Not for those on a diet.

I recently visited the Wisconsin State Fair and man, was I in for an experience. It was about 75 degrees and sunny with about 60% humidity, which on a summer day in Wisconsin, is somewhat bearable.

My Midwestern fair experience started off with a bang by witnessing a sea of people not only crowding the fair, but jamming surrounding traffic and side street parking. This fair has got to be good if the leftover parking is in a local’s lawn.

Between inevitable people- and animal-watching, I started to gradually ease into the fair concessions by eating ribs ‘n’ chips and sipping a homemade lemonade. Up next was the irresistible roasted, buttery, and salt and peppered corn-on-the-cob deliciousness. It would be a sin to not eat the corn from the Midwest. At this point, I was feeling good about the fair food so far.

But wait, what is this—deep-fried s’mores? I guess this shouldn’t have come to be a surprise to me since every other booth pretty much had something deep-fried, which included Wisconsin’s famous cheese curds.

Deep-fried s’mores were on the lower end of the indigestion scale compared to the chocolate covered bacon on a stick—one of 53 items edible on a stick. I think the biggest gut explosion had to be the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger and yes, this is exactly what you think it would be—hamburger meat sandwiched between a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

WI State Fair from Keisha Kelly on Vimeo.

Although I passed up the deep-fried s’mores, chocolate covered bacon, and a Krispy Kreme hamburger, my sweet tooth led me to Wisconsin State Fair‘s famous cream puff made with homemade whip cream; a mass-produced fair dessert that lures in hundreds of fair-goers and forces them to wait in line. I know you’re wondering how I clenched my thirst after such a dessert. Of course, nothing beats flavored milk samples for 25 cents each! So down the hatchet goes a cherry vanilla and a root beer flavored milk sample to wash down the endless guilt of the day’s fair food.

After all was said and done, I exited the fairgrounds wobbly, stuffed, sleepy and wondering where the nearest wheel barrel would be to carry me out! This fair experience left me with the realization that the most successful fairs are designed around the ultimate fair food—high calorie, deep-fried, and making you want more.