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News-Sentinel reporter Maggie Creamer happily accepts an order of funnel cake topped with chocolate sauce, strawberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar at the Lodi Grape Festival on Thursday. The News-Sentinel judges named funnel cakes as their favorite festival food. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)
Tracking down the best eats at Lodi Grape Festival
There are few pleasures in life more gratifying than indulging in some fair food. Sure, holding your newborn infant for the first time or saying "I do" to your soul mate are all well and good, but there is something to be said for walking around the Grape Festival with a Lockeford Sausage in one hand and a strawberry lemonade in the other.
Thursday at the Grape Festival, reporters for the Lodi News-Sentinel toured the grounds and sampled fares of the fair.
The festival has all types of treats to indulge your sweet tooth and fulfill your desire for salted and cured meats. There is no absolute right way to go about the day, but starting off light, moving to heavy and treating yourself to dessert seems like a good way to enjoy the festival and not burn yourself out.
The Fire Roasted Sweet Corn is as good a place as any to begin your tour. These perfectly ripened ears are grilled to perfection. The workers will ask you if you want it dipped in butter, and it's a festival, so you better tell them to dunk it in the vat and walk away. After they fish it out you can enjoy it as is or top it with some seasonings. A table off to the side features seasoning salts, hot sauces and lemon juice with which to smother your once-healthy treat.
Another stop worth visiting is Gyros, a new addition to the festival. The classic Greek sandwich is served with a mixture of lamb and beef and topped with lettuce, tomato and yogurt, and served in a warm pita. The chicken gyro is outstanding. The chicken is moist and tender and seasoned with little more than salt and pepper. It's a great dish on a hot day. It can be served on its own or with a Greek salad featuring kalamata olives and feta cheese.
After walking around in the hot sun, you have a multitude of choices to cool you down. You could go with a blended margarita or frosty beer, but festivals are the perfect place for an ice-cold lemonade, especially when you are on the clock. The lemonade stand shaped like a lemon is the best place to look to satisfy your craving for the sweet and sour treat. The classic is outstanding, but our panel was more impressed with the strawberry lemonade.
There's so much to sample: burgers, ribs, pizza, kettle corn, sausages, hot dogs, corn dogs, sweet and sour chicken — but it would take the whole festival to try them all. And that's only the stuff that doesn't qualify as dessert.
When it comes time for your sugar fix, Ron's Pies is the place to go. The cheesecake is the ultimate comfort food. It's like a hug on a plate. The peanut butter cream cake is velvety and rich. For a lighter treat, shaved ice is also a good way to go. The classic festival favorite comes with your choice of syrup and can easily serve as the perfect end to a perfect day.
Contact Jordan Guinn at jordang@lodinews.com.
News-Sentinel reporters Lauren Nelson, left, and Maggie Creamer sample tacos and enchiladas from Negrette Enterprises Mexican food at the Grape Festival. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)
Five fair favorites
1. Funnel cake: What could be better at a festival than a soft and crunchy fried treat smothered in chocolate sauce and topped with glazed strawberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar? The general consensus was that this treat was worth having on multiple occasions and will be sorely missed when the festival ends. Don't miss it.2. The Monster Dog (corn dog): Well over a foot long, this tasty treat was a shocker to the panel. The crust was a golden cornmeal coating that clung to the incredibly moist hot dog. The coating of the corn dog was so good it could have been served on its own. We topped it with mustard, but it hardly needed a condiment. We would have put ketchup on it, but ketchup has no place near sausage.
3. Lockeford Sausage: This classic favorite was served with sautéed onions and sauerkraut. It was served on a whole-wheat sesame seed bun and was exploding with flavor. The grilled sausages were perfectly spiced and not at all overpowering. They were incredibly juicy as well. Top it lightly with some mustard and enjoy.
4. Soft beef taco at Negrette: This dish was satisfying on all levels. It was inexpensive, it was perfect for walking around with and its perfectly blended seasonings didn't overpower us. The fresh romaine lettuce, soft tortilla and fresh cheese make this dish a solid choice.
