Who brought fried dough to the N.C. State Fair? Bobbi Tellone says it was her.
Tellone and her family made a living on the fair circuit for three decades, but now limit their trips up from Fort Myers, Fla., to only one stop – the N.C. State Fair, where they've run a fried dough booth in the same location for 37 years.
"I introduced it to Raleigh," said Tellone, 62, whose counter features a display of her trademark deep-fried dough, slathered with the diner's choice of apple, hot fudge, Bavarian cream or cherry topping.
"People didn't know what it was – I free-sampled them to death."
Tellone said the delicacy stemmed from a grandmother's practice of making sweet things out of leftover dough on Saturday mornings. Fried dough, she said emphatically, should not be confused with funnel cakes, which use a wetter dough and absorb more cooking fat.
"Fried dough is like a Cadillac," she said. "Funnel cake is like a Chevrolet."
