Shane Co. Determined Minnesota’s Favorite Deep Fried Food is Onion Rings
At first glance, this headline seems to be a marketing ploy. Shane Co., "your friend in the diamond business", onion rings. It's all a little too on the nose.
Using Google Trends, Shane Co. analyzed the search volume of 70 state fair-style fried foods over the past 12 months to determine the most searched fried food in each state and nationwide. Referencing Food Network, Southern Living, and Taste of Home, our list of search terms included 48 popular savory fried foods and 22 popular sweet fried foods.
Minnesota (along with Nebraska, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Ohio) seemed to be searching for onion rings more than any other fried food, making that our preferred fried snack.
Shane Co. took it one step further as well and took a look at Google Trends to find the sweet fried food being searched out as well. For that, Minnesota's favorite was determined to be Long John donuts. Which I know are fried, but as an everyday human I wouldn't categorize them as a "fried food". I file them away as donuts. Other states had favorites like fried Oreos, fried ice cream, and funnel cakes. All classic "fried" foods.
Overall, it is a complete study with real data to back it up. I'm just glad it wasn't a marketing scheme to match up onion rings with selling wedding rings. There's a time and place for that and it's the week of the State Fair.
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