Funnel cake and corn dogs, most people can be assured these items will show up at their festivals. Not in my home town. Baltimore is a quirky burgh. I don’t ever remember seeing a corn dog at a festival as a child but I do remember, with extreme fondness, lemon sticks. The Greek festival, the Italian festival, the art festival, the church fundraiser festival, it does not matter, a festival is not complete without a lemon stick.
What is a lemon stick? It is a lemon with a peppermint stick in the middle. That’s it. The purpose it to suck lemon juice through the peppermint straw. Here’s how it goes:
- At first you will be sucking, hard, with little results.
- Next the lemon juice will start to flow through the peppermint straw, this is perfection.
- Squeeze the lemon as needed for more juice.
- There is a 50% chance tragedy will strike. Either the peppermint stick will break in half or just fall on the ground.
- Get another peppermint straw (the second one was always gratis at festivals).
- Continue sucking.
- Lastly the peppermint will have melted in to the lemon. This too is perfection. Squeeze the center of the lemon and suck retrieve any remnants of the peppermint.
- Wash hands.
You can be certain I will be serving these, not cake, on my birthday.
Lemon Sticks - Serves 4
4 large lemons
6 soft peppermint sticks
Cut 1/4 off of the stem side of the lemon. Using a chopstick make a hole in the center of the lemon. Put the peppermint stick in the hole in the center of the lemon. Serve.
Note: I could not find the peppermints locally; I purchased mine online, $3 for a 1 lb. bag.
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