This state fair food quiz will test you on all your favorites, like cotton candy, fried twinkies, corn dogs, funnel cake and more.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post in which I tried to touch bottom in the pantheon of disturbing cuisine. While I stopped short of nightmarishly horrifying food, like rotten cheese and duck embryos, I explored what I imagined were the worst fried foods imaginable.

In retrospect, I was incredibly naive.

At the end of the post, I asked my readers to submit their own choices for worst possible food, promising to do a little more research and write longer pieces about them. I got a fair bit of responses, which led to a fun post about beer floats. However, Guinness and vanilla ice cream only represented the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and it seemed inevitable that I would return to further explore the wonders that make up the culinary wasteland.

Many of my readers shared tales about their favorite fried food joints. Museum Mouse, for example, turned me on to the joys of Scottish fried cuisine. Having had my fair share of haggis and cock-a-leekie soup, I thought that I had experienced everything that Scotland had to offer. I was wrong. For example, one popular treat is the Stonner, which is basically a sausage wrapped in gyro meat, battered, and deep fried. In Scotland, "stonner" is a euphemism for an erection, which seems ironic, given that coronary occlusions can lead to impotence. Still, I guess we all find our excitement in different places...

I do my best to offer up posts with good recipes, tasty links and interesting food-related news events. I really try not to turn Slashfood into a culinary News of the Weird. However sometimes, the insane excesses that people out there dream up are just too nutty to ignore. The crazy wedding cake doppelganger I posted about earlier in the week fell into that category. And so does this--a burger made out of ground bacon, filled with mozzarella cheese, coated in beer batter and then put in a deep fryer until crispy and cooked through.

A heart-stopper for sure, although I must admit that I'm sort of curious to know how it tasted. Sadly, I don't have the grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, so I fear I will never find out (I don't actually think I could bear introducing my body to this much saturated fat all at once, but darn if I'm not intrigued).

[via Phillyist]

I have never deep fried a turkey. I've never even gotten a chance to taste a turkey that has been deep fried. However, ever since I heard it was possible, I've been hugely intrigued by the process. The first time it aired, I was totally glued to Alton Brown's show (the clip above is from that show) on the best way to fry a bird. Some day, when I actually have outdoor space, I hope to try it. Until then, I will just have to content myself with watching others do it.

Mahalo has put together a collection of video clips from all over the internet that all offer turkey-frying instruction and edification. They also have a helpful page of step-by-step instructions as to what you need to do it right, how to prepare the turkey and the equipment and how to best go about actually frying the bird. If you're looking for an account of how one family deep fries their turkey every year, look no further than the Goodyblog. They offer their recipe as well as pictures of the prep and process. And, oh my gosh, does their turkey look good.

One of the things with which I have fallen in love in recent history is squash blossoms. When I first encountered these, I was slightly turned off by the idea of eating such giant flowers, even though I wasn't unfamiliar with edible flowers. It's just that the edible flowers I've eaten in the past have been small things that have been tossed in with salads.

For some reason, this picture of squash blossoms over on food blog Big City, Little Kitchen makes me want to sit out on a sunny deck with a glass of lightly chilled wine and a plate of these things, as prepared in the recipe for Fried Squash Blossoms in the post. The cool thing is that the recipe, though uses the standard stuffing of ricotta cheese, uses cornmeal as the breading.

The Indiana State Fair, which has been going strong for 150 years now, is a huge event in Indianapolis, where it is held every year. While some traditions, like games, animals and bake-offs are still drawing crowds, the food that is for sale - particularly the fried food - is even more of a draw. The specialty of the Indiana State Fair happens to be deep-fried chocolate-covered strawberries, though some of the other offerings included deep fried sauerkraut and the ubiquitous deep fried Twinkies.

The fried strawberries are pictured above, kindly captured before consumption by a Flickr user and looking at the pile of fried berries, topped with even more berries, chocolate and whipped cream makes it easy to see why it's a popular fair food. But is it better than funnel cake? Better than deep fried snickers bars? What about a deep fried bacon double quarter pounder?

