Fried Fair Food

Why else do people go to the fair beside the food?  Yeah, there are games and rides and vendors, but there's also a plethora of fried, greasy food that will make your taste buds dance and your tummy turn.

At a lot of the fairs and special outdoor events in North Dakota, there are some staples:
--taco in a bag:  a bag of chips or Doritos is cut open at the top, and filled with typical taco fixings
--Indian taco: fried dough with taco stuff on top of it
--kettle corn: the best mix of sweet and salty popcorn
--corn on the cob: the Lions Club's specialty
--beer cheese soup bowls
--cheese curds
--fried Oreos
--fresh-cut French fries
--roasted almonds

You'll also find the typical meats on sticks, cheeseburgers, fresh-squeezed lemonade stands, and gyros.  Health-wise, the above foods contain a lot of calories and fat.  One 7 oz. serving of fair French fries will cost you 560 calories and 24 grams of fat, and a fried onion mum is more than 1,300 calories.  WebMD says one giant turkey leg is more than a thousand calories and a whopping 54 grams of fat.  And don't forget dessert: funnel cakes are delicious, but they're also an extra 760 calories.

So what do you do?  Well, you can avoid the fair altogether, but where's the fun in that?  You can eat only the healthy stuff, but that might make you crave the other food even more.  My advice is to go for something relatively healthy, like corn on the cob without butter and then cut yourself a little break.  I'm not saying to be entirely gluttonous for the day, I'm just saying that one fried Oreo is only 98 calories.  If that's what's going to help you curve the fried food craving, go for it.  I'm not an expert by any means, so this is all just opinion.  But I have been to a lot of fairs in the Northern Plains and I always cut myself a little slack-- especially when it comes to the kettle corn.