Is Carnival Food Too Much?

 I feel like the world of carnival food has changed a great deal over the last decade or so. As a person that gets sick on rides, the average carnival only offers me two things really. First of all it offers me a chance to look at life in the more rural areas of the world, secondly it offers me food. In particular carnivals offer me food that I can't really find outside of the carnival gate. I always have a great time visiting carnivals, and in particular tasting the food (despite my stomach aches afterwards).

Having said that, not all carnival food is equal. There are two categories of carnival food that I really love. The first is the local specialty. Often carnivals will offer food that is made local by people who may sell their treats and meals at around the area where the carnival takes place. These can be anything from baked goods to specialty meats, even some local restaurants might pop in now and again. Food trucks have also made their presence known in many carnivals, and it's great. It actually seems like the last place in the world where chain restaurants are not the leaders of the food industry. While I've seen a few chain restaurants with stalls at carnivals, most of them don't really have long lines. 

The other food I love from carnivals is the classic carnival treats. These are often simple treats that give zero interest in nutritional value. Most of these classic carnival foods focus on your primal instinct to consume carbs, sugar and fat. It could be a waffle ice cream sandwich.

A corn dog with mustard, an essential topping I might add.

Or the only essential thing for us to get every time we visit a carnival, the mini doughnuts (from Tiny Tom Donuts whenever possible). These classic carnival foods prove that dietary rules do not count at the fair, and any stomach ache you might have afterwards came from being in the sun too long or too many rides on the Gravitron and not the amazing amount of fat you just consumed.

There is one type of food however that always makes me nervous at carnivals. It's the over the top stunt food that seems like it just shouldn't work (above is a deep fried Twinkie that just didn't taste great).  While I like over the top food, I have a problem with the latest trends in this kind of food at carnivals. First of all I feel like many of the options are not going to surprise you in how good they actually are.

Take for example this recent treat available at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. Ketchup and Mustard flavoured ice cream. I saw several videos and post of people trying it out, and almost all of them didn't really like it that much. It makes sense, it doesn't really seem like something people would like. The second problem with this is that unlike many carnival foods, stunt foods like these are often very expensive. I believe each cone costs around 12 dollars. It became a treat for social media influencers with a bit of extra money. I don't totally hate the idea of stunt food at carnivals, but I feel like some foods are a little bit outside the carnival spirit. Don't dare me to eat something at a carnival, make something so weird, yet so tempting that you have to dare me not to buy it.

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