Step into the fair in Durham and you’ve entered a world where the well-bred llama reins supreme, and fried dough and the bloomin onion are staples. As Neal McCoy, the featured country artist, sings, “y’all a long way from Texas.”
Every year, masses of people flock to this three-day event, described as “Connecticut’s largest agricultural fair.” Like any fair, the Durham fair features many attractions, including rides, performances, vendors, crafts, award-winning livestock and, of course, a cornucopia of food. In addition to the many food vendors are bake-off contests. Unfortunately, my challah didn’t win a ribbon, but you did have to follow their challah recipe, and you know that cowboys are no good at making challah.
After the disappointment of discovering that my bread wasn’t a ribbon-winner, my friends and I decided it was time for some good old-fashioned fair food, “especially tasty oil,” as my friend Jesse called it. A drill shaves sweet potatoes into amazing salty and crisp potato chips. These “sweet ribbon fries” create a crunchy-sweet explosion in the mouth. The “world’s best popcorn” was delicious although the intense maple-glazed flavor was tangy and salty, and didn’t quite live up to its name.
If you’re going to give into fried food at a fair, deep-fried “onion flowers,” served with horseradish or sweet and spicy honey mustard sauce, are a sure bet. The waffle fries, too, with their cornmeal crusts and spicy barbeque ketchup, were delicious. The bread bowl was delicious: thick, doughy, and filled with salty clam chowder. The chowder-soaked bread at the bottom was the best part, rich with potatoes and cream.
In addition to these delights and the usual fare (fish and chips, hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches and meatballs on a stick, which none of us were adventurous enough to try) there was the less traditional vegetable tempura, taco salad, and the polish stand selling stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes, and perogies.
Loathe to choose between funnel cake and fried dough for dessert, my friends and I chose both. The funnel cake was incredible, a real winner, as the livestock judges might say. The crispy outside and soft doughy interior was hot and fresh, and I couldn’t imagine attending a true fair without it. It was clearly better than its competitor which consisted of layers of flat dough fried and covered with powdered sugar. We concluded the meal with a refreshing lime ricky, similar to limeade, not too sweet and liked by all.
After the fried food comma, we decided it was time to see some award-winning livestock and large vegetables. One of my friends loves llamas, and was overjoyed at their abundance. Even more esoteric was the “rabbits, swine, goats and poultry” tent. Even the produce was up for prizes. Most interesting among them was an exhibit of large pumpkins, the largest being 1,057 pounds. My friend Janina exclaimed, “That’s ten of me!”
The main stage event was the country singer Neal McCoy. We arrived just in time for his famous hit, “Billy’s Got His Beer Goggles On.” Wearing a cowboy hat and tight jeans adorned with a shiny belt, he sang a song dedicated to General Tommy Frank’s father, a leader in the war in Iraq, called, “Last of a Dying Bread.” Neal McCoy thought that the Durham fair was far from Texas, but Wesleyan just might be farther.
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