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Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune and the ringleader for the Food and Home&Garden sections. She has worked as a food journalist at Northwest newspapers since 1993, most recently as a food writer, editor and restaurant reviewer in King County before joining The News Tribune in 2004. Her food obsessions at the moment are honey, cheese and oysters.

Craig Sailor is the Arts&Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. He grew up on a garlic farm near Gilroy, Calif. and now farms oysters in his spare time at Willapa Bay. He’s traveled the world from Kyoto/Kuala Lumpur/Hong Kong to Zanzibar in search of great food.

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Good eats and drinks around Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Posted by Ed Murrieta @ 07:47:54 am

A food critic, a walleye, a stick, at the Minnesota state fair. AP photo

A fellow blogger at a major West Coast news organization reports on a whirlwind eating tour at a large Midwestern state fair with a bunch of food writers from across America.

Walleye on a stick. Who knew?

But this is the line that sticks with me: "Other delicacies we tried included ... pork chop on a stick ..."

Um, I think we called that a bone before we started skewering food with irony.

But whatever.

Today, I want to talk about that stick up my kebabs, brochettes, candied apples, popsicles, and, especially, corn dogs.

The Puyallup Fair is a national leader in sticking it to trans fats. Anthing deep-fried -- Krusty Pups, elephant ears, funnel cakes, Snickers -- they'll all be better for us this year.

So how about more food on sticks?

I know why I like food on sticks: Ever try dunking golden-hot, grease-glistening corn dogs heads-first into buckets of mustard without those handy sticks in the weenies?

Alrighty then.

What's your favorite food on a stick?

What crazy and delicious food-on-a-stick creation can you dream up for any fair-food vendors who might seek inspiration from a blog?

Remember: Food-on-a-stick needn't be limited to traditional deep-fried fair food.

Toothpicks, too, count as sticks. So since I'm dreaming -- by the way, my recurring dream in which corn dogs rule the earth, came back last night -- I fully expect to see Pacific Grill's Meat Candy tent near the Puyallup Fair midway next month.

Roasted dates.

Stuffed with Parmesan cheese.

Wrapped with apple-smoked bacon.

Skewered.

I'll take a dozen.

On a stick.

Categories: Help Wanted 20 comments

COMMENTS:

gregdoh @ 10:37 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
I visted the Minnesota State Fair last year and had Hot Dish on a Stick. It was a stick variation on the tater tot casserole. Four or five tater tots were skewered, battered and deep-fried and served with a cup of browned beef and gravy sauce for dipping. I'm sticking with the Krusty Pup.
scoutlady13 @ 10:42 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
Alligator on a Stick!!

Though I do have to admit that I do like the Krusty Pups better than the Corn Dogs at the Texas State Fair, supposedly home of the corn-batter-dipped and deep-fried hot dog. They have honey in their batter and it's too sweet for me.

Though for sheer bizarreness I have to go with the Deep Fried Key Lime Pie on a stick I had last time I was at the TX State Fair...though Mom really liked the deep fried double stuffed Oreo on a stick.
mrsjk @ 11:34 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
Frozen Bananas dipped in chocolate!! Yummy! That's about it, except the occasional fudge bar...OK, any ice cream / chocolate on a stick. But I love the bananas best.
crooner @ 11:46 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email

Ed:

I am with you on the Pacific Grill's Meat Candy, it is awesome!

How about their Burger Sliders Bar-B-Que on a stick.

How about it Chef Gordon?
hmuller @ 12:22 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
I've had some of those roasted dates, wrapped in bacon and deep fried with a tiny amount of breading in restaurants (with and without toothpicks). Been trying to make my own for a while now and I've never come close. Sigh. That along with decent lamb kabobs would make any fair perfect. (Well, that and non-stick food like elephant ears and gyros and cream puffs from Schmidt's - my Ohio State Fair upbringing is showing. However, now that I think about it, a cream puff on a stick is not a bad idea!)
Squid @ 17:10 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
Crooner, when I first skimmed your post I thought you ended your litany of things on a stick with "how about Chef Gordon?"

On a stick?! Non merci.
crooner @ 17:59 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email

Squid:

That's funny.

I do not believe Chef Gordon would like being skewered very much.

However I do believe he has been roasted a few times on this blog.

zymergist @ 22:26 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Crooner;

Your continued eloquence with which you turn this Blog around is to be commended.
zymergist @ 22:35 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Oh,

And It would take a Mighty Big Skewer, ALA Vlad The Impaler to skewer The God of Chefs in Tacoma.
zymergist @ 22:45 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Yeah, O.K.,

I'll try to read the posts all the way through before commenting. Especially after the Pitcher Test of a new homebrew.

