Good Food, Good Times at L.A. County Fair 2013

Hello everybody, Elise has let her husband, John (me) go to an LA County Fair food preview, and write about it.  So here it is.


Are you in the mood for carousing with farm animals, travelling up in the air on exciting rides, or eating unique foods?  All of these things can be done in large amounts at the Los Angeles County Fair through the month of September.

The folks at the Fair invited us to preview some of the food that will be available.



Chicken Charlies never disappoints. Their Krispy Kreme burgers and sloppy joes were good, but the kabobs made of battered and fried kosher pickles wrapped in bacon were delicious. And their deep fried twinkie with chocolate sauce is a fair food must eat.


 Harold and Belles to Geaux Creole food is a must if you want crawfish etoufee, catfish nuggets, or spicy boiled crawish to suck down.  Tasti Chips home made potato chips can be ordered "Dirty" with chipotle beef and blue cheese. Yum!

The BBQ brisket was super-good at Texas Style BBQ, either on a bun or as a sundae over mashed potatoes.


Ten Pound Buns has been a fair favorite of mine for many years. Large freshly baked sourdough bread halves with garlic, butter and cheddar cheese baked on top. Or go with one of the 7 other topped buns.  I had the meat lovers!


We sampled corn dogs at Monster Grill, which also has hot dogs, hamburgers and great seasoned curly fries.  Go to Fresh Frys for chili cheese fries and their blooming onion

 Last ,but not least, was the Cornucopia Cafe where fresh fruit smoothies, big salted pretzels, and fresh cinnamon rolls heaped with sugar frosting were available for sampling, as well as their long coffee menu including iced coffees.





Of course this is just a small sampling of the food available at the Fair. All of these food stands that we sampled can be found between the miniature train yard and the exhibit halls. The fair this year is going to have sea lions! I also heard that one or more baby miniature donkeys will be available to see, and are quite cute.  Cant wait to go.

LA County Fair Food

September is almost here and that means that the Los Angeles County Fair is coming.  Travelling amusement park rides with my daughter.  Shopping for gadgets with deals that beat the infomercials.  Cows, goats, chickens and piggies.  And the food.  

A friend and I were invited to preview some of the food that will be available at the Fair this year. 

Chicken Charlie.  Large pictures drew us in, of bacon wrapped Dodger dogs, a chicken sandwich made with crispy crème donuts, and deep fried frogs legs.  We split a Dodger dog that was battered and fried and placed in a bun.  It was a perfect beginning to our Fair food experience.  Later we tried their pineapple shrimp, which had extremely delicious shrimp, salty rice, and pineapple chunks served in a hollowed out pineapple half.  My favorite of the night.  Their deep fried cookie dough balls served with chocolate syrup and powdered sugar, were very delicious.

Tasti Chips.  Serves freshly fried potato chips (gluten free) and onion rings.  We loved the onion rings, which had the perfect amount of batter and were fried to perfection. 

Harold & Belle’s to Geaux serves “Fine Creole Food”, and we both devoured small bowls of their crawfish etouffee, with a large ratio of crawfish tails in a rich sauce served with rice.  Delicious.  They have a restraunt near the corner of Jefferson and Crenshaw, and I look forward to making a visit.

Pink’s. We were treated to the Daytona Dog. Ketchup, spicy mustard, onions, jalapenos, and GUACAMOLE!.  Their hot dogs are always good, and this guacamole dog is worth a try (the Pink’s chili cheese dog is still my favorite).

10-pound Buns.  A large thick slice of their sourdough bread loaded with cheese and a choice of toppings.  This stand has been a favorite of mine for several years now.

Big Kona Hula Shaved Ice.  My friend had a banana, rootbeer and condensed milk shave ice.  He said it was delicious, and it sure looked good.

We each had a low calorie beer (Michelob Ultra) from Skinny Girl Bar and Food.  Shared a Blooming Onion.  Had funnel cakes and soft serve ice cream.

The L.A. County Fair starts Friday 8/31/12.  Go for the food!

This post is the first By Mr. Elise's Ramblings, John Derby. He is a fair expert, who goes every year and even took me there on one of our first dates. What can we say it's a family tradition!

LA County Fair Giveaway

I started going to the LA County Fair with my husband, in fact it was sort of our first date 13 years ago. We go every year and it really is a whole day affair, and you still don't see everything. As the years have gone by our focus has changed. Now that our daughter is in on it we spend a lot more time on the rides and looking at the animals. But we still get time to go do the labyrinth of shopping, they have 3 large hangers full of everything under the sun(over 2000 retailers), it's not to be missed. The horse races are great fun, if you haven't been to one before, this is the perfect way to get your feet wet. I haven't even talked about the food. The food is great, they have amazing bar-b-ques,chili in a bread bowl and crazy deep fried twinkies and oreos and who knows what else. One year we ate everything they had to offer on a stick, which turned out to be quite a lot. There is much, much more but you will have to go to the fair more than once to see, eat and ride it all.

I'm ready to get someone started with a 4 ticket Family Fun Pack giveaway.

TO ENTER: Just leave a comment on this post by Tuesday Sept. 8 before 6pm pt and be a Southern California resident and one lucky reader will be on their way. Good luck

UPDATE: Congratulations to Shawna of JCGrace Girls who was drawn by Random.org!!!