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Heading to the NYS Fair? Here's some of the food that WRVO reporters tried

There's a lot of food at the New York State Fair. To help narrow your menu, WRVO's Ava Pukatch and Abigail Connolly tried a bunch, with one recommendation: food on a stick can never lead you astray.

Abigail Connolly
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WRVO

We started off with a trip to Pizze Frite — Ava is a New York State Fair rookie and heard this was a "must eat" at the fair.

"I like it better than a funnel cake," Abigail said. "I think it's a little lighter on your stomach. One thing you have to watch out for — the sugar definitely falls — so they are messy."

As the sign states on the shop, the consensus was the Pizze Frite was indeed "dough-licious". We paid $5 for a two-footer.

To quench our thirst we opted to try a pickle lemonade. To make it they pour lemonade halfway, add a scoop of pickle juice and fill the rest with more lemonade. Some pickle chips are added as a garnish to the cup.

"I think they make this for people that like drinking the juice straight from the jar and this is just a way to make it more socially acceptable," Abigail said.

Pickle lemonade cost us $7.

Pickle lemonade
Ava Pukatch
/
WRVO
Pickle lemonade

We headed over to the Stix & Things booth next. The spot sells a variety of exotic foods on a stick featuring gator, shark, kangaroo, wild boar, elk, shrimp, chicken, steak and turkey leg. We opted to try the shark, which we learned was sourced from Boston.

Shark on a stick
Abigail Connolly
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WRVO
Shark on a stick

The shark was one of the cheaper options of the bunch at $9.

"It tastes like most white fish," Ava said. "You can kind of taste the fishy flavor but it pretty much just tastes like most generic white fish you've had before."

Looking for a hearty lunch option we set our sights on a sausage sandwich. Almost every politician who visits the fair will eat one and we wanted to see what the hype was about.

For Ava the fair rookie, this was the moment in making her a true New Yorker. We shared the $11 sausage sandwich at Basilio Italian Sausage.

Basilio sausage sandwich
Ava Pukatch
/
WRVO
Basilio sausage sandwich

It lived up to all the hype with the pepper and onion adding just the right touch. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Basilio will be getting a new building next year at the fair.

We ended our day visiting the Dairy Products building. The first stop: the $0.25 milk.

Both of us opted for chocolate.

"It tastes like I'm drinking soft-serve ice cream," Ava said.

"It's really cold, I'm impressed by that too," Abigail added.

We had virtually no line around 3:45 p.m. — hitting a little lull between the morning and the evening fairgoers.

A worker pours a cup of $0.25 milk at the New York State Milk Bar operated by Cornell Cooperative Extension
Ellen Abbott
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WRVO
A worker pours a cup of $0.25 milk at the New York State Milk Bar operated by Cornell Cooperative Extension

And for our grand finale: frozen cheesecake on a stick from the Sterling Creek General Store in the dairy products building.

For $8.50 you can choose between plain, chocolate chip, strawberry or raspberry cheesecake with an option to be dipped or drizzled in chocolate.

Ava opted for a chocolate chip cheesecake while Abigail went with strawberry dipped in chocolate.

Our consensus? Probably the best thing we ate all day.

Chocolate chip cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake dipped in chocolate
Abigail Connolly
/
WRVO
Chocolate chip cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake dipped in chocolate

Ava Pukatch joined the WRVO news team in September 2022. She previously reported for WCHL in Chapel Hill, NC and earned a degree in Journalism and Media from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC, Ava was a Stembler Scholar and a reporter and producer for the award-winning UNC Hussman broadcast Carolina Connection. In her free time, Ava enjoys theatre, coffee and cheering on Tar Heel sports. Find her on Twitter @apukatch.
Abigail is a temporary WRVO News Reporter/Producer working on regional and digital news stories. She graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2022 where she studied English and Public Relations. Abigail enjoys reading, writing, exploring CNY and spending time with family and friends. Abigail first joined the WRVO team as a student reporter in June 2022.