From old favourites to deep-fried newcomers, Natascha Mirsoch rounds up Ekka's speared foodstuffs.
When you're loaded down with showbags and plush toys there's nothing more practical than food on a stick. Thanks to savvy stallholders, there's a growing number of speared and skewered foods designed for eating while strolling around this year's Ekka.
"Heart attack on a stick" might be a little unfair but we doubt nutritionists would be cheering for this year's newest Ekka food sensation; battered, fried tasty cheese on a stick. But really, who comes to the Ekka for health food anyway?
Known as cotton candy in American, this pastel spun sugar confection that dissolves in to sugar clumps in your teeth and always ends up in your hair was introduced in the 1950s, and has become a staple snack of the Ekka ever since.
These sweet treats are new to the Ekka this year thanks to stallholder Lisa Florio, who imported a machine from China that bakes the stick right into a Belgian waffle batter. They come dipped in chocolate or Nutella, and are topped with a choice of banana, almonds, hundreds and thousands, or the clear Ekka favourite of sliced strawberries.
The battered saveloy is sometimes known a corndog or Pluto Pup, but never ever at the Ekka, where it is always a Dagwood dog, named after a newspaper cartoon character. It's probable the fried snack arrived on our shores via the US show circuit. Slathered in tomato sauce, the greasy sausage on a stick is an Ekka classic.
Deep Shah couldn't possibly count the number of potatoes he's fried, but working more than 200 shows per year, we'd guarantee it's a lot. As he says "everyone likes potatoes", especially when they're spiralled, skewered, deep-fried and sprinkled with flavoured salts ranging from lemon to barbecue.
Ekka 2014 runs until Sunday, August 17, see ekka.com.au
What's your favourite snack on a stick?
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