BTW,

A deep fried Snickers Bar with a Vanilla Milkshake chaser is HellaGood !!

Tacomachefs @ 22:47 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 Email
Feeling Minnesota?

In the Sunmmer
1. Invite Friends to Walleye Fish Fry on the lake

2. Have an iceless cooler filled with far-from-cold Premium Grain Belt Beer to share

3. Reminisce about how great the Twins were back in 87 and 91.

In the Winter:
1. If its so cold your car wont start, place burning hot coals in a metal disc sled under engine for thirty minutes. Trust me it works

2. When your two story ice house, equiped with a flat screen T.V., Xbox, state-of-the art pot o' gold system and portable mini bar gets hit by a massive truck doing shittys on the lake, Keep in mind that your insurnece company down in Georgia might not know (and might not fully understand) your ice house doesn't have an address and that its physically on the lake...

When you walk outside and...
1. your snot frezzes
2. your hair frezzes
3. your eyelids begin to stick to each other
It's most likly 30 below or colder
Go back inside and don't bother going anywhere

Message to 'I-Sell-food'...can you find me some walleye to put on my menu?



zymergist @ 23:08 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Dude are you Jeff Foxworthy?

"In the Winter:
1. If its so cold your car wont start, place burning hot coals in a metal disc sled under engine for thirty minutes. Trust me it works"


I did this in Ohio along time ago. I Know it works. But with a leaking fuel line you get more than you bargained for.
zymergist @ 23:39 - Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Just a little off-topic, but since we're skating on thin Ice...

Does anybody remember a couple years ago...

A group of Guys went Duck hunting on a frozen lake in the Midwest.

They used Dynamite to blow holes through the ice so the ducks would land. Anyway, the Dog they had was totally on the Ball.

When the Guy threw the stick of Dynamite the Dog... being The Dog and All went after it. He brought it back to the Party only to get shot at by His master and the drunk Buddies.

The Poor Doggie got rightly scared and ran off under the Master's Ford Explorer parked in the middle of the lake. Anyway Explorer and Doggie went up in Smoke then to the bottom of the lake. Insurance doesn't cover stupid owner/pet tricks unfortunately for him...

I'm, sure The Wife Is still giving him what He deserves for being such a Bad Doggie Daddy...
Squid @ 08:15 - Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Email
People! Food on a stick! If you want to learn to talk Minnesotan, I give classes. And Zymergist, that story is a rural legend. Everybody knows you use dynamite during promiscuous fishing season, not for ducks.

For ducks you just go out with your chain saw and cut out a big hunk of ice. Easy.

As for Chef G being roasted on this blog, that would explain the nice tan.
Squid @ 08:18 - Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Email
Hey, I was just looking at the picture above. I NEED to get one of those "Got Smelt?" t-shirts! Beyond cool. Ed, can your critic friend track that one down?

Memories don't come any sweeter than the Minnesota State Fair. Still, we didn't have smelt on a stick in my day.
LisaJoy630 @ 10:30 - Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Email
Brrr... I lived in Minnesota for a few years as a kid and my least fond memory was having to base my Halloween costume each year on what could fit over my snowsuit!

I love reading this blog, and as a very picky eater it is encouraging me to branch out! :)
Squid @ 10:39 - Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Email
Tacomachefs - since Dominos started to deliver to ice shacks, they pretty much all have addresses. "Oh ya, bring me a large sausage with a side of herring. Uh, pickled. Yup, I'm at 22 Eelpout Way. That's the one, you betcha, big pile of Schmidt cans in the front, can't miss it."

In terms of insurance, everybody there has Farmers, they know the routine.

Go Gophers!
Tacomachefs @ 18:59 - Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 Email
The Ice house incident accually happened to a friend of mine. No, he didn't have Farmers and they sure as heck didnt' know the routine. He had to go through three people via the phone to get someone to help him out. ahh whatda ya do, don't cha know, you betcha.
Squid how long did you live in Mionnesota?
Squid @ 14:45 - Thursday, August 30th, 2007 Email
Tacomachefs: I was born, raised and schooled there (Anoka, Owatonna, and the Cities), took me 30 years to figure out I could move away. Seventeen years here, the skeeter bites are just now clearing up. I still have the frostbite scars though. Oh ya.

That icehouse story is a hoot. You sure can get yourself into a lot of dumb trouble up there.
supafreeky @ 15:21 - Friday, August 31st, 2007 Email
If you're looking for good dates (no pun intended), try Tango in Capitol Hill. Best medjool dates.

Stuffed with goat cheese.

Wrapped in honey smoked bacon.

Drizzled with with balsamic reduction.

On a bed of peppery arugla.

Yum.

On a totally differnt note but meat related - is it at all possible to experience Turducken in these northwest parts? Please consider investigating?!

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