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The Ohio State Fair offers great food and a few surprises, some of which you can find on the "Food Highway." The fair, which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. until it ends Sunday, when the hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., is at 717 East 17th Ave. in Columbus.

The Creative Arts & Fine Arts area in the DiSalle Creative Arts Center features the baked arts and culinary arts contests, demonstrations, and recipes. There also are food preservation entries on display with jams, preserves, pickles, and relishes, and sauces.

Each day culinary competitions are judged in the DiSalle Auditorium. It's also a nice, cool place to rest.

Today at 5 p.m. the judging for the Great American Spam Championship will be held. Contestants were challenged to spice up their favorite recipe into a "Spamsational" dish and enter it at the fair. The contest is looking for almost effortless main dishes that are crowd pleasers. The first- place winner will be forwarded to the national grand prize judging at the 2010 Waikiki SPAM JAM in Hawaii.

At 5 p.m. tomorrow, the Make It With Malt-O-Meal Recipe Contest will be judged. The King Arthur Great Cake Contest will be judged at 4 p.m. Thursday. Taste, presentation, and texture are key. Out of the 10 first-place winning recipes at select U.S. fairs, King Arthur Flour will choose at least one cake to feature on its Web site, kingarthurflour.com, at the end of 2009.

The Cooking with Ohio Wine competition will be judged at 11 a.m. Friday. Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts Pie Baking Championship will be at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Fleischmann's Yeast Bake for the Cure Baking Contest will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. All entries were pre-registered by June 20.

When the displays and recipe judgings make you hungry, head for the Food Highway. That's the main walkway through the fair under the Sky Glider. You'll find deep-fried buckeyes at two locations, one on the east end of the Sheep Barn and the other west of the Agriculture and Horticulture Building.

Look for fair favorites such as funnel cakes, corn dogs, Italian sausage, and french fries. Unique items include a hot fudge roast beef sundae (mashed potatoes and gravy, roast beef, and cherry tomato), deep-fried candy bars, and deep-fried Coke (a funnel cake batter infused with Coke syrup which is dropped in little balls into frying oil, according to Christina Leeds of the Ohio State Fair). There are also grilled turkey legs, deep-fried peanut butter and jelly, deep-fried fudge, corn on the cob, and countless other foods to try while walking the fairgrounds.

If a sit-down venue is more to your liking, look for the Taste of Ohio Cafe, open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., where the state's agricultural commodities sell affordable, nutritious meals featuring Ohio products.

At the Ohio Poultry Association booth, fresh, Ohio-produced eggs, turkey, and chicken dishes are for sale. Prices range from $1 for a snack to $7 for a complete meal. There's chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches, chicken and noodles, chicken nuggets, Thanksgiving-style turkey dinner with all the trimmings, chicken dinner, open-faced turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, and chicken nugget kids' meals.

Other commodities include beef, pork, sheep, and dairy. Heartland Cuisine cooking demonstrations are held daily at 1, 3, and 5 p.m.

For more information about the Ohio State Fair, visit ohiostatefair.com.

Kathie Smith is The Blade's food editor.

Contact her at:
food@theblade.com
or 419-724-6155.