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As Dallas Observer‘s Cheap Bastard, Alice
Laussade, so eloquently put it in this
week’s cover story, fried food at the State Fair of
Texas might have jumped the shark, thanks to Mark Zable’s fried
beer. Zable’s creation won this year’s Big
Tex Choice Awards’ Most Creative prize. The annual
fried-food contest has been a kingmaker since 2005. Chief among the
fried monarchs is Abel Gonzales, who brought fried Coke and fried
butter to the three-week bacchanalia of heart attacks in waiting.
Not all is deep-fryer one-upmanship. The Parish
family, who have operated Carousel Concessions at the State Fair
since 1985, are bringing a homegrown favorite to one of the nation’s
most popular state fairs: Cool Aid Pickles. “Growing up in Oak
Cliff, Cool Aid Pickles were always a neighborhood favorite.
Recently, their popularity began to resurface and we picked up on the
growing trend. My sister, Tracy Tolbert, came up with our own version
of Cool Aid Pickles,” said Greg Parish, son of Robert L. and Norma
J. Parish, who opened The Popcorn Market & Grill (formerly The
Popcorn Factory) in 1983, and were the first vendors to sell popcorn
at The Texas Motor Speedway.
Because the treat has been garnering more attention, the Parish
family decided to premier Cool Aid Pickles at this year’s Taste of
Dallas. “We thought we had enough to carry us through the duration
of the Taste of Dallas, but we sold out by Saturday afternoon.
Customers would come up and ask about them. Then, they tried them,
and then they came back and purchased more. People were even taking
pictures of themselves eating the pickles. We were amazed,” he told
City of Ate. The next logical step was offering them at the family’s
two State Fair stands, one in the Tower Building (a.k.a. the Food
Court) and the other near the Pan American Building.
Naturally, he was hesitant to divulge much
information about the recipe. “It’s a dill pickle marinated for a
few days in Kool-Aid Punch. There are more steps that I cannot
share.” The pickles are served cold and are simultaneously crunchy,
sweet and sour, he said. One pickle will set back fair-goers six
coupons, or three dollars, a reasonably priced alternative to some of
the comestibles’ damn-near price-gouging status and maybe just the thing to remedy the late September to mid-October heat. “We
think they’ll be a big hit.”
