Bloomsburg Fair
Bloomsburg, PA (2024)
Tonight was the final day of the 2024 Bloomsburg Fair. It's time to reflect on the resilience of the human body and the fact that it is capable consume massive amounts of salt, fat, and sugar and still remain functional. Before I tempt fate any further with statements like that, here are some of the different foods that I had on the fairgrounds this year.
My first stop for food at this year's Bloomsburg Fair was May's Bar-B-Q, and there was a bit of strategy behind this choice. While I love trying the new and unusual foods that are available every year, I find that the portion sizes aren't usually big enough to be filling. I stopped at May's first because, first and foremost, their sandwiches are very tasty. You can get them in either ham, chicken, or pork, or if you're an absolute glutton like myself, you can get one of each. Each of the sandwiches are topped with a delicious homemade relish. They're a bit on the small side (picture a Chicken Little sandwich from KFC), but they pack the bun with meat so they're very satisfying.
May's Bar-B-Q was among the best values for your dollar that you could get in previous years at the Fair, but those days seem to be over. I remember stopping after the Rick Springfield and Eddie Money concert in 2018 and picking up a few sandwiches from this stand for $3 each. Last year, they were $5 each. This year, they're up to $5.50. Inflation has hit pretty much every vendor at the Bloomsburg Fair to some degree, but the percentage of the increase here seems to be higher than most of the other stands. I'd still recommend them, but they're off of the "enjoy the fair on a bargain" list.
I had the Teriyaki Cheeseburger, which was a burger topped with grilled pineapple, bacon, lettuce, sriracha mayo, teriyaki sauce, and American cheese. It was pretty damn tasty! I'm going to have to start making them like this at home.
Apple cider ice cream floats are a yearly tradition at the Bloomsburg Fair for my wife and I. We pick them up from The Apple Cart in the back corner of the agricultural building and bring them to the tables near the fountain in the horticultural building. They're still one of the best values on the fairgrounds at just $3.50, and they're especially refreshing on a hot and sunny day like we had on Sunday.
Next up was a giant bowl of poutine from Famous Fries. I had every intention of bringing this home, but it smelled so good that I devoured the entire thing like a wild animal right next to the stand. It's made with fresh cut french fries topped with white cheddar cheese curds and brown gravy, and it's not only delicious, but they give you a hell of a lot of food.
I've had poutine when we were in Canada, and I've eaten a lot of what was essentially an Americanized poutine at the Blue Comet in Hazleton when I was a teenager. Those were diner fries topped with American cheese, brown gravy, and with parmesan cheese shaken on top. They were both good, but the poutine at the Bloomsburg Fair has them both beat.
I've walked past the giant Peter Piper's Pickles sign a few times at the Bloomsburg Fair over the years, but I've never stopped to see what they had before this past Sunday. The Pickled Cajun Shrimp sign caught my eye, but they didn't have the shrimp boil going when I was there. What they did have was a pretty big variety of very tasty pickles.
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| Horseradish Pickles (left) - Old Bay Pickles (right) |
The man behind the counter sensed my disappointment in not being able to try the Cajun shrimp boil, and he mentioned that the horseradish pickles that they sold tasted like shrimp cocktail. I was skeptical, but he let me try a sample and I'll be damned if he wasn't right! They don't taste like shrimp necessarilly, but the crunchy texture of the pickle and the flavor of the horseradish reminded me of eating shrimp dipped in cocktail sauce.
The horseradish pickles were so good that I stopped by their stand on Tuesday to pick up some of their Old Bay flavored pickles. Those are equally tasty, and I'm told they're especially good if you chop them up and mix them with imitation crab meat in a sandwich.
I realize that I have written about Mr. Sticky's several times before, but it's worth repeating because their walnut sticky buns are one of the best things I've ever eaten. We always make this one of our last stops of the day so that we can bring them home and have them for breakfast the next morning. They have two stands at the fair. If you want to avoid the line, go to the smaller stand that's closer to the display buildings instead of the larger stand that's right by the exit to the parking lot. It's the exact same sticky buns in both stands, and you'll save yourself at least 10 minutes of waiting in line.
Our first stop for food on Tuesday was a roast beef sandwich from Top Of The Beef. They have ham too, but almost no one ever gets it because their roast beef sandwiches are so damned good!
The person who took my order at Top Of The Beef mentioned to me that the Bourbon Chicken stand is amazing and that she was going to head back to pick up more from them before the end of the Fair. Say no more, ma'am! I ordered two scoops of bourbon chicken with pinto beans and rice. They give you a hell of a lot of food which makes it a tremendous value, but when you're at a place with so much good food to try, getting full at one stand isn't necessarilly the best idea. I'm definitely going to get food from here again next year, but I think that it's going to be one of the things that I bring home for the next day in the future.
Angie wanted a Cookie Monster Funnel Cake, so while I was going to town on my Bourbon Chicken meal, she was enjoying this. She got through a little more than half of it before she got full, which means that I got the rest. Apparently, my slow transition to becoming my grandfather is right on track. I generally think that funnel cakes are too sweet for me, but this one was very good.
If I made any mistakes with my food choices at the fair this year, it was getting something as large as the Bourbon Chicken, and getting two scoops of Peachy Paterno ice cream from the Penn State Berkley Creamery. Don't get me wrong, the chicken meal and the ice cream were both delicious, but I was so over-stuffed after having the both of them that I couldn't eat anything else for the rest of the day. It's my own fault. I have an issue with lactose and I know it. Milk and cheese don't usually have too bad of an effect on me, but ice cream tends to make me feel bloated for the rest of the day. No more ice cream at the Fair for me after this season.
