Don’t get me wrong the other stuff one expects at the LA County Fair is a lot of fun, but there’s other stuff too one doesn’t really expect to find that turns out to be quite entertaining.  People watching during the week is interesting and different than weekends.  Yesterday it was hordes of school children being shepherded by harried teachers and chaperones along with quite a large contingent of Seniors.

One of the big finds that I found to be a lot of fun was over in the Home and Garden center.  There’s a wine, beer and olive oil tasting room!  Of the hundreds of wines submitted for judging in the LA County Fair 436 are available for tasting.  Tasting fee for a flight?  A very reasonable $11 for 5 tastings.  They have a list sorted by suggested tasting order and number your glass to match what you select which also happens to be the order you taste.  Loved it.

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This is a trivia teaser for the LA County Fair tickets that I have to give away.  You don’t expect to get a 4 pack of general admission tickets and parking by just being the first to answer do you?  The first person to get me the correct answer to the trivia question will win the pack of tickets and the parking pass.  When answering your trivia question please make sure you have a real email addy that I can use to contact you to have the tickets sent to you.  Now for the question:

How many animatronic dinosaurs are on display in Jurassic Planet?

If you don’t wanna take a guess at the trivia answer you can always just purchase your tickets HERE.

Deep Fried Kool-Aid

If something deep fried that shouldn’t be isn’t a big enough hint its time for the LA County Fair I don’t know what is. This years outrageous deep fried thingy is Kool-aid, and it isn’t as bad as you think it might be. Maybe it was coming off of this years Donut Summit that made it all the more palatable but those Kool-aid flavored donut holes are something to behold. Imagine if you will a cherry flavored donut hole that is dusted with a blend of powdered sugar and cherry Kool-aid and you get the flavor profile of this deep fried treat invented by Chicken Charlie.

Last night was the LA County fair hosted local media types to come and get a tasting of the fare offerings this year. We got to graze through a sampling grazing of the biggies at the fair starting with Bubba’s and Chicken Charlies and into food trucks such as Piaggio’s and Crepes Bonapartes. You have to make the jump to get the deets on what I grazed upon as well as on the fair itself.  Read the rest of this entry →

So yes, we went to the fair, and yes, we had fried foods. My personal review: last year’s deep fried oreos surpassed this year’s deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Krispy Kreme jelly donut fried chicken sandwich. Yes, I ate those things. No I do not have documentary evidence. We didn’t go on any rides, which was probably wise given the belly full of artery-hardening is-it-food-or-is-it-a-science-experiment lunch. In fact, one of our party, a Derby Doll in training, had a broken ankle, so we maneuvered the fair with a wheelchair even. We did go to the carved ice museum in the shopping building, which was a disappointment in terms of the carving but almost worth it for the air conditioning.

So here are some photos and tips for you:

Take lots of pictures:

the fair has these photo op thingies everywhere

Pet the goats:

thanks to Noe for the goat picture

Cool off in the shopping area (yes I know I also supplied a picture of the Dodger casket in last year’s county fair post. It seemed to bear repeating):

Thanks to Andrea for this year's Dodger casket shot

Skip the bible stories for children (haven’t we all seen that horror movie? it doesn’t end well):

Bring a parasol or hat. It’s hot and sunny, and drink the lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick (best lemonade ever):

Me and Andrea courtesy of Conor Horgan

Eat:

Turkey legs and porkchop on a stick by Conor Horgan

Eat some more:

Corndog on corndog action by Conor

Then eat some more:

another one of Conor's great shots

If you require food that isn’t a science experiment, check out the food trucks which are rumored to be parked by the midway (we did not see them but Twitter claims they’re there.

When you’re done with everything, spend a quarter for the silly foot massager seats. They are bone-rattlingly hilarious:

Chris, Devon, and Colin take a load off

Labor Day weekend looms, and you know what that means? That means it’s time for the LA County Fair. Regular readers may know I am a huge fan of the county fair. I LOVE THE COUNTY FAIR!!!! Really. I just logged on and bought ten tickets for me and nine of my closest friends because truly there are few ways I’d rather spend a free Sunday than eating fried Oreos, browsing infommercial gear, and petting baby goats. In anticipation of the upcoming fair season, I offer you some photo highlights from last year’s L.A. County Fair (thank you Colin).

At the fair, you’ll find:

llamas you can pet

bacon!

giant reanimated pizza slices

rides

educational opportunities

lots of terrifying air brush art

let's zoom in on that

AND

stuff to buy!

Look for a full report after this year’s visit. Yay for the fair!

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Our own faboomama and Travis recently shared their L.A. County Fair adventures with us. In case you missed your chance to have your own, it’s not too late. This coming Wednesday through Sunday (September 30th-October 4th) is the last week of the fair and I have 2 tickets to give away to one lucky reader, good for any of the remaining days.

I went myself last night with the intention of trying some fried delicacy that I’ve never tasted before. Instead, I was drawn into my new favorite food, chocolate covered bacon! It’s available at all of the churro stands and is scrumptious! It tastes a lot better than my poor quality cell phone photo to the right makes it look. I highly recommend it.

If you too want to head out to Pomona to indulge in some unhealthy eats, ride some rides, play some games, and see baby farm animals for free, leave a comment below. Tell me why you want the tickets and how you plan to spend your visit to the L.A. County Fair. Winner will be picked Monday night by midnight.

