Forget sticks of gum, grab a stick of meat

It’s no accident that the carnival row at state fairs has a guess-your-weight booth, because just a few rows over are some of the most artery-clogging, ingenious uses of a deep fat fryer you’ll ever see.

Delish has put together a list of the Top Ten Most Unusual State Fair Foods — which range from the tame idea of chicken fried bacon to the questionably named Hot Beef Sundae.

The Indiana State Fair kicks off on August 7, and it’s included for pizza cones — think ice cream cones, except all the ingredients are pizza toppings and the cone is made of pizza dough. For a time before it closed last year, you could have sampled pizza cones at a Kornet Pizza stand — the first in the United States — at the Oak Park Mall. But perhaps some food items are best left to state fairs.

Although Delish had some honorable choices, it seemed to stay on the

main concourse, not realizing that the weirdest fair foods are often

food in the most poorly lit areas. Consider the Kookie Cookie

— a chicken sandwich from the San Diego County Fair that was anything but

ordinary: A fried chicken breast between two oatmeal raisin cookies

covered in cream cheese and strawberry jam. 

But

all of these foods are merely paying homage to the original fried fair

food — the corn dog. Carl and Neil Fletcher are credited with

popularizing the corn-battered hot dogs, known then as “corny dogs,” at the 1942 Texas State Fair.

If you’ve been avoiding the fryolator this summer, there’s still time to get out-of-shape. The Missouri State Fair doesn’t get under way until August 13, while the Kansas State Fair is set for September 11.