When it comes to food at the West End Fair, ordering and eating it is the easy part.

Many fairgoers, however, don’t think about how the delicious grub gets to their plate.Workers from Dale’s Concessions, based in Kunkletown, were busy this week preparing their popular items for the opening day fair crowd.One of the more recent additions to the menu is the blooming onion, a deep-fried onion flower served with one of two dipping sauces, ranch or zesty.Despite the success of french fry sales, Dale’s is always looking to branch out and did just that 10 years ago when proprietor Dale Greenzweig went to a concessions show in Florida.“Outback Steakhouse was the original chain to do the blooming onion and it was pretty successful,” Greenzweig recalled while removing the papery skin from onions under a shaded tent in the fairgrounds. “I tried one down in Florida and they had the onion blossom cutter at the show. We decided to buy a cutter and start selling the product.”After removing the skin, several steps remain in creating the snack.Betty Christman described how to use the onion cutter.“You have to cut the bottom off then turn the onion upside down,” she said. “You clamp down the cutter and open the onion up, giving it the unique flower shape.”From there, the onion makes its way to Robert Silfies for coating inside the Dale’s Concessions trailer.Working the batter into the onion, he said, is an art form.“You would work it as if you’re putting shampoo in your hair,” he said. “Coat it as well as you can.”After being coated with batter, the onion is ready for the oil.“Drop it right in and watch it for a few minutes,” Silfies instructed. “After a few minutes, you flip it over. Another few minutes and it’s ready for the plate.”Of the two available dipping sauces, zesty was the more popular choice at the fair on Sunday.“It has thousand island dressing and horseradish,” Christman said. “That gives it a little kick.”Fair patrons may not see the behind-the-scenes process start to finish, but the majority who indulged Sunday afternoon enjoyed the finished product.“I think it’s popular because it’s a different twist on onion rings, which a lot of people like anyway,” said Latisha Townsend, of Effort.“I try and look for things that are different. I’m not going to eat a whole lot of blooming onions in a year so that’s why I choose it at events like this.”Levi Flores, of Scranton, said “anything fried” is a perfect fit for his palate.How popular is the blooming onion at West End?Greenzweig said he’ll go through 40-50 bags of onions from Sunday through Saturday.“We’ve been doing French fries it seems like all of our life,” he said, “but the onions are good sellers. When we decided to start doing them, nobody else was doing them at fairs. Now they’re becoming more popular. If people like it, we’ll keep doing it.”The West End Fair offers people a current chance to get the blooming onion, but not the last this carnival season.Dale’s will also sell the product at the Palmerton Community Festival from Sept. 11-13.