Fine fair fare

CLOVIS — Is it really a fair without the fare?

Fortunately, foodies need not fear any absence of their favorite fried treats for the remainder of the 2017 festivities at the Curry County Fairgrounds.

Funnel cake, cotton candy, corn on the cob and corn in the cup; Kabobs, candy apples and deep fried Twinkies — if it's a carnival classic you can probably find it tonight, the last of these "five days of fun" in Clovis.

You might discover something new, too.

A new crowd-pleaser this year is the "Indian Taco," also known as the "Fry Bread Taco" or the "Navajo Taco."

That's according to David Soto, of Hobbs, who said he's been surprised at the item's positive reception since he started selling it here last year.

"Last year it sold decently but it really caught on this year," he said. He credits that to experimenting with a "Mexican and Indian mix" he's implemented this season.

That involves topping the fry bread — dipped in oil and "big as a tortilla, but thick like a sopapilla" — with meat recipes from his family's kitchen.

"People seemed to especially like my aunt's recipe for a non-spicy picado, but last night I made my mom's stew meat and that trumped everything."

Curious consumers can also enjoy the tacos with the more traditional style of spicy red beans. That's Soto's personal preference, he said, for a food he learned to make from a Native American friend in Phoenix.

For sweet teeth, the bread can also come full-sopapilla style with honey and powdered sugar.

Other adventurous attendees may be disappointed to see a certain item off the inventory from the long-standing "Cowboy Taters of Texas" truck this year near the fairgrounds entrance.

"We usually sold a lot of calf fries. Everyone's been asking but I didn't bring them this year," said Jacob McCandless, referring to the foodstuff known elsewhere as "Rocky Mountain Oysters."

McCandless, of Amarillo, said he's still sold his "Texas Taters" this week just about as fast as he can make them.

"It's just a great big pile of potatoes," he said, referring to the ribbon-cut fried spuds. "You know how it goes — everything's bigger in Texas."

The crowd the past few days has been slower than he remembers, said McCandless, whose parents bought the stand four years ago from owners that had operated at the county fair "since forever."

The ribbon-fried potatoes are ubiquitious among the concessions booths, satisfying the palates of more than mere humans.

"We've been here all week with the pigs," Rodney Bone said Friday afternoon. "Usually I wait to get home to eat. But we gave some of those leftover cowboy potatoes to one of my pigs last night."

"I don't know if the pigs ate all of them exactly, but the potatoes were gone when I came back this morning," he added. "Somebody ate them."

Among some area residents in town for the fair's livestock activities, there's no competing with the classics.

Taylor McCoy said chocolate and vanilla ice cream have stayed his staples in eight years attending the fair, even as the food selections have "improved quite a bit" in that time.

"The turkey legs are always amazing," said Tammy Green, in from Texico to show chickens and goats.

Roasted corn and strawberry lemonade were the standouts for Jack and Jerry McBride, two children in their first year at the fair.

For another pair of vendors selling "old-fashioned homemade sodas and tea," man does not live on bread alone.

"God is the biggest part of our life and that's why we're here," said James Robbins, displaying a new religious design on the collectible mugs in which he and his partner Denece serve their specialty beverages.

Robbins, a self-identitied "cowboy preacher" from Fort Sumner who serves a church in Portales, said his "Christian cup" design has been overwhelmingly popular with fairgoers this year.

On one side of the large steel mug is a cowboy praying next to a horse. On the reverse, a Bible verse is printed in the shape of cross.

"We're giving away a bunch of mugs because God has been good to us," said Robbins.