RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina State Fair is in full swing, and that means tons of fried food is around for to satisfy your craving for it.
What You Need To Know
- Felicia Turrentine-Daniel is the chef behind the Chef’s D’Lites food truck at the state fair
- She keeps classic items on the menu but introduces a new item every year
- This year’s new item is a spicy atomic tater tot dish
- Turrentine-Daniel is in a bright yellow food truck near the waterfall and bathrooms
- The North Carolina State Fair runs through Saturday, October 24
Chef Felicia Turrentine-Daniel is the mastermind behind the Chef’s D’Lites food truck, and she serves up classic fried favorites, as well as some unique items.
“The new item this year is the deep fried atomic tots,” Turrentine-Daniel said. “The atomic tots are a spicy seasoned tater tot with a shredded kind of sweet-heat barbecue chicken. It’s got a spicy cheese sauce, a little bit of cayenne pepper, some ghost pepper, jalapeño peppers, and then it’s topped with some sour cream, a zesty ranch, pepper bacon and then a deep fried jalapeño pepper.”
Turrentine-Daniel is always dreaming up new deep fried food recipes.
“We’ve got our staples that we just won’t get rid of, but we have to bring in something new every year,” Turrentine-Daniel said. “Typically because the next year somebody else will have tried to put it on their menu.”
She must be doing something right because her food truck has been in the same exact location for more than two decades and customers keep coming back for more.
“There’s a lot of people that I have literally seen, some since middle school. There’s one in particular, I started meeting him here when he was in 9th grade, and he graduated from college and got married a couple of weeks ago,” Turrentine-Daniel said.
She says as crazy as the fair can be, it’s all worth it.
“I don’t think we’re going anywhere. We’re ready for 23 and 24 and so on but my biggest thing is those smiles. You cannot duplicate the smiles,” Turrentine-Daniel said.
The North Carolina State Fair runs through Saturday, and you can find Turrentine-Daniel in her bright yellow food truck near the waterfall and the bathrooms.