Try as I might I couldn’t fit all the fair food I wanted to try into one week. (I’m sure my scale is grateful for that!)

I had hoped to grab a few final things to go when I left the fair Sunday evening.

But after barely surviving my first demolition derby (and being pelted for two hours with flying gobs of mud) I was limping around the midway cold, tired and dirty Sunday evening. As I looked unsuccessfully for the belly buster burger everyone told me to try, a hot bath back home in Lorain beckoned, and I opted to take the shortest route to my car.

A few things I really wish I’d gotten to try:

• The above-mentioned belly buster burger. I can recall which stand it came from, but everyone told me it rivaled the Oh-Boy. I didn’t get a chance to try it, and not just because I was afraid of being run out of town if I insulted the Oh-Boy.
• Mulgrew’s poor man’s prime rib. My friend Karen Schrader, who stopped by my booth to say hi, recommended this one. I really wanted to grab one as I left that last night, but the booth was just SO FAR down the midway.
• Potato pancakes. Another food that I’ve never had, and I had several people recommend them.
• Fried pickles. I love fried pickles. I ate my first fried pickles at Ghoulardi’s in Lorain, and it was love at first bite. I wanted to see how the fair fried pickles compared.

I guess all of that will have to wait for next year for me. What did you try? Leave me your comments with your food reviews!

And here’s some of the stuff I did get to try:

• Sweet potato fries
• Midway Oh-Boy
• Deep-fried Wisconsin cheese curds
• Hill’s waffles
• Pizza
• Cheese sizzle
• Fried green tomatoes
• Italian meatball sandwich
• Wellington band doughnuts
• Walking taco
• Fried veggies

I’m the meantime, it’s time for me to hit the gym!

If you love the Lorain County Fair, you absolutely MUST check out this photo.

Click here.

It’s a 360-degree panoramic photo taken by my longtime friend and Chronicle freelance photographer David Richard. Richard has special equipment to take these types of photos, and he normally uses it to take these sorts of photos of Major League Baseball parks.

If you want to know more about Richard, check out his photography Web site.

In a hurry Sunday afternoon, I grabbed an old favorite festival food of mine: fried veggies.

I think I have probably eaten fried veggies at just about every fair or festival around Lorain County at some point over the years.

In my head, the fact that I’m eating vegetables cancels out the fact that I’m eating fried food. And, yes, I know how stupid that sounds.

There were a number of fried veggie booths at the fair, even two that looked virtually identical right across from each other. I stopped at the one that happened to be closest.

Fried veggies are a festival favorite of mine. (Photo by Rona Proudfoot, The Chronicle-Telegram.)

I opted for a “small,” one of each type of vegetable — onion, mushroom, green pepper, broccoli and cauliflower — although I think my veggie vendors slipped in a couple extra.

I juggled my camera bag, tripod, veggies and two small cups of ketchup to the nearest picnic table and settled in.

My veggies could have used some ranch dressing — I didn’t remember them offering me any and I was carrying too much stuff to go back and ask. And they seemed a little soggy, perhaps undercooked.

But I was in the home stretch of my Lorain County Fair week, and nothing could ruin my mood.

I set off to scour the fairgrounds for a few more photo or video opps as I eagerly anticipated that evening’s demolition derby.

A colder and overcast final day for the Lorain County Fair didn’t seem to affect fairgoers’ enthusiasm. The midway was packed Sunday afternoon even as dreary skies and wind made riding the rides a chilly proposition.

Attendance numbers would tell the real story, though, as Lorain County Fair 2009 saw the second-lowest attendance since the fair began verifying results about a decade ago. Still, fairgoers showed their toughness as Sunday’s attendance topped Sunday a year ago. See complete attendance figures.