The Craziest Foods You'll Find At Fairs

As a kid you probably thought that the best things about the fair were the spin-til-you-puke rides and spending roughly one zillion of your parent's dollars trying to win a ginormous dragon. But as an adult, you'd rather poke yourself in the eye than do either of those things, which leaves the farm animals and the concession stands to fill your time. As cute as those baby cows might be, we're obviously in it for the food.

Over the years, fair food has gone from the standard cotton candy and corn dog offerings to innovative, wacky, and sometimes downright questionable eats. As each new fair season dawns, you never know what kind of deep-fried delight you'll encounter, or what unexpected mashups the vendors have dreamed up. Sometimes the oddball combinations work, like unicorn bacon, and sometimes they don't, like deep-fried bubble gum. But whether delectable or disgusting, one thing's for sure: These crazy fair foods (and drinks) are definitely Instagram-worthy. 

As long as we're on the topic of corn dogs and how to make the fair staple even better than is already is, allow us to introduce you to corn dog beer.

Revolver Brewing, a Texas-based craft brewery, created their Corn Dog Ale for the 2018 State Fair of Texas. Head brewer Grant Wood told GuideLive that he wanted to create a beer with a flavor that was "quintessentially State Fair," and landed on corn dogs (of course). But if the thought of hot dogs bobbing in beer tanks makes you want to gag, don't worry: "No hot dogs were harmed in the making of this beer," Wood says. The corn dog flavor in this pale amber comes from smoked and caramel malts along with a blend of "mystery spices," which obviously includes brown mustard powder. Even with the mustard powder though, Wood says the final product seemed to be lacking a little something. He solved that problem with — what else? — a bit of yellow mustard on the rim of the glass, creating what is, quite possibly, the best ever riff on a corn dog. 

Who needs savory spaghetti and meatballs when you can eat sweet spaghetti and meatballs? This sugar-lovers dream, which would surely get five stars from Buddy the Elf, debuted at the 2018 Iowa State Fair. The over-the-top dessert is made up of cookie dough "pasta," a Ferrero Rocher "meatball," and a generous topping of strawberry "marinara" sauce.

So what's the verdict on flavor? One Instagrammer noted, "It tasted just like what it was — a pile of cookie dough with a Ferrero Rocher on top. The sauce was odd, but not bad. I was expecting to be grossed out but it was actually pretty tasty. (Glad not to eat a whole plate by myself, though.)" While not exactly a rave review, the novelty has to count for something, right? 

Our only complaint is that the single meatball makes it awfully difficult to share. Nobody wants half a meatball, whether it's made of candy meat or actual meat. 

At the State Fair of Texas, food and beverage concessionaires create unique and creative recipes with one thing in mind: the Big Tex Choice Awards. The foodie competition awards top honors in three categories each year: Best Taste — Sweet, Best Taste — Savory, and Most Creative. Past winners have included creations like deep-fried beer, fried banana split, and fried Thanksgiving dinner. In 2018, cotton candy tacos took home the prize for Most Creative. 

The sweet treat is made up of a graham cracker waffle cone "taco shell" that's coated with a marshmallow glaze and then stuffed with chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and cotton candy. For good measure it gets topped with chocolate cookie crumbles and two chocolate cream-covered biscuit sticks with marshmallows.

Not everyone was quite so impressed. One Instagrammer complained, "Caught a case of DIE-AHH-BEAT-US after eating this, not worth it though."

If you consider yourself an adventurous eater and deep-fried butter just isn't getting it done for you, head to Jungle George's Exotic Meats and Bugs at the California State Fair and grab a Maggot Melt Sandwich. 

Say what? It's exactly what it sounds like: A grilled cheese sandwich with a heaping helping of maggot larvae inside. Mmm? 

The Travel Channel got reactions from two fair-goers who tried the culinary delight, and surprisingly the reviews weren't horrible. One taste-tester seemed unfazed, saying, "It just tastes like a regular grilled cheese sandwich with a little bit of bacon crumbs on there, that's about it." The second taste-tester noted an unappealing side effect, saying, "Crunchy, and a little nutty... not too much flavor but I'm getting a lot of shell in my teeth right now." All in all, not too bad for maggots.

If creepy crawlies aren't your thing, Jungle George offers an array of other delicacies, like kangaroo sausage, beaver on a stick, and alligator corn dogs.

The Orange County Fair strikes again with this sweet-and-savory mashup from Chicken Charlie's. 

Charlie Boghosian (AKA Chicken Charlie) told the Los Angeles Times that when it comes to his crazy concoctions, he strives to outdo himself year after year. "I'm just trying to do a good job in the sense of giving people something wild and crazy when they come to the fair," he said. "It's a rare opportunity for people to indulge and eat without worrying about calories. The fair is the best place for that." 

One of his recent creations is the Krispy Kreme ice cream chicken sandwich: A massive piece of fried chicken topped with vanilla ice cream that's sandwiched between two glazed, jelly-filled doughnuts. And for good measure, some rainbow-colored cereal on top. LA Times writer Luke Money deemed it the "best thing I ate [at the fair] all day." High praise, indeed.

We all know what happens when we flick a little water into oil to test the temperature. If it's hot enough, even a tiny drop snaps, crackles, and pops. Now imagine throwing a big wedge of watermelon, which happens to be 92 percent water, into a bubbling oil bath. 

According to Tony Cardinali of Cardinali Family Concessions, inventor of the popular deep-fried treat, it took several tries and many hot oil-watermelon explosions to get the batter just right. When they finally landed on the right ingredients, the end result was cool, fresh watermelon on the inside, with a "cookie shell on the outside." A KTAR News correspondent deemed the deep-fried watermelon on a stick, which gets topped with strawberry syrup and powdered sugar, the "showstopper" of the Arizona State Fair, and promised that it will give your "taste buds a thrillingly-strange treat." 

Just how popular is this taste bud tingler? Localish reports that Cardinali's goes through an astounding 40,000 pounds of watermelon at each fair.