Concessionaire Abel Gonzales didn't expect to sell many chicken-fried lobsters at the State Fair of Texas this year. The Big Tex Choice Awards finalist costs a whopping 60 coupons, or $30, making it one of the highest-priced items in State Fair history.
But enough State Fair patrons wanted to try the pricey new item that he sold out by 1 p.m. on the first day of the State Fair of Texas.
He plans to have more lobsters ready by Day Two, he says. Gonzales wouldn't say how many lobsters were sold on the first day.
The dish is a breaded and fried lobster tail served with lemon-butter Champagne gravy. It's Gonzales' fanciest State Fair food, by far; some of his past State Fair foods have included fried Nutella, fried jambalaya and fried butter.
Gonzales considered the fried lobster a "novelty item," and he was caught off guard by the interest.
"I'm happy," he says of the sell-out, "but I also need to rethink my whole plan." Mass-producing fried lobster wasn't part of that plan.
