A Southern AfFAIR

Fair season is nearly over, and Gerald and I decided to make the three hour trip to the Mississippi State Fair (because it was two hours closer than the the Louisiana State Fair). We were super excited for various reasons: free biscuits, beard growing contest, pig races, and how could there not be awesome food at a fair in the south?

As it turns out, this is one sad fair.

First, the biscuits were bland and rubbery. Well I guess you get what you pay for. They looked much better than they tasted.

This is not exactly a busy fair. I guess it is so dull that no one in Mississippi wants to bother going. The people were few and far between and for someone that doesn't like to be caught in a crowd that is great, but at the same time it makes you wonder how the fair makes any money...

They really didn't have any original southern foods either. Sure they had what a lot of fairs have: lemonade, funnel cake, fried crap (oreos, Kool Aid, etc) but they weren't pioneering any crazy new fair foods. I settled on brisket knowing that I could get better anywhere else. Hey, I was hungry.

The highlight of the trip was the pig races. The pigs were amusing and one of them decided mid-race to stop and take a dump on the track. Hey when you gotta go, you gotta go. All in all, it was one lame fair. I mean, the "daiquiris" had rum extract in them because they can't serve them legally. Why bother? Worse yet, I didn't get to do any proper mullet hunting because there weren't many people. And I noticed that the big prize in the game area was giant stuffed bananas. Some pirates, some Rastafarians. Interesting.

Piggies!

We did decide to hit Gretna Fest, a fair outside New Orleans that is more of a music festival than anything else. Crawfish nachos, dacquiris, boudin, giant glasses of wine and Lynyrd Skynyrd? Much better!