When it comes to fair food, you can expect the unexpected. To Charlie Boghosian, better known as Chicken Charlie, doing the unexpected means making a salad.
“I’m not known for lettuce and tomatoes,” he said of his exclusive creation for the 2023 OC Fair, a Mediterranean Bowl.
Boghosian was one of several vendors who previewed their new item items for OC Fair staffs from their stands at the San Diego County Fair in mid-June.
Boghosian’s Mediterrean Bowl features half an avocado, chicken with a yogurt garlic sauce, hummus, pickled beets and dill pickle on a bed of lettuce. Boghosian, who gained fame for his deep-fried Oreos, will serve it alongside his more usual fare, which this year includes gigantic deep-fried s’mores on a stick at his Chicken Charlie’s stands.
The bowl is just one of many new and exclusive food items vendors will be selling at the fair, which opens Friday, July 14 and runs through Aug. 13 in Costa Mesa.
Visitors will find dozens of vendors serving traditional fair favorites such as hot dogs and snow cones as well as outrageous takes on the same. That means there will be mashups such as Pink’s Egg Roll Turkey Dog, deep-fried items such as the Snax Shack’s 3 Mustekeers bars, and just about anything smothered in Flamin’ Hot Cheetos dust or chamoy, such as the Snax Shack’s Chili Chamoy Snow Cone Topper.
Dominic Palmieri, another fair food innovator, is glamming up fresh fruit at a stand called Swirls. The item is called Fruit Roll-Up Loco Grapes, and it consists of frozen green grapes on a skewer coated with Tajin Chamoy and wrapped in sheetlike fruity candy.
Palmieri is also serving skewers with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos-coated chicken at his Biggy’s stands.
“We’re trying to figure out some ways people can snack-graze around the OC Fair instead of having just one giant meal,” he said.
Sharables are big at this year’s fair as vendors try to keep down their prices amid rising food and labor costs. The Swirls stand will even have an ice cream cone with two cups called Double Trouble.
“Since we’re now post-post-COVID, we’re seeing that people are sharing again. And that’s not happened in a long, long time,” said Palmieri. “We know this because our fork usage is up 4X.”
Tasti Burger will be serving an item called Nacho Average Burger & Fries. It’s sliced in four sections held together with toothpicks, surrounded by french fries and served with a cup of nacho sauce for dipping.
“We tried to come up with something that was affordable and that you can share,” said owner Lori Sutherland. “Who knew that $18 could be affordable, but right now it kind of is.”
Prices weren’t available for most OC Fair concessions, but at this year’s LA County Fair in May and San Diego County Fair in June, premium items ran $15-$20.
The OC Fair is bringing back its “Taste of Fair Food” discount 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Thursdays, when every food vendor will offer a sample item for $4.
Sutherland will be offering a mini slider for that price for $4, according to the fair’s website, and samples of freshly fried potato chips with toppings at her Tasti Chips stands.
OC Fair
Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa.
When: July 14-Aug. 13.
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday.
Admission: $13 Wednesday and Thursday; $15 Friday-Sunday; $9 for people 60 and older and children 6-12 years old. Advance purchase is required.
Parking: $12
Information: ocfair.com/oc-fair