We all know that these foods aren't exactly health foods, but you have to admit that they are hard to resist at a fair. So tell us, what is your favorite fair food? And where can we get some?

It seems like onion rings sell based on smell alone in steakhouses and other restaurants. Too often, they are served in unattractive bricks of onion shreds or have at least three times as much batter than onion per ring. A good onion ring has to - first and foremost - be a ring, and it should be one with a good ratio of onion to batter. Anne, of Anne's Food, has captured what appear to be perfect onion rings. She notes that she would have liked a thicker coating of batter, but the batch in this particular photo looks just right. Another tip for making good onion rings is to use sweet onions, which add a milder flavor and are especially good if you like to add spices to your batter.

Clearly, there are some people who will deep fry anything. Mars bars, Twinkies, chocolate truffles, fruits and vegetables are all fair game for the fryer, but this deep fried bacon double quarter pounder is the first of its kind that I have seen. Bacon was fried and added to two, stacked quarter-pounders (with cheese) and coated in batter before being fried. Click here to see a step-by-step photo essay. The chef says that he ended up eating the whole thing and wasn't hungry again for more than 24 hours.

And what is that beside the burger? It looks like a pile of crispy, fried batter - the savory version of funnel cake - not french fries. This meal could only get greasier if the plate was fried, too.

For the health conscious, a regular double quarter pounder (with cheese) has 731 calories and 45 grams of fat (91% of the RDA of saturated fat). Add in the bacon (3 pieces) at 120 calories and 9 grams of fat. Add in the deep frying and the batter and, though I won't hazard an exact guess, you can bet that's a lot of extra fat.

Nabisco makes more than a dozen varieties of Oreo cookies, not including the ones that have their fillings dyed for each holiday, in addition to 4 Oreo ice creams and 8 other Oreo-related products. They do not sell what is rapidly becoming one of the most popular types of Oreo, albeit the unhealthiest: deep fried Oreo's.

A popular fair and carnival food, just like the deep fried Snickers bars, it involves dipping an Oreo into a thick batter and popping it into a sizzling hot pot of oil. When pulled out, hot and crispy, they are topped with powdered sugar and served. According to many,  they are delicious and more easily justifiable than a Snicker's due to their relatively small size. One blogger described them : "The Oreo loses it's hard crunchy texture and becomes a warm chocolately cake delight. The creamy center melts and creates an inner glaze." Should you want to risk the health hazards of deep-fried foods for the delights of one of these treats, you can find instructions both here and here.

[Image the farmers wife] 

It's a testament to a truly consistent and excellent chef when foods that are nearly always disappointing at your run-of-the-mill restaurants are, instead, perfectly prepared, texturally impeccable, the promise realized. So it was with Tani's fried oysters, a special that my husband often orders but (at any other establishment) I always find greasy, improperly cooked, gritty and fishy tasting. But these oysters, these were enough to make me fall in love all over again with the mollusk. The breading was crisp but not fat-laden, light but flavorful, the dish an amazing juxtaposition of fleshy oyster, delicate coating.

I have to admit, as much as I love to watch the college bowl games for the sport (I am currently watching the Orange Bowl and I can't believe this ridiculous maneuvering by JoePa), I kind of love the food. I mean, at what other time can you completely, guiltlessly binge on burgers, Buffalo wings and cheap beer?!?!

I love me a Buffalo chicken wing (nothing easier than tossing naked wings into a 375 degree Fry Daddy, then tossing with a 1:1 mixture of hot sauce and melted butter and a splash of cider vinegar). But lately I've been getting into boneless Buffalo "wings," which are really made from chicken breast meat. I guess in some twisted logic, using breast meat sounds healthier; never mind that the chicken is breaded and deep fried, and that you will eventually dip those chicken breast strips in Bleu cheese dressing.

So much for those New Year's resolutions.But I'm telling you, resolutions don't kick in until after the Rose Bowl