Top 10 Bites of LA County Fair 2014

by: guest blogger @iam_robot

The 92^nd Los Angeles County Fair opened last Friday, August 29^th 2014, featuring the best of greasy delights, larger-than-life Chinese lanterns, 70 carnival rides, Monster Trucks, EDM clubs, and of course, Capuchin Monkeys.

Being held in Pomona Fairplex’s 487-acre land since 1922, extreme foods (consisting of anything deep fried, wrapped in bacon, or on a stick) will always be the main attraction despite organizers’ utter resilience to display newer attractions. This year, a new nighttime exhibit, called as Luminasia, will feature larger-than-life Chinese lanterns replicating wonders of the world, LA landmarks, exotic animals, and the twelve symbols of the Chinese zodiac. Also, as an avid animal lover, I’m curious to see what Mojo’s Wild & Crazy Lagoon has to offer. This is no ordinary petting zoo - they’ll have peacocks, monkeys, kangaroos, camels, and many exotic creatures. Definitely don’t miss out Zor when you’re there, they’re fire dancers performing ancient tribal dance using flaming swords, ball n chain, and other fire manipulation tools.

Last Wednesday, August 27^th 2014, I was very fortunate to attend the media tasting of foods to be featured at the Fair.  Me and my brother had a field day. We ate so much, we could barely move at the end of the night. We wanted to try as much as we could for the blog – making sure readers are making the wisest/ informed decision in picking out their foods. Just remember, greasy food should be eaten with care – don’t eat them unless it’s worth it!

With that said, here are the bee’s knees:

1.       Ramen Burger by Keizo Shimamoto

Always been a fan of the original ramen burger. I was the fad chaser who lined up for 2 hours a year ago and I still make my regular visit to their stand in Koreatown. But if you never had one, ramen burger is terrific. The ramen is a little crisp on the outside but breaks apart easily when you bite into them. The quarter pounder patty is definitely the highest quality – it’s cooked medium rare and topped with a teriyaki-like sauce (I presumed it’s a combo of mustard, mayo, onion, and soy sauce). Then the arugula and scallion bring both sweetness and peppery to the party. Anyways, give it a shot – you don’t have to be drunk to eat this – it’s 600% percent better than many of the most overhyped burger joints in LA.

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Giveaway! Tickets to LA County Fair

As you may know from my post last week, the LA County Fair in Pomona is going on until September 30. Fun fried food, Star Trek exhibit, circus performers, beer and wine tasting ...

Because I attended the preview they gave me 4 admission tickets and a parking pass. Unfortunately for me, this month is crazy busy and I can't go so instead I'm giving away the tickets to you guys! I'll be splitting the prize into two so each winner will get two tickets and one will also get a parking pass :) Just follow the instructions on the entry form below and good luck!

Entry-Form

Eating Around LA County Fair

The annual LA County Fair started this past weekend at the Fairplex in Pomona and will go on until September 29. Yes, there's petting zoo (and milking demonstration), Esmeralda's Traveling Circus, magic show, safari show, sharks, and all that, but you know I'm all about the food. As usual, there are tons of fun food around. Fair food!

Chicken Charlie's always has some fun items. This year's includes Krispy Kreme Burger or Sloppy Joe (two mini glazed donuts with either a burger patty or sloppy joe in the middle), deep fried Twinkies, bacon wrapped pickles ...

Deep fried twinkie

There's also a deep fried Dodger Dog although I didn't try this. Where's the chicken in Chicken Charlie, you ask? They do have chicken kebabs which looked pretty good, but everyone's here for the deep fried creations.

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The Foods of LA County Fair. Oh, Deep Fried Kool Aid!

It's time for the LA County Fair! Starting this weekend: Rides, live animals, and of course ... food!

The fair runs from Sept 3-Oct 2 (closed Mondays and Tuesdays), but for the first time, this year they invited food-related media in before the Fair opens so we can sample some of the food they offer. The fair's "specialty" is all the weird fried food from Chicken Charlie's. We didn't get to sample everything but we did try their new fried bbq ribs and the fried Kool Aid!

Fried kool-aid

Think of flavored donut holes (cherry flavored donut holes, perhaps?) dusted with Kool Aid powder. They're actually pretty good, not as weird as I thought they might be! Surprisingly, they're also not as greasy as many donut holes. We heard that the LA County Fair special will be "caramel apple fries" - if you get to try these, let me know what they're like!

For fairs and festivals, a must-item for me is a smoked giant turkey leg! Here they're served by Big Bubba's BBQ.

(here's a pic for size comparison).

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Giveaway: LA County Fair Tickets + Wine Tasting Vouchers!

As you may know, the Los Angeles County Fair kicks off this weekend!

Their PR contacted me to do a giveaway so I'm giving away a PAIR of tickets to the LA County Fair along with some wine tasting vouchers you can use to sample some of the winners of the LA International Wine & Spirits awards.

Besides the usual fair foods (like the bacon-wrapped oreos and deep-fried everything) the food trucks will also be coming to the Fair to keep you sated between the rodeo and circus shows.

Here's how you can enter:

1. Leave a comment below with your name and email address.
2. Get an extra entry by "liking" my Facebook page. If you already have, then you'd automatically get the extra entry.

