Five Crazy Festival Foods

Long gone are the days when festival foods were limited to popcorn, cotton candy, elephant ears and corn dogs. Vendors now get more creative with their menu options — and fat and calories have expanded along with the choices. Here are five crazy festival foods that your waistline won’t appreciate.

- Roasted Turkey Leg. Renaissance Festivals offer a little taste of the old world. But their most popular food offering — the roasted turkey leg — is anything but little. Take a trip to any renaissance festival and you’ll see festival goers ripping into these massive monstrosities with their bare teeth. The renaissance festival turkey legs can reach up to 24 ounces — and a whopping 1164 calories.

- Fried Guinness. Beer tastes great with fried foods, so it was only a matter of time before someone tried to combine the two. Fried Guinness is actually a ravioli-like pocket of pretzel dough filled with Guinness and then fried.

- Deep-Fried Butter. Oh my aching arteries. Just reading this recipe has raised my cholesterol. This favorite of the 2009 Texas State Fair is made by freezing balls of butter (either plain or flavored), wrapping them in dough and frying. And there you have it — artery-clogging, more-fat-than-should-be-legal deep-fried butter.

- Fried Coke. Not a beer drinker (or eater)? How about fried Coke? Coke-flavored batter is deep fried, more Coke syrup is drizzled on top and then whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry tops it off.

- Zucchini Weenie. The addition of zucchini can’t do much to make this festival treat more nutritious. A hot dog is stuffed inside zucchini, battered and fried.

If a few fairs and festivals are still one your weekend agenda, opt for options that aren’t diet destroyers. Look for booths selling items like corn on the cob, popcorn (although if loaded with butter that can be bad, too), gyros or cuban sandwiches. Also, opt for water instead of sugary festival lemonade.