Deep Fry or Bust: Chomping at the Risk of Heart Failure in Mississippi

When we saw the sign on the boiled peanuts stand on the side of the road, I knew we were doing something right. My friend Sarah Weinstein and I had decided to go to the Neshoba County Fair on a day off from camp to see Deanna Carter in concert that night, but our stomachs were in for quite a bit more than that. Though good ol’ county fairs may boast rides, livestock contests, live music, and tacky games in which you win stuffed animals or live rabbits, they are mainly about one thing: good ol’ country food.

As we followed the signs in Philadelphia, Miss.—where the fair takes place annually­—that first sign on the roadside stand was just the beginning of our adventure. At a stand devoid of any sort of pricing instruction (a place where if you looked like you’d pay more, they’d probably charge you more), I purchased a Ziploc bag of boiled peanuts and a box full of ripe peaches that burst with juice and dripped all over my face. The boiled peanuts—eaten by opening up the shell and popping the wet, salty, tender nuts into your mouth—were a perfect complement to the sweetness of the peaches, although heaven knows they weren’t intended to be.

I stopped myself from filling myself prematurely, though, and we headed on to the big attraction itself. Trademarked “Mississippi’s Giant House Party,” the festival lasts for a week every July and specializes in horse races and little cabins that families decorate (hence a “house party”). As soon as we passed a few cabins and came to the main area, I was mesmerized by the countless food options.

We saw corn dogs (both foot-long and regular), onion blossoms with dippin’ sauce, fried catfish, fried shrimp, and other fried seafood, hush puppies (deep-fried balls of sweet cornbread dough meant to complement fried seafood), barbeque, chicken on a stick, and large smoked turkey legs. In addition to this traditional fair selection, one food stand, that of a local Chinese place, had gone all-out with the “on a stick” concept. Aside from the generic stir-fry and egg roll selections, they offered everything from shrimp to shark to gator on a stick.

It was tough, but eventually I chose chicken on a stick with some fresh-squeezed lemonade to drink (in a refillable cup!), and Sarah picked a smoked turkey leg. The woman from whom I bought the chicken on a stick let me know that it was deep-fried in her very own cabin. It consisted of perfect, juicy lumps of chicken in a delightfully delicate black-peppered batter and was perfectly offset by the fried pickles and onions that accompanied the chicken on its skewer. My lemonade was tartly refreshing and full of pulp. Sarah’s turkey leg was sauce-smothered and flavorful, and she munched off the bone like a true southern belle.

After the concert, we once again had to make hard decisions. The dessert options were cotton candy, caramel apples, funnel cake, shaved ice with a self-service wheel of squirt-your-own flavors, ice cream, and deep-fried snickers and twinkies. In the South, deep-fryers reign and are multi-purpose for appetizers, entrees, sides, and desserts. We eventually picked soft-serve cones dipped in a hard chocolate shell and wolfed down their cool, creamy, sweet goodness in about half a second.

Upon leaving that night, without even partaking of the rides or games, our only regret was that we didn’t get the chance to eat more of the food before heading back to dreary sleep-away-camp fare. The dates for next year’s fair are July 21 to 28, in case you get an urge for greasy fingers, a full stomach, and a big helpin’ of Southern charm.