Short notice, but headed to the L.A. County Fair this Sunday. We go every year, and yet I haven’t had a notable meal, snack, or treat from the fair in recent memory. Usually end up at the mariscos stall in the Mexican Village, the fruit and bionicos stand (also in the Mexican Village), Dr. Bob’s ice cream, and/or the livestock area for fresh milk. Last year I tried Harold and Belles shrimp po’boy. Service was great, but I remember the sandwich being overly bready and not very flavorful. Dad and brother had lousy service and food from Dumpling Master, dad later had a mediocre meat pie. Any hidden gems? Disclaimer: not really looking for deep fried fair fare 
I know you said no deep-fried, but my favorite thing to get at the fair is the fresh-fried potato chips. Get it with or without the cheese sauce…but do make sure to give it a squeeze of lime juice and some hot sauce for some extra fun.
Harold & Belle’s bread pudding with the bourbon sauce is quite good, too…share it with friends…it’s a bit too heavy to tackle yourself…and allows more stomach real estate to try anything else that might tickle your fancy.
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Thanks! Fried potato chips sound light enough, at least in comparison to many of the deep-fried monstrosities available at the fair. H&B’s bread pudding sounds like a nice sweet treat.
L.A. County Fair 2016 report back: no best bites of the year, that’s for sure.
Tried Tasti Chips, which I think is the fresh-fried potato chip place attran99 was referring to in the thread above, and they were pretty good. Unfortunately some of the potato slices had stuck together as they were fried, resulting in some underdone bites. A regular size split between two was plenty to accompany our other lunch bites.
I went with a corndog and lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick. Partner tried Farm Burger and gave their double cheese burger a thumbs down. Their signage tries to make them out as a farm-to-table kinda place, but it was just another fair burger. Their stand had words on signs like “cucumber,” “arugula,” and other veggies. Turns out they were just words and not ingredients. Apparently the stand is there year round and the signs just came with the stall. Talk about false advertising.
Both Dr. Bob’s stands were closed yesterday for unspecified reasons. A chocolate milk from the Moo Market made up for it.
Highlight of the day was the mangoneada I had from Tapatia’s (I think) in the Mexican Village. Sweet, spicy, and refreshing. Usually I go for the cup of sliced fruit and cucumber, but this was a nice change. Not the best mangoneada I’ve had, but it sure hit the spot in the Pomona heat. Tapatia’s other snack options include tostilocos and bionicos.
Dinner was sad. My partner and I met my parents at Athenos Greek stall. After I ordered my gyro I see one of the cooks scratch his head sans gloves and then get handed a pita to top. He only put his gloves on right before placing the dish in the pick-up window. I told the cashier if that was my order I needed another one made because of what I had just witnessed. She assured me my ticket hadn’t gone in yet and she hands the gyro to another unsuspecting customer. I wish that I had a) told her that the sandwich should not have been served to anyone and b) asked for my money back and gone across the way to my usual mariscos stall. Instead, the other customer ate an unhygienic gyro and I ate a crappy and flavorless (but at least made-while-gloved) gyro.
I opened our bag of Peanuttles ($3/bag) for dessert and to try and forget the lousy dinner.
Oy. Thanks for the report… 
Sorry your day was a bust @chinchi. We stopped going to their fair after 2 trips…you can only eat so many fried concoctions before they become old and tired.
Aww man that sucks.
I hardly eat at OC/LA Fairs, just go for the concerts and people watching.
I’m glad I’m not jaded like the rest of you about deep-fried fair food. It only comes around once a year so I think it’s fun to go and try the deep-fried fare at the fair.
Bacon wrapped pork belly
Was all the fat properly rendered? No, but it was still pretty good.
Bacon wrapped pickles
These were obviously a salt bomb but delicious.
Chicken in a waffle
Was it the best chicken and waffles I ever had? No, but points for creativity.
Bacon S’mores
There was only a sprinkling of bacon bits on the top which was fine. If you like your s’mores with extra marshmallow, this is the dessert for you. I’m not sure why they put it on a stick because there is no way you could actually hold it like that since there is nothing solid in the center.
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Wow! Looks like you all enjoyed a wide variety of all things fried. I’m not jaded on fried food, I just try not to eat much fried stuff (even at the fair!). That said, the funnel cakes I saw people devouring looked pretty darn good