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Funky fare becomes fairground favorite
"It's something no one else has," said Rice, Avella resident and owner of Alice's Rolling Restaurant, who operates a food stand at the Washington County Fair.
They must be delicious, Rice reasoned. Why else would loyal followers from all over the county flock to the fair for their yearly fix of Rice's "Brick o' Fries?"
Rice does not know how curly fries arranged in a rectangular block originated. The snack was popular when she worked at the stand before she owned it, so she decided to retain the idea.
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"They're just yummy," Jillian Lester said as Rice handed her a large, piping-hot brick covered in melted cheese.
According to Lester and her mother, Lenora Philby, the food is a pivotal part of the fair experience.
Rice's bricks are not the only fair foods considered "off the 'eaten path."
The chocolate-crazed may indulge in their passion at Anastacia and Nicolette's Dessert Cafe, where strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pretzels and their best-selling cheesecake slices are frozen, dipped into melted chocolate and served on a stick.
"I think the novelty of it is that it's on a stick," owner Sophia Antonucci said, adding that most people are drawn to the idea of taking a slice of cheesecake to-go and walking around the fairgrounds, rather than sitting down with a plate and fork.
Antonucci named her stand after her two daughters Anastacia, 5, and Nicolette, 3.
Food on a stick seems to be the general theme of unusual desserts at the fair. Snickers bars, Milky Ways, Three Musketeers, Reese's Cups, Oreos, even Twinkies are among the readily available desserts that are breaded in a funnel cake-like batter and deep-fried to gooey, artery-clogging perfection.
"The first time I looked at it I thought it was odd," said Angela Lentina, manager of the Doughboy stand, which specializes in deep-fried Oreos, Reese's Cups, Twinkies and Snickers.
Lentina said Oreos are by far the best seller at every fair that she goes to, but the relationship most people share with the idea of deep-fried candy bars and cookies is love or hate.
For Tom Allen, who works in the Doughboy with Lentina, it's love.
Allen claims to have eaten most of the deep-fried foods on a stick, except for the Twinkies, but it's just a matter of time before he tries one of those, too.
"Oh, c'mon, man; I'm fat for real," he said.
