Forget the rides, just eat
The L.A. County Fair is my ode to summer. Deep-fried, grease-laden food is my way of dealing with the separation anxiety as summer turns to fall. Glendora Day at the fair is today, Sept. 14, which means admission is $5 with an advanced online ticket purchase. Go tolacountyfair.com/onlinetickets and enter the promotional code9glendora14 to print out a ticket. There’s no better day to take advantage of the enormous, eclectic food selections. Go the fair with a hungry friend. Don’t limit yourself to just one item, such as a rack of ribs or tri-tip sandwich. Rather, share everything and try as many different concoctions as you can. Upon arriving, my game plan was to skip the delicious but predictable ribs, tri-tip and mashed potatoes so we could overindulge in the food items unique to the L.A. County Fair. First stop: Tom’s Baked Potato, right across from the Grandstand, for a half-pound pork chop on a stick that cost $7.63. I couldn’t stop myself from chomping into this tender, juicy pork. It’s grilled outside on a huge grill and seasoned with a generous amount of pepper but it was not overbearing. Also at Tom’s, we enjoyed a chili cheese fries burrito, which cost $5.57. It was very messy. Chili cheese fries spilled out of both ends, but it was indeed a new, exciting way to eat a burrito. The chili was mild, much to my enjoyment, since I get heartburn easily. It was 105 degrees at the Pomona Fairgrounds that day. Eating while I’m sweating to no end is not my idea of fun, but Legendary Gelato assisted in lowering my temperature. They boast the world’s largest waffle cone that comes with six scoops for $13.80. I wanted to save some room for fried food so we went with three scoops: peach champagne, their featured flavor; cookies and cream and watermelon for $5.52. The peach champagne was refreshing with an excellent fruity taste that was not too sweet. Cookies and cream was a little too bland. It could have been sweeter, but the subtle pieces of Oreo worked for me. The watermelon was disappointing. It appeared to have been blended and then frozen. There wasn’t anything really special that stood out about the flavor. On to the fried food. Many stands offer fried food, but my suggestion is to go straight to Chicken Charlie’s, where you can indulge in fried Snickers, Twinkies, frogs legs, Kool-Aid, avocados, Klondike bars and ribs. The fried Kool-Aid is what I was looking forward to the most. It tasted like I was biting into Kool-Aid cake. One order comes with six Kool-Aid balls the size of golf balls. They were not too sweet, but they sucked all the moisture out of my mouth. Fried Avocado: where do I begin? If you’re an avocado lover, this is paradise for your taste buds. Avocado fried in batter is amazing. Rather than the usual vanilla-flavored batter used for the fried sweets, this has a hint of pepper in the batter. Add a squirt of lemon juice and the taste is totally enhanced. Save the fried Klondike bar drizzled with chocolate syrup and powdered sugar for last. This taste treat has a similar taste to funnel cake. The heat of the batter and the cold of the ice cream strikes a good balance that excites sweet tooth cravings. Even though the batter is thick, it doesn’t make your mouth dry like the fried Kool-Aid. The L.A. County Fair is an opportunity to try new food combinations you would never think to try. Don’t limit yourself. If you start to feel full, walk around for a bit and then tackle those food stands once again. The L.A. County Fair is open Wednesday though Sunday until Oct. 2 at the Pomona Fairplex at 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, 91768.
Why I can’t put the fork down
I just can’t get over it.
Food, that is.
I’ve always had an obsession with food. Not just trying new and exotic foods, but eating until I can’t breathe—and then eating some more.
If you ask me what my favorite food is, I can’t just answer by saying Japanese or Colombian because they are all my favorite.
If you ask me what my favorite meal of the day is, I will tell you all of them.
I look forward to eating at all hours of the day. While I’m eating breakfast I want to know what I’m going to eat for lunch; when I’m eating dinner I want to know what we’re going to have for dinner the next day, not because I have to prepare to cook but I have to prepare to eat.
Friends and family consider my obsession with food a laughing matter, often mocking me when I’m lying on the couch after a large family barbecue where I once again over indulged.
Only to add to my gluttony, my uncle is a taco man and it’s a sure bet that when he’s cooking you can find me stuffing my mouth with at least six chicken tacos and one or two quesadillas with massive amounts of cheese.
Anytime I go out to eat with friends or family who know my eating habits, they give me their food they couldn’t finish. When I answer with a “no thanks,” they simply give me their plate anyway knowing I do, in fact, want to finish their food.
When I return from traveling to another country and people ask what I loved most about my visit my answer is always the same: the food.
Eating burgers and pizza while I’m in the heart of Honduras or Peru is not an option. Why settle for something I can get at home when I can eat something that I’ve never even heard of before?
Trying new foods that look weird was something I was forced to do as a child, and I thank my parents all the time for that.
When I was younger my parents made me try lengua, or cow tongue. It’s still a favorite of mine today, and we usually eat it in tacos or burritos.
The most insane thing I’ve eaten while in another country was piranha—yes the fish with razor sharp teeth. We were in the middle of the jungles of Peru and our host family cooked it up for us.
Despite my expectations, it was the best tasting fish I’ve ever had.
In the movie “Ratatouille” Remy makes his brother Emile try cheese and grapes to experience the combination and the animation replicates the two flavors coming together in a sort of dance that pleases the eye, replicating the flavor and how it pleases the taste buds.
That’s how I feel about food. When I eat, a dance and symphony take place inside me.
I guess one could say that’s why I love eating so much. I love tasting the amazing combinations of food and I just can’t get over the feeling of satisfaction I get when I eat a great meal.
