August 30, 2004

• "..do you guys have state fairs, or something similar?" Yep.
• are they popular, nostril? do you go? my only regret is the top pies were off being judged so we couldn't see them. heh. and petting a llama was cool. i'm a sucker for farm animals.
• We have food fairs. And on a smaller scale, something called pasar malam, Malay for "night markets". People set up stalls on any area handy (field, side walks, void decks), and sell stuff like deep fried kebabs, chicken drumsticks, Taiwan sausages, and stuff made from turnips, kueh-kueh, and loads of other stuff, edible and non-edible.
• It's also time for the Minnesota State Fair. My favorite parts are the butter sculptures. If you need help finding the cheese curds or deep-fried Twinkies, use the Food Finder.
• The most frightening ride I ever went on was at the Agricultural Fair in Truro, Nova Scotia. It looked like a ferris wheel, but with strange cages above the seats - my aunt and I happily went up, and prepared for a gentle view of Truro and the surrounding countryside. Then the car started rocking. I was young, and a bit rambunctious, and my aunt told me to quit rocking the car. But I wasn't, and it started rocking harder, and more, - and then we were flipping around in 360 degrees! The wheel kept turning slowly on its axis as we whipped around the smaller one of the car. Change fell out of our pockets, I nearly lost my glasses, we were frightened to death and laughing our heads off. (Fortunately we both liked fast rides). After we got off, we had adrenilin running through our veins and stupid grins on our faces for ages. To this day, I've yet to find another ride as much of a surprise, or as much fun. God bless small country fairs.
• cabingirl!!! yes, how could i forget life-sized butter sculptures. that's one of the weirder things to try to explain to non-midwesterners.
• I love the Tilt-a-Whirl. Here in Winnipeg, they have the Red River Exposition, which I think is like a state fair, but I've never been to it.
• We've got a state fair, a mid-state fair, a county fair AND (since that's clearly not enough fairs) we have a city-sponsored one as well. I took a friend-of-a-friend visiting from Germany to one her first day in America, she especially enjoyed the funnel cakes and pig racing, though the allure of the corn dog was lost on her.
• mmmm, corn dogs....
• I'm a Midwesterner, I've been to the Minnesota state fair, I've seen the butter sculptures, and I still don't understand them. I mean the concept is simple enough but the only thing that comes to mind upon hearing "life-sized butter sculptures" is "???".
• Show Week (as we call it here) is next week. Rides, animals, dubious freak shows, cake and flower contests, woodchopping competitions, stunt drivers, fireworks, that sort of thing. Lots of country people come in for it. Rubes!
• City slicker! (Not that I've been to a fair in the last 30 years.)
• Yay for spring! Our Show Weekend is at the start of November (to tie in with the provincial anniversary) and is pretty much the same, except with polo. Because everyone loves polo. Oh yeah, and whitebait season begins shortly, so Show Weekend is about eating as much whitebait as you can. Whitebait are teeny tiny fish that grow into boring middlesized fish, and are really, really good fried in batter and served with Worcestershire sauce. Because they're so wee, you get to look them in the eye as you eat them. It's great.
• tracicle, your whitebait sounds kind of like our smelt! i can still remember when i was a little SideDish going down to Lake Michigan with my dad to see all the fisherman at night with their smelting nets. cool.
• Close, SideDish, although whitebait are about a third of the size of the smelt - about 5cm or 2 inches. The dip net and seine sound similar to the catching methods for whitebait too. I've never been whitebaiting but apparently catchers are very territorial about the part of the river they use and return every year to the same spot. It's a pity I can't somehow send some to you, but the results would be...icky.