5. Ron's Pies (cheesecake): Featuring two secret ingredients that he wouldn't release to us, this cheesecake is light yet satisfying. Our panel was full by the time we got to Ron's Pies from consuming nearly $100 in festival food, but we scraped the plate of this dish. It's that good.
Everything you need to know about the 72nd Lodi Grape Festival
When: Today, Saturday and Sunday.Where: Lodi Grape Festival, 413 E. Lockeford St.
Information: 369-2771, www.grapefestival.com.
Times
Today: Noon to midnight.
Saturday: Noon to midnight.
Sunday: Noon to 11 p.m.
Admission
$8 for adults.
Free for children under 5.
$4 for children ages 6-12.
Festival tickets are on sale at www.grapefestival.com or at the Grape Festival office, Food-4-Less and Rancho San Miguel.
Parking
$5 at the Lodi Grape Bowl parking lot, as well as at the Union Pacific lot south of Lockeford Street. Lockeford Street near the Grape Festival will be turned into a one-way street, with the flow of traffic moving east to west.
Lauren Nelson, right, takes a bite of grilled corn held by Maggie Creamer at the Grape Festival on Thursday. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)
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Reader Feedback
Uncle Stinky wrote on Sep 21, 2009 7:28 PM:
edumacation wrote on Sep 19, 2009 7:20 PM:
Do some research on this one---its sure to get us on the Letterman show---like another Mr. Pickle story.
Look at this link at the LNS-
http://www.lodinews.com/crime/
You will note that for the week ending September 18, we have lots of weird police calls. Look at calls numbered 276,282,350,376,404,408,412,416,417, 438,464,465,470,548,543,539,534,594, 587,576,574,572,559,603,655,656,634,635,628, plus many many more calls to 911 about "..a suspicius circular object in the sky..." between 8pm and 6 am.
Just this short list is at least 29 calls about the same phenomenon. All I can guess is that these people have never seen the moon befiore, or they have been sampling too much of the Lodi Red.
What do you think? 911 calls because of tinfoil hatted Lodian or too much Zin?
This could be news even if our LPD cops were racing out code 3 to see the moon? (...a suscpicious circular object..)" ROFL "
dogs4you wrote on Sep 18, 2009 6:40 PM:
Observer wrote on Sep 18, 2009 6:15 PM:
dogs4you wrote on Sep 18, 2009 6:03 PM:
kurtnann wrote on Sep 18, 2009 5:24 PM:
weezer wrote on Sep 18, 2009 3:44 PM:
Whoa Nellie! wrote on Sep 18, 2009 2:11 PM:
And this year the story was "only" LNS reporters. At least the last couple of years they had "food experts" from the community give their opinion on the fair grub.
The Grape Festival is a tired Lodi Tradition, good or bad. For anyone over the age of 11 it is more of a social event to see friends, eat junk food, and for us "old timers" to enjoy some of the grape murals (a dying art form- now there's a story idea!). "
midtowner wrote on Sep 18, 2009 1:32 PM:
Mark my words, LNS will have a picture of a fallen tree on the front page the day after the first windstorm of the season. It is really not newsworthy unless someone is injured or dies. "
JustTheFacts wrote on Sep 18, 2009 1:31 PM:
Enjoy your weekend folks. "
Observer wrote on Sep 18, 2009 12:55 PM:
weezer wrote on Sep 18, 2009 12:06 PM:
dot dot dot wrote on Sep 18, 2009 9:22 AM:
boonablis wrote on Sep 18, 2009 9:09 AM:
Bob Hussein Loblaw wrote on Sep 18, 2009 8:39 AM:
perniciouspizzazz wrote on Sep 18, 2009 8:32 AM:
PAL wrote on Sep 18, 2009 8:30 AM:
Anyway, went last night, had a great time. Even got hypnotized....I have hold of the DVD and it is locked away forever...lol. "
midtowner wrote on Sep 18, 2009 6:45 AM:
Comments on this story are now closed.