OC Fair: 6,000 Fried Peanut Butter Meatballs Sold

What made the super-popular charts at the 2017 festival? Take a look at the books now.

Ever stated, with complete confidence, that you plan on eating every flavorful treat that a county fair has to offer?

Though many of us boast about such matters, we never seem to meet those goals, even though our eyes, stomachs, and predictions claim otherwise as we stroll through a fair's front gate.

But we can, as fair fans, find out how many treats of particular types were sold at the OC Fair, as well as some other interesting numbers, such as record-breakers, thanks to the fact that the historical event always shares its most interesting stats.

The impressive numbers were released just hours after the 2017 Costa Mesa extravaganza wrapped on Sunday, Aug. 13. And if you had guessed that the fried peanut butter meatballs at Chicken Charlie's would be a big hit, well, consider yourself a pro prognosticator.

Some 6,000 fried peanut butter meatballs crossed the famous stand's counter, as did 4,000 Krispy Kreme Ice Cream Chicken Sandwiches, one of the buzzed-about foodstuffs that made headlines prior to the 2017 fair's July 14 opening.

People also went for the Unicorn Pork Legs at Bacon A Fair — 4,900 were sold over the four-week run — and just over 40,000 turkey legs were bought at Juicy's.

As for the popular, seen-everywhere churro? Get ready to drop the jaw: Fans devoured twelve thousand feet of churro goodness at the 2017 fair. And fries made a very strong 'n salty showing, too, with 22,500 pounds finding their way into guests' hands and, eventually, tummies.

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The edible arithmetic isn't the only notable slice of fair statistics, however. The OC fair people revealed that "(m)ore than 402,000 feet of yarn was used to make pom-poms, flowers and octopuses, and, on the final weekend, fairgoers helped make 600 boat soap carvings."

The fair's exhibitors — 4,219, in all — "submitted 23,000 entries this year, which is a 20% increase in exhibitors over last year, and a 112% increase in entries over last year!" trumpeted the fair in trumpet-worthy news.

And guests at the fair donated over 28 tons — that's tons, t, o, n, s — of food to OC Food Bank and Second Harvest Food Bank on July 19. Children's books, too, were donated by attendees by the thousands, with the final count standing at 94,078.

The Think Together drive happened on July 26.

And one final foodie factoid from the fair? If cotton candy is your game, you're not alone: The fairy floss sold at the 2017 event could fill four semi-trailers.

That's a staggering amount of air-spun sugar, but don't gape for too long: The 2018 OC Fair will be back, in 11 months, starting on July 13, to try to go for even bigger, juicier, doughnut-ier records.

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