The Puyallup! (Washington State Fair)

Ok, pretend I posted this a month ago! (I started writing it on 9/20)

Somehow, I  am STILL sick! Not covid, not flu, not strep, just shitty sinuses apparently. I am finally almost better now, I think, with just a few lingering symptoms but I have basically been gross and achy for like three and a half weeks.

None the less! I did partake of the state fair!

It was, well, a state fair. With all the fun foods and cheap rides you would expect at a state fair. The only reason I went to this fair was for food, so I did not partake of any rides or fair games or the alarming number of hot tub and fireplace sales tents that were set up. I did, however, enjoy the show animals! Honestly, I kind of forgot that a big part of a state fair is livestock, so it was a nice surprise when I saw multiple barns full of various show animals! So much so that I had to go back on a second day just because I wanted to see the chickens. 

Having spent much of my life in Oklahoma, I am no stranger to livestock. I even raised chickens, rabbits and hair sheep for a while as fur and food animals. I would never do rabbits again but I love having chickens (and miss them every day) and would do the sheep again if I had more space. It was also very common for students to be in 4-H and miss days for related events- like county and state fairs. I suppose I hadn’t thought much about the livestock portions of the state since I moved to Washington and immediately immersed myself in city life. Aside from missing my own animals and devising ways to keep chickens on my roof that is. So it was quite refreshing and a little emotional to see all the livestock animals at the fair. 

The first day I was there wasn’t as bad as the small animal barn had rabbits and guinea pigs. I have never really been a fan of rodents. They are cute, rabbits are fluffy and adorable and also excellent food animals if that’s what you are raising them for, but as I said, I wouldn’t do it again. I just don’t get along with most rodents in the way I do with other animals. I much prefer chickens! Nonetheless, I enjoyed seeing the rabbits at the fair and admired some of the beautiful coat colors that aren’t as common in standard meat rabbits or pet rabbits. 

The second day I went, a couple weeks later, was a lot harder. The small animal barn had been cleared of rodents and was now filled with chickens and some other farm birds! One of the hardest things for me since I moved here was the lack of birds in my life. For the first time since I was 12, I have no birds. And I am trying to NOT get any more birds until I know for sure I am staying here, or until I get overseas, as was the original intent. (you can check out the main quest, escaping the states, here)

So walking into a barn full of beautiful fluffy chickens, many breeds that I had raised and loved, hit me in the feels a bit. 

Oddly enough, the chickens weren’t the only heart hitting memory that I ran into at this fair! 

Outside of the rides, animals and food, the fair is basically a flea market. Lots of tents of people trying to sell stuff and most of it is random and unrelated to each other or anything fair-like. It was a little odd honestly. Had it been majority crafters and home made stuff, that would have made sense and would have been far more engaging. But it was mostly mass produced cheap crap, and big companies, which was a little off-putting. It felt kind of cheap? Even so, amongst the clutter of capitalist waste, there were a few unique vendors with homemade items or vintage collectables etc. What stopped me dead in my tracks was a blast from my past in a little white tent tucked amongst some other collector tents. 

Beanie babies were basically my entire childhood and I hadn’t seen any of the originals in such a long time! I made a beeline for this tent and immediately started reminiscing and browsing. 

They had so many old models, so many I had, or used to have. Regrettably, I reduced my collection a lot in college and only kept some of my favorites or those I would use in educational programs. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t make it out of there without bringing home a few old but new beanie babies. 

Alright, enough of the nostalgia, I came here for food, right!?

Distractions abound but I did spend too much money and got to experience some interesting and occasionally tasty new fair foods! 

The first and, coincidentally, last, thing I tried was the strawberry shortcake from Fisher. They are known for their scones as one of the original fair foods but the scone was not all that for me. The shortcake though- that was delicious! Just a cup full of cake carbs and artificially sweetened strawberry goop. It was that kind of sickenly sweet that you just know is extra bad for you but you can’t help but take another bite! And then another. And another! This was the most delicious thing I had at the fair, so I had it twice. 

Next on the docket. Oysters. I have never had oysters, but I like other bivalves, shellfish and molluscs so I figured it was a safe bet. Fried oysters, not raw ones. To be honest, I wasn’t specifically looking to try oysters, but I stumbled across a stand that had them so, why not? 

