Sen. Kay Hagan is scheduled to tour the fairgrounds Friday with Ag commish Steve Troxler. According to her office, the senator will watch a mock tobacco auction and visit other exhibits at about 1:30 p.m.
I saw the two signs as I was walking down the main road from the Scott Building to Dorton Arena. They were both on a food both near the Scott Building. The first one was on the front of the booth and read "CHITLINS * SIDE MEAT * COLLARDS * SLAW * HUSH PUPPIES." The second one was on a small whiteboard in the booth and read "Chitlin / Collard Sandwich," which I interpreted to mean, well, a chitlin and collard sandwich!
(For those of you not from around here, chitlins are -- well, let's call them pig intestines and leave it at that. )
I had vague memories of a recent festival where collards were served on a sandwich made with corn pone, and thought it might be something like that. I love corn pone. (Um, again for those of you not from around here, corn pone is corn meal, salt, and water mixed up and baked or fried.)
"Hm," I thought, "That sounds like it might be interesting. I certainly like collards." So...
I saw this entry in the crafts contest on a table in front of the quilt display, in the Commercial/Educational building (see the photo with the blog entry.)
The label said it was an entry for a Home Furnishings / Non-Threaded Needlecraft. The trouble is, I can't figure out what it is.
The fact that I can't figure out what it is should be construed as a criticism of me rather than of the item -- I am not crafty and I while I admire all the quilts and needlepoint and clothesmaking at the Fair, it unfortunately is not something I can do myself. So while it's might be obvious to the craft folks what this is, I'm not getting it!
And I wish I did because it's so intriguing! There are bloodshot eyeballs all the way around. If you look up at the top of the item you see what looks like a mad scientist rubber duck complete with lab coat and gray hair. (I LOVE this rubber duck!) There are spiders ...and are those abbreviated gummi worms around the sides?
Here is my guess:...
The Kerr Scott Building, in addition to having a number of business and information booths, also has a wide variety of visual media from contests on display. From kid's drawings to amateur photography to professional painting, the left half of the building is a great leisurely browse. If you spend any time wandering around this side of the building, be sure to take an extra minute and look closely at the paintings from Susan Brabeau of Wendell.
Susan Brabeau has two paintings on exhibit; an award-winning painting of a market scene and a painting of some quilts and kids playing around them. (See the pictures with this blog post.) There are a lot of people and animals in her pictures and they're all very busy. No person or animal or thing is there without reason; if you focus in on individuals you'll find lots of little dramas, tiny things going on. They're so much fun to explore; you really get a sense of a world in a just a square of canvas!
You can explore more of Susan's...
On restaurant row, across from the grandstand area, there is a place that advertises deep fried macaroni and cheese, which I had a couple of years ago. If you go around to the right side of that booth, you'll see that they're also advertising chicken-fried bacon.
Caveat: do not get this if you're at the Fair alone. You'll need a food buddy. This is too much for one person. It's almost too much for two people.
Chicken-fried bacon is exactly what it sounds like. It's bacon with chicken frying medium put on it and fried. The bacon is warm but not crispy, alas. The coating is exceptionally crispy; if you like the KFC extra-crispy chicken coating you'll really like this. $6 gets you a huge serving of bacon slices chicken fried.
First bite. The coating crunches. The bacon does not. The coating if it was spiced would overwhelm the bacon; as it is the coating and the bacon go together nicely. I wish the bacon were crisp instead of floppy. A side of ranch is provided with...
