A Hot Beef Sundae, anyone? My arteries are hardening just thinking about it, but you can bet Indiana State Fair-goers are already lining up for this bad boy. No, there's no ice cream involved, but don't worry, you'll get your week's supply of saturated fat in other ways. The HBS is like the bovine version of KFC's Mashed Potato Bowl, made with mashed potatoes, marinated beef, gravy, cheese ... oh, and corn, because vegetables are good for you. 
 
 If you haven't already guessed, it's county fair season, time to unleash your taste buds on some pretty strange culinary concoctions. Every year, food purveyors strive to find new ways to outdo themselves. Last summer, chocolate-covered bacon made its debut at the Wisconsin State Fair (now found year-round at places like the chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat). 
 
 But Beef Sundaes are this year's treat to beat. They have a lot of competition, particularly of the deep-fried variety. And I'm not just talking about fried cheese curds, fried Snickers bars, fried Twinkies, fried Oreos or fried green beans -- all solid staples in the fair food circuit. I mean the really crazy fair food -- delicacies that verge on experimental. 
 
 Many are only available at a handful of fairs, so outside of Texas and the Midwest, we're forced to gawk from afar. So regardless of whether you live, feast your eyes on these 10 Wackiest Fair Foods From Around the Country: 
 
 10. Fried Butter: Whipped, frozen, and dipped in batter, it's served in Indiana and Texas and comes in varieties like cinnamon, garlic, grape and cherry. (Paula Deen offers her own Fried Butter Balls recipe if you want to try this at home.) 
 
 9. Fried Coke: Also a Texas treat, it's actually Coke-flavored batter with fountain syrup added post-fry. 
 
 
 
 8. Donut Burger: It sounds like the inaugural post on This is Why You're Fat, but it's actually a newcomer to the Wisconsin State Fair. One vendor told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel it expects to sell 3,500 of these in just three days! 
 
 7. Deep-Fried Sushi: First it was Pop-Tart sushi at Pop-Tarts World at Times Square, now it's deep-fried sushi at the Indiana State Fair. Perhaps not that different than tempura, it's still noteworthy to see Japanese cuisine on the midway. 
 
 6. Deep-Fried Cream Cheese and Deep-Fried Ravioli: In addition to traditional favorites, Wisconsin fair-goers will have the option to sample deep-fried cream cheese and deep-fried ravioli, which makes fried cheese seem like child's play, doesn't it? 
 
 5. Deep-Fried Cheesecake: Deen also has a recipe for Ultimate Fantasy Deep-Fried Cheesecake, but you can also skip the fuss and visit the Medina County Fair in Ohio, where you'll find cheesecake rounding out its fried-goods menu. 
 
 
 
 4. Deep-Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly and Banana Sandwich: They say everything's bigger in Texas, which I suppose includes peanut butter sandwiches made even more scrumptious by dipping them into a deep fryer. That's exactly what they've done in the Lone Star State at fairs of yore. 
 
 3. Cheese Pizza topped with corndogs: A newcomer to the Minnesota State Fair this year, it sounds like a child's (or lunch lady's?) dream come true: four corn-dog halves (minus sticks) on top of a cheese pizza, yielding eight slices of Italian-American wonder. My question: Why didn't they fry it? 
 
 
 
 2. Fried Pig Ears: This sounds more like a dog treat than people food, but you'll also find thinly sliced pigs' ears dusted in seasoned flour, fried until crispy, and served with a lime chipotle glaze in Minnesota this year. 
 
 1. Fried Banana Split/Cookie Dough: Ready for dessert? In previous years, the Texas State Fair has served up plenty of sweet fried treats, like fried cookie dough or a spin on a banana split that uses peanut butter instead of ice cream. 
 
 Bonus: While you can't eat it, the Iowa State Fair has a life-size cow made out of butter every year. Weighing in at 600 pounds, future butter cows could potentially be turned into a whole lot of bio fuel afterward, according to a recent story in the New York Times. 
 
 
 
 What's your favorite fair concoction? Did it make the list? 
 
 Image via Lisa Lacy 
 
 

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 Just when the world was facing a shortage of gross, fattening sandwiches ... along comes a lasagna sandwich. 
 
 Actually, it's spelled "lasagne" with an "e" because it comes courtesy of our friends across the pond, the Brits. 
 
 Perhaps jealous of all the American specialty sandwiches like the Candwich, Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, KFC's Double Down, and a host of other shocking sandwiches, they had to come up with their own, which is being sold at Tesco supermarkets there. 
 
 You won't believe what's in it ... 
 
 The sandwich consists of "two thick slices of bread and a filling of diced beef in a tomato and herb sauce layered with cooked pasta sheets and a creamy cheddar, ricotta, and mayonnaise dressing." 
 
 Alert carb lovers everywhere: pasta inside bread! 
 
 Not to mention all the fat with not just several cheeses and beef, but mayonnaise for a kicker! 
 
 According to the Daily Mail, the "Italian Limited Edition" sandwich has 565 calories and almost 27 grams of fat, which is equal to about two cheeseburgers at McDonald's. 
 
 Even worse is the fact that it's a pre-packaged sandwich. If it was something that was freshly made and served, that would be one (still significantly unappetizing) thing. But to think of all that sitting in a plastic container, growing mushy, well that just makes it even more vomit-worthy. 
 
 So, to take a page from my 6-year-old son, I want to know if you HAD to eat one, which one would you choose: the Candwich, Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, or KFC's Double Down? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Image via Daily Mail 
 
 
 
 

 Each day brings yet another calorie-busting novelty sandwich threatening to derail our diets and send our blood sugar into a tizzy. Check out the latest: Denny's new Fried Cheese Melt, which is four fried mozzarella sticks with melted American cheese grilled between two slices of sourdough bread. 
 
 I'd love to order it with a bowl of tomato soup, but frankly? I'm watching my sodium intake. 
 
 The sandwich is one of five new additions to Denny's $2 $4 $6 $8 value menu. I think you can agree that $4 is a small price to pay for a whopping 895 calories (and 34 grams of fat). How does this stack up to other novelty sandwiches?
– KFC's Double Down was just the beginning. The Stir lists five more truly disgusting (not to mention unhealthy) sandwiches being served at restaurants near you: Denny's Fried Cheese Melt: The restaurant took the grilled cheese sandwich and added more cheese to it, in the form of four fried mozzarella sticks stuck smack dab in the middle of it. The Lasagna Sandwich: It's a prepackaged sandwich from across the pond featuring pasta—inside the bread—plus beef, lots of cheese, and...mayonnaise. Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt: It's like a cheeseburger, only instead of the bun, it's sandwiched between...two grilled cheese sandwiches. For the complete list, click here...or to check out more disturbing culinary creations, including a hot beef sundae, click here.