Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.85 | The Gang goes to the State Fair!

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Adventures and Scrambles at the New York State Fair Hosts Matt and Mike dive into the bustling atmosphere of the New York State Fair, sharing their excitement over wine slushies and navigating various food booths. Matt tries unconventional meats like elk, buffalo, camel, alligator, ostrich, and kangaroo, while Mike highlights the Fair’s gluten-free options using a dedicated app. They sample quirky fair foods, including Dr. Pepper pickles and Fruity Pebbles cheese sticks, and attend a canine show. The episode concludes with them reflecting on their experiences and offering insights into budget-friendly fair enjoyment. 00:00 Introduction and Fair Vibes 00:31 Wine Slushies and Fair Essentials 01:42 Exploring Gluten-Free Options 04:31 Sampling Exotic Meats 09:04 Final Thoughts on Exotic Meats 11:39 Discussing Unique Meats 12:48 Fair Deli Adventure 13:15 Trying Dr. Pepper Pickle and Pebble Pops 17:00 Gluten-Free Journey at the Fair 19:03 Lobster Roll from Shark Tank 22:15 Concluding the Fair Experience

Instagram teen accounts come with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more about teen accounts at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. At Arizona State University, we're bringing world-class education from our globally acclaimed faculty to you. Earn your degree from the nation's most innovative university online. That's a degree better. Learn more at ASUonline.asu.edu. Hey guys, Matt, Mike. Good news, York.

back at the fair. Yeah. Having a great time. It's awesome. You can feel the energy. You can. There's, I would say it's, I mean, obviously busier than yesterday, but you can feel the excitement. The energy is palpable. It is palpable, baby. Um, it's great. I love it. You've already got your wine slushy, which is fantastic. I would, I told the guy, wine slushy guy here that, you know, I had been in the fair for a salad five minutes, didn't have a wine slushy yet. I had to fix that. They need to actually move the wine slushy booth closer to the entrance gates. Or just closer to you. That would be my suggestion for the fair.

I agree. I mean, look, you go on vacation. You know you got to pack sunglasses and sunscreen. You know you got to pack wine slushes. That's your thing. I don't pack anything. They haven't here. Right.

It's actually a law. If you step foot on the state fair property, not even for the state fair, as I have proven a few times now, you must purchase a wine slushy. 100%. I love that that's your thing. Everybody's got a thing, you know? I do. Yeah, wine slushes are your thing.

It's cool. I would love a wine slushy booth to maybe sponsor us, so I maybe get a free wine slushy from time to time, you know? I mean, either that or you're going to go broke. Those things are expensive. I mean, I might. It's fine. Mike, what are we going to see today at the fair, buddy?

Well, here's the thing. This is what I love about the fair. You don't know what you're going to see. I mean, you know that the staples, rides, games, all that. Yeah. But this is a great New York State Fair. we're gonna see a lot of things. Yeah.

I'm newly gluten-free. It's not that bad actually, and it's been great for me old tummy, but it's tough to find it, you know, and you don't want to be that guy out at restaurants going, you're gluten-free. But what's great about the New York State Fair, they have an app, and it filters the gluten-free option. So I'm gonna show the gluten-free peeps at home

some of the best gluten-free food here at the great New York State Fair. You don't even know what gluten is. You don't even know what gluten is. I don't know what fucking gluten is. So I feel bad for my gluten-free peps. peeps because I used to make fun of them. When I used to work at a restaurant, I'd say, everyone thinks they're gluten allergic. No. And then I ended up being gluten allergic.

So it is. We're going to find the best of that and then we're just going to get into some hijinks. We're going to talk to the people. That's it. That's it. It's it. Shenanigans. Shenanagues. Tom Foolery. Tom Foolery, just a bunch of ne'er-duels walking around, getting into some hubbubaloo. It's going to be a shindig. It sure is. Let's do it. All right. Wow. So you're just going to dive head first. I like this. Oh, that's just talking by phone. Yeah, don't mind me.

Do you think we can take this to one of the deep-fried people and see if they'll deep-fry your wine slushy? I guess you can't do that. The lyrics of this song are amazing, actually, if you think about it. What if God was one of us, just a slob-like one of us? It really is a very underrated lyrical song from the 90s. God is good, yeah, yeah, wine slushies are good, yeah, yeah, what do you think? Let's go, here it is.

And when the boss is happy, everyone's happy. I don't eat Wild Game, it's just a personal preference, but if I was going to it, it wouldn't be from the fair. I'm worried about Matt. I mean, look at the menu. It looks like you're picking out a prize, gator, kangaroo, elk, wild boar. No, you're going to eat it. Camel? Is that real?

I just noticed camels on there. Who eats a camel? You know what's a strange thing about culture and society? Like, why am I okay? I'll eat pork, turkey, beef, chicken, right? Some fish. But for some reason, I draw the line. I'm not going to eat duck.

