If you’re stuck on stick foods, you’re not alone. Popular with city fair and street food vendors, stick foods are slowly becoming a mainstay due to America’s love of fried food. Since the stick makes it particularly easy to dunk skewered products into the deep-fryer, experimental combinations are turning up everywhere. From Deep-Fried Spam on a Stick to Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes on a Stick, take a look at the skewered specialties below.
Deep-Fried Spam
A group of BBQ enthusiasts—who use their website SmokeInDaEye.com to share recipes, tips and tricks with their fellow connoisseurs—post a new fried recipe every Friday in a section cleverly dubbed “TGI Frydays.” This spam-on-a-stick specialty was breaded with Japanese bread crumbs and fried for 8 minutes before serving. Photo courtesy of SmokeInDaEye.com
Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
The Tulsa State Fair is building quite a reputation for their diverse offerings of fried food, but an old favorite, the Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes on a Stick, remains a favorite. As described by blogger Jenny Vargara, the balls are beer-battered and fried to a crispy golden brown state on the outside, while the inside is filled with warm, gooey mashed potatoes complete with cheese and bacon flecks. Photo courtesy of JV-Foodie.TypePad.com
Octopus Tempura
Talk about a hidden surprise! From the outside, this suction cup-speckled delight looks like nothing more than fried dough on a stick. But, once bitten into, the tentacles start to spring out every which way—proving there is more to this item than meets the eye. Photo courtesy of mdid via Flickr.com
Deep-Fried Tootsie Roll
The annual fair in Orange County, California, is known to some as a “Deep-Fried Expedition.” Among other things—including Oreos, Twinkies and zucchini nachos—you have the option of noshing on a batter-encrusted Tootsie Roll. Unfortunately, according to the photographer, Rob, this deep-fried dessert tasted like nothing more than chocolate-flavored plastic. Photo courtesy of Rob via Flickr.com
Deep-Fried Mac-n-Cheese
In August 2008 at the Minnesota State Fair, it was possible to find up to 63 different types of food prepared and served on a stick, two of which are shown above: deep-fried tater tots and macaroni and cheese. Photo courtesy of QuoinMonkey via redRavine
Pizza
The Canadian National Exhibition (located in Ontario from mid-August until Labor Day) is as much about agriculture, art and sports as it is food. One particular vendor, Mamma's Pizza, serves up this pizza Popsicle—which everyone eats, even though it’s generally considered overpriced and tastes no different from a regular non-stick slice. Photo courtesy of Pink Moose via Flickr.com
Deep-Fried Bacon and Fries
Cambodian food blogger Phil Lees has dedicated his life to eating his way through Southeastern Asia. Somewhere in the midst of his adventure he launched LastAppetite.com, where this creation came to life. Inspired by a french fry–coated hot dog served on a stick, Lees created the French Fry–Coated Bacon on a Stick. Photo courtesy of Phil Lees via LastAppetite.com
Deep-Fried Chocolate Cake
At the State Fair of Texas in 2008, Donna (of DonnaCooks.WordPress.com) and her family took on some of the deep-fried madness. Of the options they tried—including Chicken Fried Bacon, Fried Banana Split and Fried S’mores—the chocolate cake was one of few that didn’t taste like chicken grease, but was, instead, a perfectly moist piece of cake inside a fluffy blanket of light batter. Photo courtesy of Donna via DonnaCooks.Wordpress.com
Livermush
Since 1987, Shelby, North Carolina, has been host to the annual Livermush Festival. As it turns out, the festival’s most successful product is Livermush on a Stick, which is livermush rolled in batter, skewered and fried. Livermush—composed of pig liver, head parts and cornmeal, and popular in the Southern U.S.—has been disappearing from menus in recent years, making this festival a must for foodies across the country. Photo courtesy of Keith Massey via Flickr.com
Deep-Fried Cheese
You can find this impaled creation (a.k.a. deep-fried cheese-on-a-stick) at Cindy’s Concession, a traveling stand that specializes in everything fried at fairs and festivals throughout the United States in the summer. This specialty item is served with marinara sauce, but Cindy says she finds that a true cheese lover will eat it as is. Photo courtesy of Kyle Roth via Flickr.com
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