Summer Fairs

[Guest guest]

Fairs are fat with calories

Treat yourself once or twice and eat sensibly otherwise. Consider making the

corn dogs and funnel cake at home

By Jane Snow

Beacon Journal food writer

The olfactory come-on begins in the parking lot. Before you see a single 4-H

pony or prize-winning quilt, the corn dogs and funnel cakes start calling.

Yoo-hoo! Over here, big boy!

Aw, you probably heard those french fries calling days ago. Who are you

trying to kid? You're here for the food. Everything else is just icing on

the Belgian waffle.

At the Ohio State Fair alone, revelers are expected to go through more than

45,000 ice cream cones and 1 ton of cheese, according to the American Dairy

Association.

The Ohio Pork Producers are counting on selling 11,500 pounds of pork

products. Last year, a single booth -- Schmidt's of German Village -- sold

13,000 bratwurst during the state fair's two-week run.

Fair food is a sensory trip back in time to childhood. The smells and the

flavors of the midway have changed little over the years. You can still buy

such long-ago treats as candy apples, caramel corn and cotton candy.

What can go wrong while you're clutching a paper cup of homemade lemonade?

What ills cannot be erased by an Italian sausage sandwich with fried onions

and peppers?

Well, heart disease for one. Obesity for another.

Sorry to rain on your fair, but too much fair food will indeed make you a

big boy. The stuff is swimming in sugar and fat. Consuming several thousand

calories at a fair is all too easy. And don't kid yourself that strolling

down the midway will burn those calories up.

Take the blooming onion, for example, one of the latter-day contributions to

midway dietary madness. You would have to walk for five hours at a moderate

pace to work off the 1,500 calories and 100 grams of fat packed into one of

those belly bombs, said Knapp, community outreach dietitian at

Akron General Medical Center.

To burn up the calories in another heavyweight, a fair-size Italian sausage

sandwich, you'd have to run flat-out for 80 minutes.

Knapp's advice: ``Splurge, but in a planned fashion.''

Choose one high-fat treat you really like, and make reasonable choices for

the rest of your visit, Knapp suggested.

The best bets at the fair, Knapp said, are grilled meat sandwiches (skip the

mayo and cheese), hot pretzels, shaved ice, lemonade and cotton candy.

A cone of cotton candy, for example, has just 110 calories and zero fat. A

12-ounce cup of lemonade has 200 calories and no fat.

Choose a gyro or a sausage sandwich, but not both, Knapp said. A medium gyro

has 760 calories and 44 grams of fat. A sausage sandwich has a whopping

1,121 calories and 21 grams of fat.

Eating both -- as well as other high-fat foods such as milkshakes, elephant

ears and pepperoni pizza -- may not only pack on the pounds, but also could

contribute to heart disease. Fried fair foods are high in artery-clogging

saturated and transfatty acids.

``I call that sludge,'' Knapp said.

The worst nutritional bet at the fair is probably the blooming onion, Knapp

said. Instead of steering clear of it, though, Knapp suggested sharing one

with a friend.

She also suggested parking in the far reaches of the lot and walking to the

gate to burn extra calories, and walking through the entire fair grounds

before choosing a meal.

To save a few extra calories, skip the sugared soft drinks and have water

instead. It will make that corn dog taste even better.

Those who can't make it to the fair need not miss out on all the fat and

calories. Here are a couple of recipes to help you capture the fair food

nostalgia at home.

Just remember to walk around the neighborhood for 92 minutes after chowing

down on a corn dog and 58 minutes after consuming a funnel cake. That's how

long it will take to exercise off the calories.

CORN DOGS

1 cup flour

2/3 cup cornmeal

2 tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. solid vegetable shortening

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

10 hot dogs

Oil for frying

10 wooden skewers

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt,

mixing well. With a fork, cut in shortening until the mixture resembles fine

crumbs. Beat together egg and milk and add to the cornmeal mixture. Mix

well.

Blot hot dogs dry with paper towels. Dip into the batter with tongs, coating

all sides. Let excess batter drip off. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Fry one or

two corn dogs at a time in hot oil for about 2 minutes, turning once, or

until golden. Drain on paper towels. Insert a wooden skewer in end of hot

dog.

Makes 10.

FUNNEL CAKES

3 eggs

3 cups milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 quarts oil for frying

Confectioners' sugar

Beat eggs and 2 1/2 cups milk in a large mixing bowl. Gradually beat in

granulated sugar.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually

beat into egg mixture, mixing until smooth. Batter should be thin enough to

flow freely through a funnel. If the batter is too thick, add the remaining

1/2 cup milk a little at a time until batter reaches the right consistency.

Heat oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer or a deep, heavy kettle. Blocking

the hole with your finger, fill a funnel with the batter. Hold the funnel

over the hot oil and let batter flow into the oil, moving the funnel in a

circular motion so that the batter flows in circles from the center outward.

The funnel cake should be about 4 inches wide.

Fry until golden brown, about 20 seconds. Turn and continue frying until the

second side is golden brown, about 20 to 30 seconds longer. Transfer to a

wire rack covered with paper towel. Cool slightly, then dust with

confectioners' sugar.

The Akron Beacon Journal July 17th, 2002

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