I'm not going to eat gator. I just, I can't. I don't know why it's okay to chew on a cow with me. but I can't do it to a gator or kangaroo or I don't know. All right, guys, it's Matt and Mike here at the State Fair, trying out some different foods. And we found a booth, a food booth, that sells sticks, a very interesting kinds of meat.

Dude. And we approached that. I said, you know what, we got to try that and found out. They also sell this same meat in jerky form, which is a little smaller. We figured it was a little easier to sample. So we, or at least I, am going to try some of these things.

A quick preview of what we got on deck. There is elk, buffalo, camel, alligator, ostrich, and kangaroo. This is ridiculous. I feel it. Kangaroo has to be the last one. What one do you want me to try first? I think you should start with the most normal and work your way to the weirdest, but that's subjective. So I don't know.

I guess start with the elk. All right, hold that. Here's the thing. Are you going to try the elk? I guess I guess. I've been known when I was on the road of my band or even with my family when we're on vacation if we stop at a gas station my go-to is always beef jerky

I love gas station beef jerky this is next level all right so Matt's trying what do you got the elk it's the verdict it's like jerky it's good flavorful it's like a good piece of turkey okay fuck it I'll do it we'll do it live you can take a not piece like that off if you want

I'll fucking go all in Oh, yeah. It tastes like... That's good. All right, all right, okay. Next one up is smoked buffalo. All right, I've had bison burgers. Go bills, yeah. I've had bison burgers.

It's a very lean meat, very much like steak, so I would imagine this will taste just like beef jerky as well. Buffalo is a tough motherfucker. I'll give him that. Just like the Bills. Also very good. Yeah, let me try. Okay. to my palace. I should have saved my doctor pickle pepper. You seriously got rid of your drink

already? Yeah. Okay. So, all right, the buffalo got a lot more flavor to it, but it's got more flavor. You got a lot of like the smoke, but for the most part, it's like a beef jerky. Camel. I don't know about this. I really don't know about this. Camel. Do you taste a difference? It's a little more tender than the, uh, the others. Oh, there's a little... Watery? Don't they hold a lot of water in their humps? Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know about all that, but... I can't believe... It's got a little like after spice. It's good, but not overpowering. Okay. That's probably more about the seasoning than the camel itself, but... It is more tender. Yeah.

I can't believe I'm eating a damn camel. I just noticed camels on there. Who eats a camel? Next thing we've got. We're stepping it up now. I don't know. This is alligator. I don't know about this.

And it's Cajun style, they say. So I'm thinking there's gonna be a little bit of a little bit of kick to this one too. Yeah. What do you think? You gonna do it, buddy? I think PETA's gonna destroy us. Why would they do that?

You don't like alligator, they're not cute. You know, I've kissed you like four times, technically, because I keep biting where you'd bit. Well, wonder if I'm gonna point that out. What do you got? I'm concerned. Well, it's chewy. Okay.

I've had Gator before. Gator's chewy. It's not bad. I believe Amanda described Gator as fishy chicken, which if I didn't hate Gator before, I hate it now. Fishing. Yeah, but of course, in this context, they got some seasoning on it and make it a little more beefy. So it's maybe not quite as fishy chicken. It's fine. He's keeping it in.

No, it's fine. It's good. It's great if you're normal. I just, I have a hard time with gaming meat. Alright. If I don't picture that is Gator, I'm fine. Remember the duck wings? Yeah, those were phenomenal.

They were phenomenal, but I couldn't... I was scared. This is beef and ostrich. I don't even know. So, you got half of an animal you normally eat. You were right. I'm getting a hint of fish. Ostrich and beef mix.

This might be our favorite bit so far. Not me. Beef and ostrich. Bostridge. Astif. Oh, we got a... Mmm, out of them. That might be my favorite one so far.

Really? I think you're gonna like it better. Maybe. You might hate it. Oh my god. Hmm. There's a lot of flavor. It's, um, so it's got that dark beef taste.

And there's like this sweet... You know what I'm talking about? Yep. There's like a sweet thing over top of it. Oh, wait for it. I'm assuming that's the ostrich. Wait for it. Wait for what?

Just wait for it. Oh. No, it tastes like the hay that an ostrich would step on at the end. It's starting to more remind me of ostrich shit, to be completely honest with you. I was into it to begin with. No, I can't do that one. It's all downhill from here. Not disgusting. It's not for me.

Kangaroo, it's the last one. Spicy sweet thing takes over and then ostrich shit is on the finish. Now, all right, this one really bothers. me, I'll never be able to... It was an avoid the ostrich. I'm just gonna... Do you ever see kangaroos fight real people? That shit's awesome.

