Welcome to Yucking Your Yum, a brand new Eater sequence wherein extremely opinionated Eater staffers skewer fashionable and beloved meals, tendencies, and of-the-moment-obsessions, explaining why we merely don’t get the hype.
Each September, everybody in my residence metropolis of Dallas is all atwitter as a result of, because the temperatures (barely) cool and soccer season begins, so does the State Honest of Texas. A staple of the Dallas neighborhood since 1886, the State Honest has remodeled from its origins as a celebration of agriculture right into a fried meals bonanza with carnival video games and a spot to stuff your self foolish with fried Oreos and corny canines earlier than inducing somewhat nausea on the Tilt-A-Whirl. However as for me and my home? We’ll keep as distant from the state honest as humanly potential.
As a (largely) lifelong Texan, it is a secret I’ve lengthy held near my chest. For six years, because the editor of Eater Dallas, I feigned pleasure and dutifully documented the honest’s deranged new choices each single 12 months. One 12 months I wrote about funnel-cake-flavored beer; one other introduced the monstrosity that’s Deep Fried Froot Loops, a dish that entails wads of dry cereal and icing which are battered and deep-fried. I’d strive these grease-drenched creations with as open a thoughts as I might muster, and inevitably I’d be disillusioned. It seems that chucking any and every thing right into a deep-fryer isn’t truly a method to make issues higher.
And to be clear, I’m not opposed to those oil-laden meals for well being causes. I don’t care what anybody places into their our bodies, however it’s time to cease pretending that state honest meals is sweet. It’s all heavy and one-note, too candy or too salty, and at all times too messy for the flimsy paper boats it’s served in. My greatest gripe, although, is precisely how greasy these dishes nearly at all times are, particularly if you’re speaking about one thing like a deep-fried Oreo. The breading on the outside soaks up a lot oil you could virtually wring them out, and that’s simply gross.
I distinctly keep in mind taking one chunk of a cotton sweet taco, the 2018 winner of the Honest’s Huge Tex Alternative Awards, and instantly throwing it into the trash. Who on earth determined {that a} glob of cotton sweet stuffed inside a waffle cone was price consuming? Buddy the Elf? Extra annoyingly, I paid round 12 bucks for that sugar bomb wrapped up in a textural nightmare, which brings me to the second-worst factor about state honest meals: the fee. It’s, like some other captive viewers occasion, eye-wateringly costly, every order of fried meals costing as a lot as (or greater than!) $20. That’s an absurd amount of cash to pay for many dishes, particularly ones that aren’t even satisfying.
There are many legit causes to detest the State Honest of Texas — a historical past of racism, the affect of the annual occasion on different year-round companies in its neighborhood — however my gripes are largely petty. I hate to attend in strains, particularly for the privilege of paying $28 for a turkey leg, and being surrounded by the thick crowds provides me nervousness. On the very least, you’d assume the meals could be a respite from that chaos, however nope — the State Honest of Texas desires me to strive to determine how one can completely steadiness a squiggle of mustard on a corn canine whereas navigating a throng of sugar-drunk kids looking for the Halfway.
I don’t begrudge honest followers their love of those two weeks in September, however I do assume that they deserve higher meals at honest costs. And there are legitimately good issues to eat on the State Honest — Fletcher’s Corny Canine and people expensive turkey legs amongst them — however they’re usually overshadowed by the gimmicky eats that finally disappoint. Possibly it’s time for the honest to return to its roots as an advocate for Texas agriculture and serve its 2 million yearly guests some domestically raised beef and showcase the choices of farmers within the area. Maintain the deep-fryers, simply put one thing somewhat higher in them!
I additionally want issues had been higher for the individuals who work on the State Honest of Texas, lots of whom are employed on a brief foundation and are paid very low wages. They’re not supplied advantages and need to put up with tons of drunk fairgoers, all whereas the distributors who make use of them — and the State Honest itself — rake in massive bucks. Your complete factor feels somewhat exploitative, and if you pile that on high of the mediocre eats and the steep costs, all of it provides as much as one massive bummer.
I do know there are state festivals apart from the State Honest of Texas, and I think about that I’d hate all of them. My loathing extends to your complete idea of honest meals, the concept that you want an annual occasion to excuse paying a ton of cash to gorge your self on fried mediocrity. No thanks.
