Living With a Boy in Arkansas: Embracing Arkansas

Chris and I workout every Saturday morning with Chris's dad at his gym. This weekend, that workout proved more crucial than ever.

After coming home from said workout and showering, Chris and I headed out to the first ever World Championship Cheese Dip cook-off. Yes. Cheese dip.

Whatever you're imagining, I promise you, it goes beyond that.

At its most basic level, cheese dip is made up of Velveeta and Rotel, and indeed, they were the sponsors of the event. But most of the vendors (a mix of professionals and amateurs, competing in separate categories), went way beyond that.

We had the original cheese dip, created a restaurant in northern Arkansas. We had cheese dip with bacon and chives, cheese dip with crawfish and sausage. We had white cheese dip, and did cheese dip shots when one of the vendors we wanted to try ran out of chips (I am not proud of this. Nor do I regret it). We got cheese dip from one booth, and ate while we stood in line to get cheese dip from the next booth over. We stopped only for beer.

Being from the east coast, I did not grow up in a cheese dip culture. It is, it seems, a southern thing, and, considering its origins, it is understandably huge in Little Rock.

There were so many people there that by 2:30, most everyone had run out. The event started at 12. It was scheduled to last until 9.

On Sunday the eating continued, at the holy land of fried food: the state fair.

Chris and I had been planning to go for a while, with his mom, Margaret, and sister, Stephanie. We'd been doing our research, by which I mean we'd been reading food blogs and articles so that we didn't waste our time.

We parked near the food court, and got to work.

First, there was the traditional corn dog. Somehow, it was my first. So simple, so bad, and yet so so good.

Then, Chris got gator on a stick, which I liked, but it was a little too salty for me. Margaret got roasted corn, which we all ate bites of, in an attempt to feel better about ourselves because we could say we ate a vegetable. Since we followed with fried mozzarella sticks, though, I'm not sure it really made that much of a difference.

After that, we took a break from food to do the other fair things. I was the only one of our foursome who actually likes big, scary rides, but I did get Chris to go on one that basically consisted of me crushing him, since he happened to be sitting on the left side of our car.

We also took time to see the animals, which is my favorite. Pigs, baby ducks, cows, goats, rabbits. Everything. We braved the smells and saw it all.

And were well rewarded. In our readings, Stephanie and Chris and I had come across what is known as a smooch: a deep fried Hershey's kiss. Now, I like Hershey's kisses more than your average person anyway. So to take one and deep fry it would, I imagined, create a treat so delicious and fattening that it could only be allowed to exist at a once-a-year event, like the state fair.

We had searched the food court for them, but with no success. None of us was willing to leave without them, but we weren't sure where else to look for them. Luckily, they found us outside of the animal house.

So, after sanitizing our hands, we ordered two plates of four, and found a picnic table in the shade to indulge. There are no words for how good they were. It was like eating a chocolate filled beignet, but instead of the sometimes-too-sweet chocolate filling that can come in a croissant, say, it was a Hershey's kiss. Just sweet enough, but definitely and deeply chocolate. We all very much enjoyed our two.

And then we felt complete, and after one more ride and a look at the giant watermelons, we headed home.

The diet, as you might have guessed, began today.