Don’t you wish you had that DeLorean from Back to the Future so we could go back to those fun weekends earlier this year at the Florida State Fair and Florida Strawberry Festival? Social distancing? What’s that? We’d never heard the phrase. We walked around stuffing our faces with all that awesome fair food without a care in the world. It wasn’t long after Plant City emptied out when everything started to go downhill.
Well, you can go back in time…sort of. This weekend some of the vendors from the Florida State Fair and Florida Strawberry Festival will offer drive thru service at the Florida State Fairgrounds. They’ll be serving up everything from turkey legs and sausage sandwiches to funnel cakes and caramel apples. There will be popcorn, deep fried Oreos, corn dogs and cotton candy. But one particular item is on the menu that’s a can’t miss.
If you’re a long time listener of mine, you know what I’m talking about. Yes, it’s back Tampa Bay. For 3 days only, you can get your hands on my all time favorite food creation: Funnel Bacon on a Stick. Those words strung together alone should get your mouth watering. Funnel bacon on a stick debuted 6 years ago at the Florida Strawberry Festival. “Mama Jane” Harris creates something new every year for Plant City. This one was such a hit, it was featured on the TV show Carnival Eats. Mama Jane takes a stick of bacon, dips it into her famous funnel cake batter, fries it up and sprinkles powdered sugar and finishes the masterpiece by drizzling a maple butter glaze.
As I mentioned, Mama usually creates something new for Plant City every year and then retires it. Funnel bacon on a stick was the exception. Florida fair food fanatics wouldn’t let it go so she brought it back year after year until 2020 when it was finally retired. (Although she did offer it up for the most loyal hardcore fans for a few hours.) This will be the first time funnel bacon on a stick will be available in Tampa. Mama says they’ll be up and running at the Florida State Fairgrounds Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting around 3pm.