Since the Fair will start this weekend and we want to get you the tickets as soon as possible, you have until midnight on Sunday, September 5 to enter. Good luck!

September: Upcoming Events!

Thursday, September 2-Sunday, September 5, 2010. Taste of Beverly Hills

This Beverly Hills' weekend extravaganza kicks off with a party on Thursday followed "sessions" starting Friday night. Famous chefs from around the country will be doing demos including Art Smith, Michel Nischan, and of course all the famous local chefs you can think of. Mixology? Brunch? Wine? Choose the right session for you by studying their full schedule.
Tickets for each session is pretty expensive starting at $135 and a day pass starts from $185, but luckily you can get 50% off tickets to The Art of Brunch on Sunday via Goldstar. There is also buy-1-get-1 deal for the BBQ on the Hills on Sunday night.

Thursday, September 2, 2010. FREE Turkey Burgers

Jennie-O Turkey is hosting a Turkey Burger pop-up restaurant and is giving away free turkey burgers to remind people of this leaner alternative to beef burgers (turkey burgers have 10 g less fat and 100 fewer calories than typical beef burgers). The eastsiders get the goods this time, as this is happening in El Monte.
11am-3pm. 11655 Valley Blvd, El Monte, CA

Saturday, September 4, 2010-Sunday, October 3, 2010. LA County Fair

The LA County Fair kicks off this weekend also. For this one you should expect things like deep fried Klondike bars and chocolate-covered, bacon-wrapped Oreos, but if those things turn you off you can go for steamed artichoke. Not to leave you dry, you can also sip on the winners of this year's Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Awards. I'm looking forward to Esmeralda's Traveling Circus myself. Trapeze lessons, anyone?
Wed-Sun (hours vary). Pomona Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, CA 91768

Sunday, September 5, 2010. LA Times Food & Wine Fest

It's LA Times' first food festival. Not only will there be food from LA's best chefs (including Ludo Lefebvre, Suzanne Goin, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, etc) the festival will also feature live performance by She & Him and Angela McCluskey. There will be a VIP-only area with cheese and sake tasting with the Cheese Impresario and a cooking challenge with Michael Voltaggio, but alas, the VIP tickets are sold out.
Thanks to Goldstar, you can now get 50% off non-VIP tickets to this event.
12-8PM. Paramount Studios, Hollywood.

Thursday, September 9, 2010. Taste of FPAC

This is the kickoff reception for the 19th annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture.
The event will feature The Manila Machine, SoCal’s first Filipino food truck and more food from Chef Guerrero, owner of The Oinkster. You can read Pleasure Palate's post for the full menu. Tickets are $50 and includes all food. Beer will be available for purchase. Proceeds benefit The Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture, also known as FilAm ARTS. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Nerissa Silao at nerissa@filamarts.org.
6-10 PM. Oinkster. 2005 Colorado Boulevard, Eagle Rock, CA 90041

Wednesday, September 15, 2010. In the Kitchen with Neal Fraser

Los Angeles Magazine is hosting another culinary demonstration at Snyder Diamond, this time featuring chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD. The night will start with some appetizers from the Snyder Diamond's chef. Chef Fraser will show you how to cook two dishes:
Entrée: Sautéed Day Boat Scallop aged goat cheese risotto and peas
Dessert: Vanilla Panna Cotta, market berries, salted caramel
Everything will be paired with wine by LearnAboutWine.
Tickets are $40. Please call Estrellita Dacanay at (323) 801-0034 to purchase.
7-9PM. Snyder Diamond Showroom, 1399 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica.

Saturday, September 18, 2010. Munch LA - CANCELLED!!

It's time school fundraising graduates from the door-to-door donut sales. Fairfax Highschool is holding a one day festival featuring 30 food trucks, culinary demos, even designer shopping (shopping for Paige Denim or T Bags dresses while munching on kimchi fries?). Tickets are $7 pre-sale and $10 at the door.
11am-5pm. Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose Ave, LA 90046

Giveaway: Wine Competition Swag Bag + Tickets to LA County Fair

I was recently invited to preview/taste the winning wines of the 71st Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition, selected from 3,165 wines by 75 judges. Alas, I can't attend the preview because I'm out of town, but they generously offered a gift bag for me to give away to one lucky reader!

The gift bag, valued at $75, will include:

• A variety of spirits and olive oil samples from this year's competition.
• A pair of tickets to the L.A. County Fair
• Vouchers to the wine-tasting seminars at this year's Fair.

Before you enter, make sure you can attend the L.A. County Fair!





You can get up to 2 entries. Here's how to enter:
1. Leave a comment with your contact information below.
2. Tweet: "Win a gift bag($75 value) from LA Int'l Wine Competition via @gourmetpigs! Enter here: http://bit.ly/afgZxL "
Once you tweet, leave me a separate comment telling me you did so (easier for me to count the entries this way).


Once you win, I will contact you for your mailing address and they will mail you your gift bag.

You have until midnight on Thursday, June 17 to enter. Good luck!

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Also, the LA International Wine & Spirits Competition is also holding a fundraiser, Wine & Cars Under the Stars, where for the first time the public can taste the winning wines. Taking place on June 19, tickets for this event are $100 each and benefit The Learning Centers at Fairplex, which offers educational programming for the community.