BY CHUCK MARTIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Carmen Johnson, left, of Silver Spring, Md. and her sister, Cindy Ritchey of Pickerington, Ohio, eat Subway sandwiches at the fair.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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COLUMBUS -- If you love to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl, pitch baseballs for stuffed puppies or browse the leather undergarments and other "crafts," but are fed up with all the fatty, high-calorie food -- give the Ohio State Fair another chance. The folks who run the fair have heard your desperate cries for something healthy to eat.
"We recognize that more people are eating healthy salads and fresh fruit these days," said Jill Schaller, marketing and public relations director for the fair, which opened Friday in Columbus. "And we have made an effort to bring in more healthy items."
Right.
Ms. Schaller made this official statement while acknowledging she suffers a weakness for those sugar-smothered, deep-fried, wide-as-a-plate pastries called elephant ears.
While we can't dispute Ms. Schaller's efforts to bring more low-fat snacks to the fair, we can say finding these healthy treats is about as easy as scoring big in the toss-the-ping-pong-ball-into -the-floating-goldfish-bowl game.
And that is still easier than finding people at the fair actually eating healthy food.
You might think a concession called "Veg King," for instance, would be a veritable cornucopia of green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and onions. And it is, except that the vegetables are dunked in thick batter and deep-fried.
"The fried blossoming onion is about half of my business," said Veg King owner Ken Squibbs of Hubbard, Ohio. Most of the rest of his sales go to a fried assortment of vegetables.
Mr. Squibbs does offer raw vegetables, but he doesn't list them on his menu. Only a few vegetarians and fair workers want to eat vegetables in the raw, he said.
"It's OK if people have a healthy choice," said Pat Edgington of Westervile, Ohio, while waiting for her fried veggies. "Just don't take this away. I eat healthy the rest of the year and only eat this once."
She no doubt spoke for the splurging majority, who associate the wonderful smells of frying dough, grilling sausages and searing steaks with good, old-fashioned fair fun.
For them, the scent of crisp lettuce, low-fat dressing and fresh fruit just doesn't fit that delicious image.
For them, studying the life-sized butter carving of Sen. John Glenn (in space suit) wouldn't be the same without licking soft-serve ice cream.
"Hamburgers, hot wings, deep-fried veggies, French fries and smoked sausage," said Denise Rogan of Bellefontaine, Ohio, while gnawing on a battered and red-sauced chicken wing. "That's what I come to eat."
People stood in the eye-stinging smoke at Famous Gabby's Kitchen lustfully staring at quartered chickens, slabs of pork ribs, coiled sausages and 1-pound pork steaks sizzling on the grill.
"In general, people are eating more healthy," said Gabby's manager Charles Ivory of St. Petersburg, Fla., while slicing a juicy sausage. "But they come to the fair for this."
A few vendors, like Sam Aljabi of Columbus, are experimenting with salads. Mr. Aljabi, who owns Gyro Express, is selling -- or at least trying to sell -- Greek salads.
"I don't know, we may sell five to seven salads a day," he said, shaking his head. "Sometimes none."
His No. 1 seller is gyros -- rich, sloppy pita sandwiches of thinly sliced lamb loaf, onions and cucumber-yogurt sauce.
Concessionaire Joyce Konrath of Malvern, Ohio, once tried selling salads. Now she specializes in fried cheese, corn dogs and pizza.
"Salads didn't work," she said, while dunking a thick, 5-inch stick of battered mozzarella cheese into a deep-fat fryer. "People love it gooey and fried."
Carmen Johnson of Silver Spring, Md., and her sister, Cindy Ritchey of Pickerington, Ohio, will argue with that. Ms. Johnson bought a veggie sub at a Subway sandwich stand, and her sister ordered a tuna (no mayo).
"We don't eat red meat, and we don't really like fried stuff," said Ms. Johnson. She promised not to touch a bratwurst, fried bologna sandwich or elephant ear during her day at the fair.
She wasn't speaking for her brother-in-law, Paul Ritchie, who had already polished off a cheese-and-pepperoni-stuffed stromboli -- and was still hungry.
"The whole reason for the fair is to eat unhealthy stuff," he said.
With that, his 3 year-old son, Charles, happily stuck a fat French fry into his mouth.
