State-fair food
Summer just isn’t complete without a visit to the fair, but not so much for the has-been rockers and blue-ribbon farm animals. The true main attraction of any fair always will be the artery-clogging food. Classic fair fare always will be popular. Those jumbo corn dogs, saltwater taffies, and variations on the lemonade shake-up aren’t going anywhere. But I’m drawn in by the passing fads of the deep fryer. Gooey Snickers bars, covered with batter and fried to a golden crisp, make me melt. A crispy Twinkie on a stick is five-star junk food. If I feel like being healthy, I’ll search for a stand selling deep fried veggies — some nutrients are bound to survive the heat. I firmly believe that deep-frying increases flavor as well as calories. So go ahead and splurge your whole week’s calorie intake in one afternoon at the fair. Just be careful not to lose it on the Tilt-A-Whirl. -Traci McMurray

Nutella
NUTELLA
MSNBC.com
It is 3:20 p.m. I am drained. It has been a day of deaths: my petunias died; my toilet died; my Word document died. I drag myself to my bookshelf. Hidden behind “The Grapes of Wrath” is my jar of paradise. I pick it up. I open it. There is a sensual smoothness to the cream; I have dipped apples in it, smeared it on bread and layered it on waffles. I realize I have nothing to dip in it. But as my grandmother often said: Sometimes the best thing to dip is ... your finger. Anyway, certain things are not negotiable. Even when I'm on a diet, I sneak in a few licks. (If no one is looking, the calories don't count, right?) I don't share. Ever. So I dip. I slowly lick my finger and taste the hazelnut sweetness. No one is around so I double-dip. I'm ready for the day again. Nutella, thank you. -Monica Bhide

The Cheesecake Factory
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY LOGO
Despite living in the food haven that is New York, I am embarrassed to admit that I end up frequenting … The Cheesecake Factory. Valentine’s Day, birthdays, run-of-the mill Friday night cravings: my boyfriend and I find ourselves driving to the middle of Wayne, N.J., to a mall to wait in a 40-minute line. Any place that gives you vibrating alerts while you wait to be seated can’t be considered haute cuisine, but there’s nothing like Cheesecake's comfort food. While I'm suspicious of restaurants that aim for more than one type of cuisine — say, Korean-Japanese restaurants — Cheesecake indulges in a free-for-all. Their 30-page menu/notebook embraces Asian, Cajun, Italian and American. They do it all and it’s shocking that they do it all well. It’s indulgent for other reasons: huge serving sizes, 30 kinds of cheesecake for desert (not including other cakes and treats). After an overly satisfying meal, we’ll usually waddle back into the car, complain about being stuffed and say that we should try some other restaurant next time — knowing that it won’t be long before we trek back to The Factory. -Sam Go

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Beer and cotton candy
COTTON CANDY AND BUDWEISER
MSNBC.com
Some foodstuffs only work when eaten in context, and the context for cotton candy is: baseball games. Because if you’re going to polish off that hot dog of questionable provenance with something sweet, you’ve got to opt for something as frivolous as sticky spun sugar the color of a baby’s room. But that’s not all. Add in a cup of standard ballpark beer — the bigger the cup and worse the beer, the better the effect. (C’mon, your mouth is full of cotton candy; like quality matters right now.) This is a treat for the seventh-inning stretch: an endless rotation of sugar and carbs, sugar and carbs, pointlessly decadent and completely wonderful. A combo so humiliatingly good that once you’ve tried it, you’ll be hooked. On Barry Bonds’ test results, I swear: Don’t you dare pair these two anywhere but at a game — it’ll taste like crud. But on the hard plastic seats of a stadium, it is the makings of a hallowed tradition -Jon Bonné

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