The food selection at this year’s Carolina Classic Fair is more diverse – and possibly tastier – than ever, thanks in large part to the continued addition of more food trucks.
The fair, which runs Oct. 3 through Oct. 12, continues to add more food trucks and other mobile businesses – many of them local. Those mobile businesses essentially have filled the void left by the gradual reduction in food booths run by church groups and civic clubs – typically in the brick buildings in the center of the fairgrounds.
Thankfully, there still are a handful of such local groups turning out such favorite foods as pinto beans, Moravian chicken pie, fish plates, and chicken and dumplings. But the influx of food trucks has led to a greater variety of food, especially ethnic fare. The more the merrier, we say.
This year’s list of mobile businesses includes ones offering Filipino-Asian fare, Korean barbecue, Salvadoran pupusas and Indian cuisine. Tim Clodfelter, a radio show host on WTOB, and I found a lot to savor and celebrate.
Gloria Rincon, a native of El Salvador, runs Rincon Salvadoran with a cousin. Her table, set up near Gate 1, sells both Mexican tacos and Salvadoran pupusas – and we heartily recommend the latter.
Based in Winston-Salem, it’s a part-time business, showing up at festivals, such as this year’s Fiesta downtown. “We do authentic pupusas: pork and cheese, beans and cheese, chicken and cheese, or just cheese,” she said, selling them for three for $15 including curtido, the traditional Salvadoran slaw.
Right next to Rincon is Fresh Fruit Candy, which sells tanghulu, a popular Chinese street snack that involves dipping raw pieces of fresh fruit in a hot sugar syrup to form a coating that’s sort of like candied apple but much thinner. “It’s crunchy but not hard,” said Benny Xie, a native of China who came up from Florida to be at the fair. “A lot of people try to copy it. It looks easy, but it’s not.”
The tanghulu, sold in orders of two skewers of fruit, isn’t cheap at $15 for a small or $25 for a large, but it isn’t something you see every day, either.
Raj Ramchandani and his wife, Eshaa Kaur, brought their Annpurna Indian Delight food truck from Cary. “We’ve been trying to get into the fair for four years” Raj said.
This is the first authentic Indian cuisine to be sold at the fair, as far as we know. Annpurna is the Indian term for food goddess, which Raj hinted with a smile and a nod refers to his wife and her cooking talents. The couple is serving up a variety of Indian specialties, including vegetable ($7.99) or chicken ($11.99) samosas, potato cutlets ($15.99, kind of like fritters), pani puri ($10.99. crispy fried balls), butter chicken ($15.99), and tandoori chicken skewers ($15.99).
Some other trucks we wanted to try but weren’t ready to serve the public when we visited include Chef Bhal Asian-Filipino Cuisine, whose menu includes pork lumpia (fried spring rolls) and chicken adobo, and Bulkogi, a Durham truck specializing in Korean beef, gimpbap (seaweed rice) and kimchi nachos.
If you want good, old Southern comfort with a creative touch, we suggest a collard-greens sandwich. This year, three groups in the brick buildings are serving that. Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church – a mainstay at the fair – plus Rising Star Baptist Church and A.M.E. Zion Church. The latter – which dubbed its brick booth Collard Green Corner – does its sandwich open-faced with a choice of fatback or smoked turkey. The turkey version came loaded with meat, and out front were a couple church members destemming and slicing collards, so you know they’re cooking them from scratch. Sandwiches are $10 with just collards over cornbread, or $12 with meat. There’s even an “ultimate version” with meat and yams for $15. The church also has collard egg rolls, or collards or pintos in a mini bucket.
If you want barbecue, try the Chick-N-Que truck near the Coliseum Annex. The truck is run by Queen and Ernest Harris from Wake County. If you close your eyes while eating their chopped chicken sandwich ($15), you can imagine it’s pork. “We’ve had people bring it back, saying we gave them pork by mistake,” Ernest Harris said. “Ours is Eastern style, sweet and tangy,” Queen said. They also sell a popular ostrich smash burger.
And if you just want a burger, the fair has a new truck for that. Robert Thompson started Smash Masters as a part-time food truck in Zebulon in May 2024. In a mere 17 months he has upped that to four trucks and a brick-and-mortar store. Just last month Smash Masters was awarded Best Fair Food at the NC Mountain State Fair.
“We make all gourmet smash burgers,” Thompson said. His regular smash burgers with two 4-ounce patties run $15. Signature burgers, with specialty toppings, run $18. They include the Bussin’ Burger with cheddar cheese, house-made pimento cheese, fried pickles and bacon; and the Rizz, with cream cheese, habanero cheese, jalapeno peach preserves and pickled jalapenos.
If you’re looking for something a little sweet, try the St. Popperville booth among the brick buildings. This Winston-Salem business is back for the second year, selling maple-flavored cotton candy and kettle corn. If you time it right, you might be able to catch them making some kettle corn out front – we recommend it warm straight out of the cooker.
And for anyone riding the Dubai chocolate trend – which involves chocolate, pistachio paste and kataifi (shredded phyllo), you can get a funnel-cake version near the Clock Tower for $16.
We were also happy to see some old favorites back at the fair again including Friedland Moravian Church (chicken pie), Taste Jamaica, Lelo’s Cuban Cuisine, Chicken on a Stick (jerk chicken), Serving and Swerving (seafood), Boom! Boom! Boba and Lorenza Johnson (jumbo fried turkey wings and turkey barbecue).
Oh, and if you get thirsty and want something a little different, try the specialty drinks from Thirst Brothers, a fairly new business owned locally by Nene Crockett and James William Wright. Set up near the Coliseum Annex, they have such creative concoctions as lemonade with a cotton-candy syrup plus cotton-candy garnish, gummies and other candies.
mhastings@wsjournal.com
336-727-7394
@mhastingswsj
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