Vendors with flare for flavors serve up customers at Mississippi Valley Fair
After 18 years at the Mississippi Valley Fair, Pat Jones is “cooking the same old garbage” — only it’s good for you.
The usual deep-fried food vendors lined the streets of the fairgrounds, but cooks like Jones are more on the unusual side of the street with their lean meats. As he slapped a few more tenderloins onto the giant grill and sprinkled them with spices Thursday, Jones entertained curious passers-by as his wife, Leah, served a line of hungry customers.
“It’s not grease,” he said. “It’s not like all the other stuff you get at the fair.”
The Osco, Ill., couple runs Pat and Leah Meats from their hometown and sells to five different companies. When a familiar face stops by and asks when he’s retiring, Jones replies it will probably never happen.
“I’ll probably die cooking,” he said.
The smell of pork chops, tenderloin and ribeyes lured families to the grill’s location, the nearest one to the entrance.
Donovan Johnson of Park View, Iowa, said he had been there before. “He’s right,” Johnson said about the low level of grease in his sandwich.
“The kids get funnel cakes,” he said. “A bite or two is good, but the whole thing is too much.”
At the funnel cake stand, Courtney Sandefur and her fellow workers make about 220 funnel cakes per day. But she will probably eat only one cake during the entire fair.
The workers hardly ever eat the funnel cakes “because we make them,” Sandefur said.
Steve Fowler of Steve’s Meat Shop in Montpelier, Iowa, has been traveling to the fair for the past 17 years. “We try to have the best and tenderest food,” he said.
After 11 years of cooking at the fair, Heidi Heirigs’ tent sells sweet corn, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes and their famous Muscatine watermelons. The family business comes every year to offer tasty, healthy food.
“We’re the only people who sell sweet corn,” Heirigs said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s fun because we’re together.”
Situated halfway between Pat and Leah Meats and Steve’s Meat Shop, there’s “Fried What!” where fried Twinkies, Oreos, Snickers and pickles grace the menu.
In its sixth year at the fair, the Texas-based business deep fries nearly everything in a transfat-free homemade batter.
“We started doing the Twinkie, and it just kind of evolved,” said owner Norm Bowers, who said she and her partner, Barbara Beler, also created chocolate-covered Twinkies and fried key lime pie.
Cooking and baking demonstrations will be held at 10 a.m. today at the Heritage House and Poison will be the Grandstand performer, beginning at 8 p.m.
The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.
Fair schedule
TODAY
9 a.m. — 4-H market beef and bucket calf show
10 a.m. — Heritage House opens with cooking and baking demonstrations
11 a.m. — Carnival opens, Great Cats of the World, Air Glory opens
Noon — Frisco Petting Zoo opens, chainsaw artist Pat Doyle, diving show, Rock It the Robot
12:30 p.m. — Frog jumping championships, Great Lakes Timber Show
1 p.m. — Belgian hitches, Great Cats of the World, stiltwalker Todd Lagessie, Dave the Horn Guy, antique tractor parade
1:30 p.m. — BMX bike show
2 p.m. — African Acrobats, chainsaw artist Pat Doyle, Chris Short Puppets, Rock It the Robot, Frisco’s tiger and elephant show
3 p.m. — Dave the Horn Guy, Great Cats of the World, stiltwalker Todd Lagessie
4 p.m. — Frog jumping championships, African Acrobats, Frisco’s tiger and elephant show, impersonators Steve Bobbitt as Rod Stewart and Greg Toland as Elvis, Rock It the Robot
5 p.m. — Great Cats of the World, stiltwalker Todd Lagessie, Chris Short Puppets, chainsaw artist Pat Doyle, diving show
5:30 p.m. — 4-H fashion show, Dave The Horn Guy, Great Lakes Timber Show
6 p.m. — BMX bike show, Belgian hitches, Rock It the Robot, Frisco’s tiger and elephant show, impersonators Steve Bobbitt as Rod Stewart and Greg Toland as Elvis
6:30 p.m. — African Acrobats
7 p.m. — Chainsaw artist Pat Doyle, Love Dogs, Great Cats of the World, The Drifters, stiltwalker Todd Lagessie
7:30 p.m. — Spike
8 p.m. — Poison at the grandstand, Dave The Horn Guy, BMX bike show, Frisco’s tiger and elephant show
8:30 p.m. — Diving show, Great Lakes Timber Show
9 p.m. — Great Cats of the World, Chris Short Puppets, frog jumping championships, The Drifters
9:30 p.m. — African Acrobats
10 p.m. — Impersonators Steve Bobbitt as Rod Stewart and Greg Toland as Elvis