives. One of the best, if not THE best, meals I've had at the fair!
On our way to the Roxy booth, Bert noticed a booth selling Duck Tacos (3 for $9.75 but it came out to $10.50). Yes, underneath all that frou frou filler (cheese, cilanto, onions, and red cabbage)...
were the duck pieces. Not enough duck in these tacos was our main gripe. The shells were also crispy which I didn't like. They weren't the crispy kind like from a box, but grilled crisp. I think soft corn tortillas would have been better and again, more duck! It was worth a try though.
Even though we didn't eat these, I loved how they looked. This was from the "Bacon A-Fair" booth. I believe these were bacon wrapped sausages!
and the bacon wrapped turkey leg we always hear about but never try. It's too Henry the 8th for me.
One of the last snacks was a dog from Pink's...
We wanted to try the Chili Dog. Last year, I saw the Martha Stewart dog and wondered about it, but there's too much stuff on there (I don't like sauerkraut either)...
We were given a card with a celebrity name on it. Yay! I love Tina Fey! The guy before us had "Snoop Dogg" called out.
The chili looks a bit diahrrea'y (yes, I made that word up) to me, but Bert and TC really loved it.
I had just a bite and loved the "snap" of the dog. Reminds me a bit like Nathan's in New York's Coney Island.
Please keep in mind that we didn't eat all this stuff in one sitting. There were long walks in between and taking in exhibits (to be the next post) and what not between our high caloric food intake.
One of our very last sweets to try were the Funnel Cakes.
We chose the Red Velvet funnel cake with just powdered sugar on top ($4.75). The other choices were cream cheese, chocolate, and whipped cream or all! Gross if all that was piled on!) We also got a strawberry lemonade slushy ($3.75 for the large) to help us cool down...The sun was beginning to break through and burn!
The funnel cake looked so pretty! But as for the "red velvet" taste, I think it may have looked the part but didn't taste the part! No matter!
I still liked it, red dye #5 be damned!
We also tried the cream puffs stand this year...
A plate of 4 mini's will set you back $5. We thought we were getting a deal with all the four flavors, but the crappy thing about this was that the cream puffs themselves were not fresh at all. They tasted like they were sitting out for a while. The cream swirls may have looked pretty but pretty much tasted all the same. That'll learn us! Next time, we will just pay $3.50 for the regular (big) size cream puff which I've been told is much better!
After being in Canada for a week and a half, it was a welcome sight to see palm trees...
Until next year!
Who else went to the SD Fair?
Here were two previews:
Cathy from Mmm-Yoso - The 2012 SD Fair - Part 1
Darlene from My Burning Kitchen - SD County Fair - Aliens, Fried Foods,Bacon and Sugar Overload
and a recent one on the food:
Mary from This Tasty Life (formerly known as "Foodies - A SoCal Foodblog) - SD Fair Treats
My previous Fair posts:
2011 - SD Fair 2011
2010 - Part 1 and
Part 2
Up next - some of the exhibits that caught our eye...
4 comments:
Okay, after actually seeing the chocolate covered corn dog, I'm kind of glad I didn't get it... it just looks really bizarre. I skipped Roxy's this year in favor of the grilled gouda stuffed mushrooms, but Roxy's mushrooms are one of my favorite's! They don't taste the same if you get them at the restaurant vs the fair, which is a major bummer.
hi mary - next year i want to try those gouda stuffed mushrooms! and yeah, that dog was gross!
Nice photos...makes me wish I had tried the gouda stuffed mushrooms! The artichoke sandwich- I think the roll makes it...it's kind of crunchy with seeds or wheat bits. So glad you enjoyed it.
hi cathy - after reading about the artichoke sandwich for 2 years from you, it was high time we tried it!
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