Pukey cukeys and fried Coke

I spent Friday and Saturday working at the Kansas State Fair, and part of my job is to uncover all the, ahem, unusual culinary offerings.

I've tasted some strange stuff over the years, from Fried Twinkies to Fatballs (don't ask.)

But what I found today... Ugh. I upchuck a little just thinking about it.


The sweet lady selling it calls it "Bling on a Stick." She says she found the recipe on the Internet. Basically, she soaks giant dill pickles in fruit punch for 24 hours, impales them with a stick and then serves them on a bed of powdered fruit punch drink mix. They also come in margarita and grape flavors.


Here they are soaking in their fruit punch bath. The vendor told me that she hates dill pickles but loves these. Claims she ate FOUR of them yesterday! She made me sample mine while she was watching, and it was hard to keep my composure. I can't describe to you how horrendous it was, so I won't even try. But the lady was so sweet, I pretended like I loved it.


Earlier in the day, I'd tried this year's Big Thing -- deep fried Coke.


Not as inedible as a fruit punch pickle, but still pretty craptastic.


Here's the other Big Thing this year. A hollowed out cuke stuffed with crab salad. It looks good, doesn't it?

It wasn't.