Rodeo Fun and Food
[Guest post by DRJ]
Rodeos are fun, especially when they have little piggy races and cowboy monkeys:
“At the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo’s Swine Sprints, four little piglets rocket around a tiny NASCAR oval. They do it for the Oreo cookies waiting at the finish line, rooting them out like trans-fat truffles. It’s one of the things you can watch for free with your $7 fairgrounds admission, it’s in a shaded tent with bleacher seats, and your kids will lose their minds over how cute the beagle-sized porkers are.
I went to the rodeo chasing after Oreos, too. The deep-fried kind. Ich bin ein swine? Maybe, but I wasn’t the only cookie chaser. “We came from Southwest Austin to see the monkey ride a dog,” Joe Dickie said. “And to eat deep-fried Oreos.”
Yes, there’s a cowboy-monkey show. But this is a story about what to eat at the rodeo.”
In fairness, nothing beats the fried food at the State Fair of Texas but here’s some fancy fare from Austin’s Star of Texas that won’t get the food police seal-of-approval either:
Deep-fried Oreos with powdered sugar on top and chocolate sauce on the side; Funnel cake with strawberries and soft-serve ice cream; Chocolate-dipped cheesecake, shrimp, fried chicken, corn dogs, mushrooms, marshmallows or pizza … served on a stick; Mexican food, Philly cheesesteaks, ribs, turkey legs, beans and slaw; Candy apples and more, including “vintage chuck-wagoneers K.R. Wood and Karen Jellison from Manchaca” selling cane-sugar draft sodas in flavors from sarsaparilla to black cherry.
Bet you a nickel you don’t know how to pronounce Manchaca the Texas way. (Just kidding! I’m too cheap to really bet, but guess away if you like to win theoretical bets.)
— DRJ
What, no walleye on a stick, deep fried pickles or cheese curds? You need some fine Upper Midwest cuisine at your fairs.
daleyrocks (718861) — 3/23/2010 @ 9:39 pmWalleye on a stick is just wrong.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 9:44 pmUnless it’s deep fried. Then maybe.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 9:45 pmPETA is not amused.
Ag80 (f67beb) — 3/23/2010 @ 9:46 pmMan-chack, Man-shack, Man-shack-a. It all means the same south of Austin.
skegatz (46691f) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:00 pmManshack is a winner. Care to go double-or-nothing on Buchanan Dam?
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:04 pmAll restaurants are Taco Bell and all that food is illegal for your own good.
John Hitchcock (2394d6) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:09 pmI learned that dam and lake as Bew-cannon but my father worked for the LCRA so I have to pass on the double-up.
skegatz (46691f) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:12 pmDRJ – You gotta deep fry that walleye – boiled flakes apart. I left that off, sorry. I figured everybody would just know.
daleyrocks (718861) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:16 pmSkegatz – I’ll defer to your superior LCRA authority but the oldtimers in my family call it Buck-cannon Dam.
daley – Yes, but the real question is do you chicken fry it?
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:28 pmDRJ – First I have heard of Buck-cannon, but I can’t argue the pronunciation. After post 8 I googled ‘Manchaca Pronunciation’ and was amused by the yelp posts that described various ways to speak the names of so many familiar roads, towns, and landmarks. As one commenter put it: Texonics lol
skegatz (46691f) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:50 pmDon’t make this kind of thing public. Our new health overlords would not think well of it. Unless you want carrot sticks to eat and an eco-drum circle for entertainment at your next fair.
Patricia (e1047e) — 3/23/2010 @ 10:56 pmDRJ – I’m not sure what chicken frying is, but if it’s what I think it it, no.
Do you ever check out the concoctions on Thisiswhyyourefat.com?
daleyrocks (718861) — 3/23/2010 @ 11:00 pmdaley,
In Texas, we have a nationally-recognized magazine that devotes an entire issue to chicken fried comfort food and blogs devoted to the “Best Chicken Fried Vittles in Texas.” Those guys are pikers.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 11:08 pmThen again, now that I’ve looked at their edibles, I may have to give ThisIsWhyYou’reFat.com the edge for pure poundage. But there isn’t much Mexican food so that’s a drawback.
DRJ (daa62a) — 3/23/2010 @ 11:32 pmWhat? No deep fried soft-shell crab sandwich?
ropelight (859270) — 3/24/2010 @ 6:38 amMost Texans will get the “correct” (Texan) pronunciation of Bexar County. Fewer will get the Texan pronunciation of Refugio.
(There is an online pronunciation guide, recorded by a Native Texan, at http://www.texastripper.com/pronounce/locations-r.html)
Tex Lovera (456ded) — 3/24/2010 @ 9:28 amRefugio Beach, at California’s Highway 101 and Refugio Road is located just South of Gaviota and is pronounced Re-fuff-e-o. It’s and especially beautiful and unspoiled State Beach on the Central Coast.
Refugio Road leads up from the beach into Refugio canyon and over the coastal range, then down into the vineyards of the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. Near the top of the pass is the entrance to Ronald Reagan’s Rancho Dos Vistas, his Western White House.
ropelight (859270) — 3/24/2010 @ 10:18 amAlthough I live in Illinois, I must be a Texan at heart–I can’t believe there’s an entire magazine issue and blogs devoted to chicken fried food. I’m sure the health care czars will have those in their sights next.
Rochf (ae9c58) — 3/24/2010 @ 10:37 am