The word of the day is "fried"

Tonight a group of us made our annual pilgrimage to the North Carolina State Fair. I love the Fair at night, particularly the onslaught of lights and sound. I can do without the crowds, but they're worth managing for the rest of the experience.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Fair, however, is the food. When I wrote last year about this trip, I confessed my many eating sins, and they were all over the map. I sinned several hours ago as well, but this time with more focus: I wanted to taste odd fried foods.

I began with a "corn dog cheeseburger," which is a cheeseburger rolled up and deep-fried in corn dog dough. It was artery-clogging goodness, an unusual blend of cheesy meaty yumminess and the strangely sweet fried wrapper. And, of course, it was on a stick! Ya gotta love food on a stick.

I then had a bite of Sarah's fried mac and cheese, followed by half a fried PB&J on a stick--which the purveyors mysteriously covered with powdered sugar! ("How can we possibly make this worse for people? I know: add sugar!")

I later added to my conquests a bite of a fried pickle and a fried green bean. The fried pickle is a noble member of the all-fry team, mixing as it does the salty tang of the lowly pickle with the always noble fryolator oil. The green bean was a surprisingly tasty addition.

I broke the fry spell later with about 60% of a bowl of the excellent NCSU ice cream; cherry vanilla was my poison tonight, as it usually is at the Fair. By the way, if you haven't had this treat--and if you live here and have not, get your butt to the Fair ASAP--then you may not realize that 60% of a bowl is probably around a full pint; they really pile on the ice cream.

On the way out, simply to bring myself back to sanity, I had a cheese dog and a bite of cheddar cheese nuggets--because let's face it, no fair trip is complete without a hot dog, nugget is fun to say, and fried cheese is nuclear goodness.

I've been dieting and losing weight, but tomorrow morning the scale will not be kind. Ah, well: The Fair is a special treat indeed. I do pray for nanomachine artery cleaners, however; I now need them more than ever.