Yeah, let's see if they taste like it. Yeah, they taste muscular. Oh yeah. Oh, oh yeah. It's kind of boring, I'm not gonna lie. Not like plain. A dingo ate my baby. Huh?

See, I don't think it's strong of any flavor really. I'm kind of surprised. No way. There's some sort of weird... You're doing a second? Fucking heathen. I mean, it's fucking weird. I'll probably never purchase this again.

Matt probably has a big game hunting room at home, and I didn't even know about it. No, I'm not into that. Well, I will say this. Everything was good. For people that aren't weird like me with the gamey meats, it's fantastic, but... I'm going to be completely honest.

There's a reason that, like, chicken, beef and pork have been staples of meat from the beginning of time. Yeah. As much as I like some uniqueness, you stick with the... Let's go get some farm animals. All right. I'm in.

Oh, wow. I can screen record myself doing it. That's my dream. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's one thing I love in this world is, goddamn Oreos. No. No. No.

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Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. No. I mean, those are a little top gunnish. What? Top gunnish.

Yeah. I don't hate them. I mean those are just a darker version of the other pair. I feel like you're drawn to that style. You should just grab it. I mean, those aren't bad. Classic. That's a good.

I was like... All right, so Matt and I stopped at Fair Deli. I probably would have stopped anyway to... I have to see what this Dr. Pepper pickle drink is. Our friends at Visit Syracuse posted a video yesterday trying it, so when I saw the sign, great job friends at visit Syracuse. It worked. We're gonna try it ourselves as well as I think Matt ordered a couple pebble pops I guess it's like fruity pebbles in a corn dock. We're gonna see we're at the fair.

All right, so we got some incredible fair food. Yeah You seem to have a beverage of a pickle stuck in it. Yeah, like I said, I saw our friends from visit Syracuse trying this doctor pepper pickle. All right. And and uh from Fair Deli right here in Syracuse. Fair deli who we love. So let's should I? Go for it. Yeah, all right, here we go. That is absolutely awesome, and I'm not just saying that. You got to... All right, so I got to try...

This is the... That is intense. The pebble pop. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Hold that, buddy. Yeah, I got you. It's a cheese stick covered in pebbles. Pretty pebbles.

I'll catch your pebbles. Find you a friend who'll cut your pebbles. You don't really have to. We're outdoors. That's true. What's the review? Damn, guys. Are you getting floral notes?

This is the most ridiculous combination of things. That's awesome. Right? I feel like we're in that age now. Like, what a time to be alive where people are taking two great things that you wouldn't put together and creating these. Like, somebody from that company must smoke pot because you can't have a menu as glorious as this without being. I mean, it's amazing. Pickles and Dr. Pepper.

fruity pebbles and mozzarella? It's that sweet and savory. That's what it is. That's incredible. You're incredible. Oh, let's get a pickle though. So for me, it's, oh my God. You're gonna stand up.

It's like this nice hit of the Dr. Pepper, and then the salty pickleness takes over and blends. And you get hit in the back of the throat with like that salt. Oh my god. Anyone else want to try them? This makes me want to listen to Kid Rock and shave my head. Are you scared? These seats are way more comfortable than I thought.

That's rare. Yeah, feel so cool. And this gentleman who's a real man said that was pretty good. When I was in Nashville, I got a nine something, no lie. Really? I need to hear him say this. Go ahead. Yeah, 60 and above is kind of uncommon.

15 below is really common and good, but 60 and up is... I'm going to play this moment for my wife over and over to show her how manly I am. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. My bracelet fell off. Thank you. I'm in my 40s. I have IBS.

I've got all sorts of problems. What if I wanted to join the military? Do you guys accept any age? We do actually. So how it works is you would have to talk to your local recruiter because every area is different. But for here, if you wanted to actually learn where to join and how to join, you would just scan this barcode. Okay. And we'll send you to our website.

Well, thank you so much for complimenting me, but more importantly, thank you for serving our country. It's the most honorable and admirable thing anybody could do and we appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. This gluten-free world is new. world is new to me. It's not as bad as I thought, except for the fact that it's very hard to find options. I want to thank the New York State Fair. Juleleafave, I'm going to call you

out because you're the director. You're a thank her personally. I want to thank you personally for giving a gluten-free filter. Seriously, for anyone that's gluten-free, it's such a pain in the ass. I love this feature of the app. All right, so if I'm reading this right, the first one close enough to where we're standing is right over there. Let's go check it out. Let's go. walking skills are unparallel. Dude, it's amazing. Danny, you are a crack photographer. So if we rewind this, he'll be moving forward. I didn't realize we're sort of giving Danny flashbacks from his days of working for the local news channel. Yeah. He used to have to do this, but with a much heavier camera. Yeah, and much more seriously. And that is why we're going to

find out tonight. All right, so on my gluten-free journey, for those of you, gluten-free folks out there. A couple things I'm knocking out in one shot here. First of all, Sausage and Peppers is a great gluten-free option. It was on the gluten-free map on the New York State Fair app. But someone asked me recently, you know, what is the ultimate fair food for you? And, you know, of course, there's the fried dough, the funnel cakes, the pizza cone. But I cannot shake it. I always come back to sausage and peppers as my personal favorite fair food. And I will. I'll admit without the bun because I'm gluten free, that's a sad, sad little sausage, but it's not about the size because it's so good every time.