Well, they could have been better? How does one describe the taste of fried oyster? They weren’t really bad, but they were… much. They didn’t taste like clams or any other shell fish or even seafood that I have tried. They were… creamy? A little unpleasantly so. When I eat clams or mussels, there is some firmness to the mantle that provides a little bit of chew texture. Oysters don’t have that. It is like biting into glob of some sort of coagulated liquid. Not pleasant. The flavor wasn’t necessarily bad, or even off putting, at first anyways. But It very quickly became overwhelming and I couldn’t eat more after 2 and a half. I would be willing to try them again from a different source, but as of now, I don’t think oysters are something I am into. The fries were good though.

Time to seek out something I know I do like to restore my faith in fair food. You guessed it. Alligator! Wait, you didn’t guess that? Well, that’s what it is. Alligator. Having grown up in Florida, the irony is not lost on me that the best gator I have had was at the Oklahoma state fair, and state fairs in general tend to have at least one place selling fried gator tail. The Puyallup was no exception. I found my gator tail, and then my companion and I went and hung out in the beer garden for a while. I don’t like most alcohol, least of all beer, so I have no comments on that, other than the beer garden was a nice peaceful place to chill. The gator though, I have many comments on! Namely, that it was SALTY! Sadly, the prevailing memory from that little stick of gator bites was how salty it was! The meat itself was tasty, it was a little chewy from being over cooked but not too bad. But it was like they dipped it in a high salt brine both before and after cooking! Why ruin such a mild meat like that! Alligator and crocodile are both really nice meats when done well, this was not one of those times it was done well. 

By now, I was getting a little disappointed in this foodie fair run and questioned if there was anything that could redeem the fair and appease my taste buds. There were, of course, a ton of food places and I couldn’t try them all, so I needed to be selective in what I wanted. It was time for a short break. One type of attraction I had never seen before caught my eye. A butterfly feeding experience. Now, I have seen this at zoos and such where they have butterfly rooms and breeding projects, but I have never seen a mobile butterfly experience like this. As someone who has worked with animals in a conservation and ecological setting for my life I knew I needed to check into this. As I am with any sort of temporary animal attraction, I was concerned for the health and welfare of the animals involved, even if they are ‘just’ butterflies. Painted lady butterflies, the species used here, are one of a few commonly available species that are also legal to release to the wild in Washington state. They are a short lived species that rarely live longer than 3 weeks once they hit the adult stage. It is entirely possible that any butterflies I was seeing that were in rough shape were at the end of their lifespan. The tent was adorned with multiple flower pots as well as nectar stations so the butterflies had plenty of options beyond people trying to get them to take sugar water off a q-tip. I remain undecided if this is an attraction I would support again or not.

Alright, interesting side stop, back to the food! I needed to find redemption. And setting out a giant rack of raw meat grilling in the sun is a surefire way to get my attention. The smell caught my attention before the sight, but once I did see it, that was it. 

All day, everyday, these pit masters were tending to these massive grills and serving up just insane amounts of perfectly barbecued meats. The savory smell drifts across the fairgrounds, even through all the other sweet and savory smells of the other food stalls. Oddly enough, I am actually not the biggest fan of barbecue, and I haven’t found any particularly impressive bbq places in Seattle, but there is one food I associate with theme parks and ren fairs that is always a hit and almost impossible to screw up. TURKEY LEG! Something about holding in one fist and gnawing on a giant hunk of meat like a caveman is just viscerally satisfying to the inner carnivore. 

With a tummy full of bird meat, I was finally satisfied with my fair food experience. I think it was possibly a net loss with the majority of the food consumed not being that great, but it was about the experience and I had a good time regardless! 

Possibly the most interesting part of the fair was actually the agricultural displays and education about the state’s agriculture products. These areas of the fair were pretty quiet and it seems to me that people were missing out on the best part! There was basically a whole museum within the state fair that had wonderful interpretive displays that detailed the history of the fair and farming and economy in Washington state.

I enjoyed learning about the top agricultural exports and found the beautiful displays to be really engaging. I could have guessed apples and cherries are some of the top products here, but I was surprised to learn that spearmint oil and other herb products are up there as well. I suppose it makes sense though. Can’t turn a corner here without running into rosemary and lavender bushes just growing feral all over the place! Overall, this was the most surprising and impressive part of the Washington State fair. I wish I had taken more pictures, or better yet, video of the experience.