What’s so special about a cheese curd? It feels like a country food to me — something hearty people eat. My father-in-law, for example, loves cheese curds. He lives up in Boonville, New York, and is originally from Iowa, so it makes sense.
Don’t get me wrong, I love cheese curds. I feel a little spoiled because I’ve been inside a dairy plant while they were making cheese curds, and I got to eat them fresh off the factory floor (no, not literally, but I was right there!). It’s hard to beat cheese curds that fresh.
But I do feel like cheese curds are a Fair staple — definitely out in the Midwest, but why not here in the Northeast too?
These are Wisconsin cheese curds, at least that’s how they’re advertised at The Cheese Curd Shack. You can choose plain, garlic or jalapeño, with either ranch or marinara for dipping. Wanting to honor the Midwest without shaming my Italian heritage, I opted for ranch — I couldn’t bring myself to dip a cheese curd in canned “marinara” sauce.
I will say this: As much as I enjoyed a brief conversation with the people running the trailer and enjoyed the curds themselves, $12 for a small boat of cheese curds felt a little extreme. If you’d told me they were $7 or $8 dollars, I wouldn’t have thought twice. But $12 is quite a bit for what you get, in my opinion.
Are the curds good? Of course. It’s a deep-fried cheese curd — a light crunch on the outside, a light squeak on the inside, just the right amount of oily. Not so oily you feel it running down your fingers or chin, but oily enough to notice.
If they’re back next year, would I get them again? Yes, because again, it’s a deep-fried cheese curd.
But if the price is still $12, will I complain about it again? Also yes.
Special shout out to our friends at GT Automotive for sponsoring today’s visit to The Fair. If you’re looking for a place to take your car, truck, van or any motor vehicle, give them a try — that’s where I take my truck for all its needs to make sure I’m driving in top shape while I travel around New York.