Mmm. Even when you don't have a pepper, you still taste the pepper. It's just great. I love it. All right, Matt, this looks, I mean, five-star quality. What do you got? Well, here's the thing. This is what I came to the fair for, honestly.

Not just to make great content. This is a lobster roll from Cuncidon's Maine lobster. Oh my god, so I watch Shark Tank religiously. They're one of the biggest success stories from the show. That's awesome. They got a bunch of different options. I went with the classic Maine, which is the cold with mayonnaise. They also have the hot with butter.

They got a bunch of different options. So wait, is that, would you call that a sandwich or would you just call that like its own thing? Like a lobster roll, which almost leads me more almost like a sub. But it's not on a sub. It's kind of on a hot dog bun. Sort of in a hot dog bun. Can we show the... Look at this.

Look at this thing, man. Look at this. That is, I mean, holy shnike. I'm going to go with, no, it's not a sandwich. You're saying it's not a sandwich? I don't know. I kind of think it is. It is incredible.

Yeah, well, it looks incredible. Really good. We need two ways out. We need two ways out. Two ways out. Two ways out, boom, boom, boom, two ways out. Boom, boom, boom. All right, Matt, we are outside the sweet praxis

and I'm gonna try out the gluten-free cookie option here because I love chocolate and I love sweets and that's what they have and thankfully they have a gluten-free option so I'm gonna, I won't get creative. They're making them right here, look at this, this is awesome. Look at that. There ain't nothing fresher than that.

Bloop. This is a cool machine that got going there too. Yeah, Mats just pooping cookies out, dude. I want one of those. Oh my God. Oh my God. That is amazing. Is it?

Good. Want to come? No. I've had it a million times. I bet. I bet. Oh my god. I have a picture of her.

Your gel-go. Mm-hmm. Oh, I can go back. Cool. How much is this one dollar? No, I don't know. Well, maybe. Yeah.

Yeah. This was like 350, maybe five. Actually, this is five. Money's no object when it comes to this, my friend. Okay, a dollar and five. Ooh. We are live from the just finished canine show. It's wild.

Here at the great New York State Fair. It was awesome. The dogs have a giant pool to jump in, which I really would like to jump in as well. I was jealous. Yeah. It looks awesome. I think they could win AGT because I feel like every year America's got talent. If you got a dog show, you're going to win. People love dogs.

Hey, they're doing it up. They're doing a great job. All that fun right here at the fair. Yeah. Hey, guys, it's Matt. I'm here at the fair, and I don't ever want to hear anybody complain about having you spend a lot of money at the great New York State Fair. I am here with, I think, the best value. Dollar Hot Dogs, guys.

Glizzies. All day long, right over here at the West End Bar and Grill. We're kind of the backside of the Expo Center, right by the gate, depending on which way you came in. This is the place to go. They got seating. They got cheap, very good food. Come to the fair, have fun. Don't break the bank.

Anybody want to gozy? Hey, guys. Welcome to the great New York State Fair. Welcome. Just kidding. We're leaving. But it has been a great fun-filled day. It's been a great fun-filled couple days with you guys, and I'm sad because I'm going on vacay.

Right. So I'm going to miss the rest of the festivities. But I'll be checking in from Roebuth Beach. You're going to be the guy leaving angry comments that we're revealing things, aren't you? Absolutely. The whole time I'm going to go, well, this would have been great if I could have saw it myself and you didn't ruin it for me. You ruined it for everything. Yeah.

But, yeah, we had a great time. We tried a bunch of food. A ton of food. You had some gluten-free food. Yeah, and I can't wait to go home and tell my wife I ate camel today. And what else? I feel like she might hit you for that. She might hit me for that.

Elk, Gator. You had me eating some weird shit, man. I'll give you credit, buddy. You really troopered up and gave it a shot. I did it for the show, man. I did it for you. I had to face my fears of eating things other than pork and chicken and beef. Boy, did we.

I mean, that's what was on the label, but how do we really know? I have a feeling it's beef and they just dressed it up. You know? This is sort of spoiled, so we'll just call it a different animal. You know, here's some camel. I've never heard of anyone eating camel. Like, I didn't even know that was a thing. That's why we did it.

I know, I know. I also like that we're doing our outro for the day at the Welcome. It's funny that he just cut on to the first thing that I said. No, I heard you. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in the podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more.

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