By Shor Masori
DEL MAR, California — So, how would you like a grilled cheese sandwich on challah?
The traditional Shabbat bread, with cheese and apples, will be offered as a taste treat by Grilled Cheese A-Fair, one of the vendors at the San Diego County Fair, which will open on the Del Mar Fairgrounds Saturday, June 8, and continue to Thursday, July 4.
At a press preview earlier this week, a Grilled Cheese A-Fair representative said the company chose challah because “we were looking for a sweeter bread that would toast up nice and make a good French toast. If it made a good French toast, why wouldn’t it work with grilled cheese?” Besides, the representative said, “our executive chef is Jewish.”
As my grandpa, San Diego Jewish World editor Don Harrison, likes to say, “There’s a Jewish story everywhere” and I found another a few steps away. Standing there were two Klingons and an Android, and I couldn’t resist giving them a Vulcan greeting. Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in the original Star Trek series appropriated the split-fingered gesture, used by rabbis for the priestly blessing, to convey the Vulcan greeting, “Live Long and Prosper.”
When I flashed the signal to the Klingon impersonators, they said, “Ah, of course, you would do a Vulcan sign.”
“Sorry,” said I, “I forgot the Klingon greeting.”
He chopped his right hand across the left side of his chest. “Kaplah!” he said.
“Oh yeah, Kaplah!” I responded, imitating the gesture.
The android was a female who described herself as B-3, a predecessor to Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
A spokesperson for the ensemble said Star Trek will be a featured exhibit on the infield of the Fair. It will include the actual bridge from the original Star Trek series, and four of Captain James T. Kirk’s costumes. That’s another Jewish angle for this publication. William Shatner, who played Kirk, is also Jewish.
There will also be various Star Trek weapons including scorpion fighters from the movie Nemesis. But what may be most exciting to Trekkies (I’m one) is that they plan to bring to the Fair “tribbles” — the cute, furry creatures that multiplied so fast that they almost took over the U.S.S. Enterprise. The spokesman said the episode about the tribbles was the most popular in a Trekkie poll.
The theme of this year’s fair is “Game On,” and many exhibits will take the form of giant board games such as chess, Scrabble, checkers, Operation and Pick-Up Sticks. There will also be video games, and, of course, carnival games. This year’s fair’s mascot is a too-big-to-be-huggable, walking Scrabble game with arms and legs.
Singers who will perform during the Fair include Adam Lambert, the American Idol sensation, who hails from San Diego County and is Jewish. Others well-known acts include the Beach Boys, Bridgit Mendler of the Disney Channel, Martina McBride, and the man who turned the “Twist” into a national sensation, Chubby Checker. Fair spokeswoman Linda Zweig said there may be an effort for a Guinness Book of World Records twist contest.
Tim Fennell, general manager of the San Diego County Fair, noted that he is participating in his 21st fair. “I started when I was 10,” he joked.
Like many fairs before this one, there were unusual foods , including some that were decidedly not kosher, including Bacon Beer, Bacon Cotton Candy and other Bacon goodies. There were also Lobster Sliders. And here’s one that made me a little sick from the taste: A Sloppy Joe inside a Crispy Creme glazed donut.
Another food feature will be the return of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour to San Diego County, including the restaurant’s 5 1/2 pound ice cream “Zoo.”
*
Shor Masori is a “cub reporter” for San Diego Jewish World. He offers thanks to his grandpa, who while working the rewrite desk, took his dictation.