You guys are making me hungry.... Here in Remulak we call it fried dough, and it's for sale at all the fairs, but different at each of them. The best is at the Ashfield Town Fair, where the church ladies all bring their electric frying pans and extension cords and set up in the church and in between replacing blown fuses and putting out the fires started by the overloaded extension cords, they fry up dough and slather maple cream all over it and -- those of you who aren't from sugar maple country might not be familiar with maple cream. When you boil down maple sap past the syrup stage but stop short of maple candy, you get maple cream. It's about the consistency of supermarket peanut butter and when you spread it on hot fried dough it softens up and melts and drips. There are other topping options at the Ashfield Fair but everybody always gets the maple cream.
You wait in line outside the church for a few minutes, and then you enter the stygian blackness -- they've blown the fuse again -- no matter, in a moment the fuse is replaced and the lights come back and you see a row of tables with electric frying pans each tended by a church lady -- all dressed up and hatted because after all even though it isn't the Sabbath they are in church ... smoke wisps up here and there from the tangle of extension cords ... but it's overpowered by the mouthwatering scent of fried dough! You hand over a mere pittance to the church lady of your choice and try not to drool as you watch her cook your feast -- you don't want to waste the saliva -- you're gonna need it! The fried dough is as big as an electric frying pan can hold and about two inches thick and she slathers maple cream all over it half an inch thick and places it on an inadequate half dozen giant-size paper napkins -- and as soon as you have it in your hands the church ladies shoo you out -- warning you to watch your step; the footing is insecure with maple cream drippings....
Once out on the porch you sit on a bench and proceed to get maple cream all over yourself -- your hands, up to the elbows, your pants, your shirt, your chin, your ears....
I don't think I can wait until the fair ... I'm going to have to learn to make fried dough.
