Dallas, Oct 01: Welcome to the State Fair of Texas -- a magical land where calorie counters cower for cover and almost every conceivable food product can end up deep fried.

Fried potatoes and catfish are old hat to Texans at what is billed as the largest state fair in the United States. What they long for is a new offering for the vats of hot grease to go along with fair favorites such as fried pickles, fried okra, fried corn on the cob and fried cheesecake.
This year, 14 new food items were introduced to the fair and eight of them are fried. New to the fair, held in a land that is home to chicken fried steak, are items such as fried Oreo cookies, fried candy bars, and fried cheese curds.
"Honey, I would fry pretty much anything because that is what the people like," said Olivia Acuna, who works at a booth that sells fried Snickers bars.
The candy bar is dipped in a batter, fried for about 30 seconds and served hot on a plate that quickly becomes saturated in oil. A calorie count was not immediately available.
Ron Black, the fair's vice president for food service said people spend an estimated $15 million on food at the state fair. The fair opened last Friday and runs for three weeks. It typically attracts about 3.5 million people.
Last year, fried Twinkies were a huge hit, and this year, the new food darling could be fried onion on a stick.
Some other fried favorites include fried tamales, fried turkey legs, and ice cream that is lumped into a ball, covered in breakfast cereal crumbs and dipped quickly in hot oil. Dieters can ask to have the ice cream served without chocolate syrup and whipped cream if they want a lighter version.
The most celebrated fried item at the state fair is the corny dog, which is know as a corn dog in the rest of the United States. Both items are hot dogs on sticks breaded with a cornmeal coating and deep fried.
Skip Fletcher, the head of the company called Fletcher's that has been selling corny dogs at the fair for over 60 years, said he uses peanut oil to fry the food in order to cut down on cholesterol.
Fletcher was a beaming judge on Sunday for the first corny dog eating competition at the fair. It was won by Rich LeFevre, who downed 12 dogs in 10 minutes.
LeFevre, an International Federation of Competitive Eating chili consumption champion who has also downed 25-1/2 hot dogs at the celebrated contest on New York's Coney Island, said the fried corny dog was a tough foe for the heavy eater.
"Corny dogs are wonderful, but it's hard to eat of a lot of them," he said.

Bureau Report