Health & Fitness
Eating Our Way Through Balloonfest 2013
Ah, the corn dogs. And the funnel cakes, chili cheese fries, and elephant ears as big as your head. The smell of fried everything – including Twinkies and dill pickles – fills the air as the crowd fills the food court. Yes, I'm talking about one of
Ah, the corn dogs. And the funnel cakes, chili cheese fries, and elephant ears as big as your head. The smell of fried everything – including Twinkies and dill pickles – fills the air as the crowd fills the food court. Yes, I’m talking about one of the most cherished, time-honored, and tastebud-pleasing of all summer traditions – carnival food.
This year at Howell’s annual Balloonfest summer festival, the Five Sparrows staff decided to eat its way through the event, tasting carnival delicacies both familiar and exotic (well, exotic for a carnival), and then documenting the adventure with photos and descriptions of the delicious “Fair fare” we found. Read on to discover what we thought about Balloonfest’s culinary classics!
The Adventure Begins
First, a little background: Five Sparrows had the awesome task of handling the social media publishing for this year’s Balloonfest. So from our mobile office parked in the middle of the event, we posted official tweets on Twitter, photos on Facebook, and messages on mobile for the annual three-day event. Eating our way through Balloonfest seemed like a natural extension of our official duties – and we took our job seriously.
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Starting With the Standards
For our first trip to the food court, we decided to start with some carnival classics that were familiar to everyone. We got an Italian sausage with grilled peppers and onions, some Cajun French fries, and a funnel cake. After chopping our treasures into sharable pieces, we dug in. The Italian sausage was great and required lots of napkins. The Cajun French fries were outstanding, not too thick, not too thin, and just the right amount of spicy. And what else says “carnival” like a funnel cake? It was crunchy, mushy, sweet, and greasy-in-a-good way – all of the things a funnel cake should be! (see image 1)A High-Steaks Game
Much to our surprise, we found some beefy options near the back of the food court area – from steak tips to ribs to brisket. All of these dishes were excellent, although not typical carnival food. The steak tips with sautéed mushrooms were delicious, and featured fresh mushrooms that were not over cooked (a wonderful achievement at a food cart). The ribs were also a big hit with our taste testers, and the BBQ sauce with the kickin’ heat won out over the sweet, more traditional sauce. But the big winner in this category was the pulled brisket sandwich, which was so good it showed up for a couple of repeat performances the next day. (see image 2)
May the Pizza Be With You
We found the pizza options at Balloonfest ran the gamut from regular ‘ol cheese pizza to gourmet, wood-fired pies. The regular cheese pizza was pretty good, and the two year old in our group absolutely LOVED it. For the gourmet grown-ups among us, however, the Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Wood-Fired Pizza proved to be a bit more appetizing. (see image 3)
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It’s Like a Box of Chocolates
Although we didn’t get to try all the food at this year’s Balloonfest, we did our best to eat (and photograph) a respectable variety of carnival deliciousness to give readers the “flavor” of the event. So whether you’re partial to fried pickles or have a craving for corn dogs, few of us can resist the deep-fried, cheese-covered charisma of carnival food. (see image 4)
How about you? What are your favorite carnival foods?
