Cassandra's take on the fair feast

As Julie said in her post, we ventured to the Dixie Classic Fair on Saturday, looking for fun and vegetarian food. We spent 10 hours at the fair and didn't come close to feeling devoid of eating options.

THE vegetarian find of the fair for me was the Louisiana Kitchen's marinated and grilled vegetables: mushrooms and thick slices of zucchini, squash and onions. They were wonderfully seasoned and grilled to just the right consistency. I would've been happy with this dish if I got it in a sit-down restaurant -- it was that good, and completely unexpected. (This booth can be found in the long row of food booths nearest Yesterday's Village.)

Another substantial vegetarian meal could be had at one of three Greek-food booths scattered around the fairgrounds (two in the food area and one on the midway). In addition to a large Greek salad, they offered cooked vegetables (onions, squash, peppers and broccoli) on a pita, with lettuce, tomato and tsatsiki sauce. The pita was tasty, but a word of warning: it's quite messy! No wonder they give you a big pile of napkins.

You might not expect to find any vegetarian options at a food booth called Mr. K's Chuckwagon, but there are actually some there as side dishes for their main reason for being, steak bits (a big draw for my carnivorous friends). You can get a garden salad, sauteed mushrooms or new potatoes with chives (very yummy, but not exactly in the health-food category, since they're swimming in butter).

There are quite a few booths offering roasted ears of corn, but my preferred one was Shucker's near Yesterday's Village. They offer a topping area where you can sprinkle your corn with such things as parmesan cheese, lime juice, lemon pepper, chili powder or hot sauce. You can even get it dipped in chocolate or mayonnaise (yep, you read those right). I didn't try either of those interesting options, but friends who did said that both taste better than you'd expect.

Contrary to popular opinion, you CAN eat something totally healthy at the fair. In Yesterday's Village, you can get a fresh apple (Granny Smith, red delicious or golden delicious) peeled and cut in a few seconds into a spiral on a really nifty metal contraption. And it's only 75 cents!

Another out-of-the-fair-ordinary option could be found at the Fountain of Life Luthern Church booth. They make a fruit wrap: a crepe spread with Nutella and filled with bananas and strawberries. I totally intended to go back and try this unusual fair food, but it got late and we didn't make it back by there. Oh well, I certainly had my fill of other foods, as my scale could attest when I got home!

And I didn't try this, but the Vienna Civic Club offers an egg sandwich on its menu.