Yes, I know it’s hot. It’s hot, and it’s in Pomona; these things are true. Even so, you should go to the LA County Fair because it’s soooo fun. Seriously–mini monster trucks, fried snickers, the tilt o’ whirl, mechanical bulls, and baby goats. You tell me how you could pack more fun into one 24-hour period. I went last weekend with some of my compadres, and here are some visual highlights. You can click them all to make them bigger and thus more fair-like.

The fair is a treasure trove of the outsized and grotesque. What better king than King Taco?

There are lots of giant things at the fair like this ant.

The fair has lots of fried things. I had the deep fried oreos, a near religious experience.

And there are games.

And shopping opportunities.

Did I mention the grotesque?

Truly the pictures can’t even capture the iceberg tip of badly tattooed, pudgy Americana shopping for Dodger themed caskets while munching on food on a stick. If Fellini had been born in the US, I am convinced he would have set at least one movie at the county fair. Go now.

LA County Fair

It’s that time of year again. The 2009 LA County Fair took advantage of the Labor Day weekend to open its doors. Opening Day is always exciting because you get to see everything so fresh. The fair will run until October 4th, so you have plenty of time to pick the best day to visit.

The Fair is offering $1 admission Sept. 5 – 7 between 10am and 1pm.  That means, tomorrow is your last chance to take advantage of this deal. Throughout the park, there are other cost-saving deals for the Labor Day Weekend, such as $1 fountain drinks between 1pm and 4pm and $1 carnival rides between 4pm and 7pm.

This year, we spent a lot less time eating and drinking and more time walking the fairgrounds. I’ve only missed 3 years since 1984, and used to go up to 3 times a week in college. This was the first time I had realized that there is an NHRA museum and a train museum run by the LA chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society on site. Be sure to check them out. The NHRA museum has  $1 entrance and with so much to look at, including the original Batmobile from the 1966 Batman TV show, it’s well worth it.

Also, worth catching is the Jursassic Planet exhibit (I have video in my Flickr photos linked below). It’s educational and just plain cool watching the dinosaurs move. If you have young ones, they may want to stay outside the hall. My three year old did not enjoy being in there and most little kids did a lot of screaming. As always, the new baby animals are a treat as are all the wonderful insects and reptiles on display in three different sections of the fairgrounds this year. The Home & Garden theme this year is Gateway to Africa and even I have to admit to being impressed. This is the first year in a long, long time that the theme was unified and tight, from the greenhouse all the way to the top of the hill.

So, wear some comfy shoes, get some sunscreen and have fun at the Fair. If you want to live vicariously for the moment, you can visit my flickr set.

LA Country Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768

$22 beers

Yesterday was Opening Day at the LA County Fair.  After picking up the little girl from school, we braved Friday afternoon traffic to make it there before 5pm, so we could take advantage of the $1 entrance fee.  Once in, the our focus was food.  But first for drinks where 2 large (20 oz.) beers ran for $11 each.  We learned later that the going price throughout the rest of the campus was $10.  At any rate, we quickly made a beeline to the best BBQ in the whole place, the kiosk across from the grandstand.

Since it’s the fair, it’s practically a law that deep-fried things be available for the public.  There were some things that seemed to have gone missing, like deep-friend Coke, but then there were others that just left you scratching your head.  Deep-fried corn-on-the-cob, deep-fried White Castle burgers and Pop-Tarts, to name a few.

We got to see a parade of classic cars, local high school bands and businesses. Bonus of going Opening Day, no one is tired of doing the same thing over and over.  There’s a huge pirate set up with a band, the Vagabond Pirates, in the short time we were near them, we heard them sing the theme to Spongebob Squarepants 4 times. I can’t imagine what they’ll think of the song two weeks from now. Naturally, we also went to view the baby animals which is always a good way to calm the kids down.  MTV has this ginormous RockBand set up (video), where you can play in front of hundreds of fair attendees.

Since we went without friends this year (best idea ever!) we weren’t forced to look at every single shopping hall.  We did go into one, luckily the one with the “Going Green” booths, so at least my interest was held for a few minutes before I got distracted by the idea of fair pickles.

For more info, you can reference my earlier post or visit the fair’s website.  You can also see more of my pics on flickr.

I often believe I’m the only person in LA who gets all a-tingle when County Fair time rolls around.  The crushing crowds prove me wrong though. That’s right, the LA County Fair kicks off its 86th year on Sept. 5th. Some people go to the fair for the 17 days of live horse racing.  Others go to see all the animals that will someday grace our plates.  Most people go for the food.  The deep-fried, greasy, fatty overpriced food.

Last year, I thought fried foods hit it’s zenith.  In addition to the now mandatory deep-fried Twinkies, Snickers, ice-cream (not really deep-fried, I know), deep-fried Coke was finally added to the list.  My husband had it and I’m still amazed he’s kept all his teeth considering that it was basically a 48 oz. cup of sugar.

Then there are the concerts.  No longer are has-beens relegated to playing the County Fair circuit.  In addition to your favorite oldies (WAR, The Doobie Brothers and Smokey Robinson to name a few), current artists are also playing the fair.  You can buy your tickets online via Ticketmaster or at the box office on-site.

As usual, the fair offers plenty of discounts for your family.  You can get fair passes or coupons at your local Ralphs, McDonald’s or AT&T store.  Fair admission is $1 on Opening Day before 5pm and there are lots of ways to get discounts on rides and attractions.

You can find out more about the Fair’s hours, parking and admission prices by visiting the General Information page.