Nut Fry at Mama's Place

Wisconsinites have sophisticated palates.

Oh, yes.

You can't just drop in at the mall's food court and order up all-you-can-eat goat, lamb, and bull testicles.

You have to go to Mama's Place in Elderon for the annual testicle festival, or what they lovingly refer to as a "nut fry."

ELDERON -- While savoring the flavor of deep-fried livestock testicles isn't as common as fried cheese curds in Wisconsin, it's catching on here.

More than 300 people were intrigued enough to pay $5 for all-you-can-eat goat, lamb and bull testicles Saturday at the ninth annual Testicle Festival at Mama's Place Bar and Grill.

$5 sounds like a real bargain.

Buster Hoffman, 50, of Kronenwetter first tried goat testicles when he lived in Denver, where it’s considered a delicacy better known as Rocky Mountain oysters.

...While some ancient cultures considered testicles an aphrodisiac, that's not why Hoffman likes them.

"No, I don't believe in any of that superstitious stuff; it's food, and it's good," Hoffman said.

One way Butch Joubert likes to eat them is on bread like a sandwich with tartar sauce.

He said the testicles aren't so different from regular meatballs also served at the festival.

A testicle sandwich? With tartar sauce??

I shouldn't be judgmental because I don't have first hand experience. I've never tasted fried testicles, with or without tartar sauce.

Even if the taste is similar to regular meatballs, they're certainly not just your average ball of ground meat.

"After a few beers, you can't really tell the difference," said Joubert, 58, of Kronenwetter.

Behold the power of a few beers!

I wonder how many beers Joubert considers "a few beers."

I find it hard to believe you can't tell the difference.

Festival founder Nancy Fenske of Elderon thinks the lamb fries taste like chicken gizzards, but she loves all the testicles.

Fenske loves them all! She's not picky.

The festival grew out of her late husband Roger's birthday party 12 years ago, Fenske said. They decided to have "a nut fry" at Mama's Place after bringing back lamb fries from a trip to Montana.

Then more and more people came every year, Fenske said, adding now they fry up to 100 pounds of testicles for the festival.

That's A LOT of testicles. One hundred pounds. How many would that be?

I can't begin to imagine.

"What else can you do in a small town?" Fenske said, adding later in the evening after the music starts, "It gets nuts here."

Music.

Fried testicles.

It just doesn't get much better than this.