Among the delicacies at this year’s CNE: deep-fried butter

For those of us who prefer to waddle rather than race between the attractions at the CNE, food vendor Vicky Skinkle is offering perhaps the fattiest of all fried foods: deep-fried butter. These are Timbit-size balls of butter, covered in funnel cake batter, fried in oil, topped with either raspberry, chocolate, caramel or vanilla sauce and dusted with icing sugar. A four-pack is $5, but to avoid any cardiac emergencies at the midway, we recommend sharing.

Skinkle, who operates the Sweet Treats concession stand, already beloved for selling chocolate-covered bacon, didn’t invent the concept. Deep-fried butter was thought up in Texas (where else?), by Abel Gonzales Jr., who unveiled the dish at last September’s state fair. Gonzales, who also pioneered deep-fried Coke, won a trophy for his invention; the concoction is now popular at fairgrounds across the U.S.

Skinkle recently noted to the Star, “In Canada, people are not as open to everything being deep-fried,” the way they are in the States, but we have no doubt Torontonians will gobble up these butterballs. Deep-fried Mars bars have been popular for a long time, and another CNE vendor, Mac and Cheesery, is offering up deep-fried versions of its eponymous treat.

Grossed out? Don’t be. There are worse foods that we could import from the States—maybe next Ex.

• Deep-fried butter latest CNE treat [Toronto Star]