Unbind your belt. Go find your fat jeans. Load up on the Lipitor. Cheryl and Dennis Reas are heading south. Last year, the Indiana-based concessionaires unleashed the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger on an unsuspecting public at the Florida State Fair midway. It became the must-have, hate-yourself-in-the-morning, can't-wait-to-eat-it-again guilty pleasure.

So much soul-soothing sweetness. So much greasy goodness. So darn … delicious. Nine days from now, they'll be in business again when the fair opens its gates to a hungry mob eager to test the limits of its gastro integrity.

Gird your loins, Tampa. Like a couple of crazy caloric geniuses, the couple spent the past few months at their snow-covered home across the Ohio River from Louisville creating their next fairgrounds Frankenstein.

Building on the solid foundation that the Krispy Kreme burger provided, the Reases will debut several unholy hybrids. Meet the French Toast Burger, the Pancake Burger and the Garbage Burger. Oh, and a little something you can call the Ice Cream Burger.

Say hello to my little friend. This bad boy starts with a regular burger. No worries there. But nestled under the toasted bun and perched atop the pickle, lettuce, tomato, bacon and cheese toppings is a slab of ice cream coated in cinnamon and cornflakes that has taken a dip in the deep fryer for 10 to 15 seconds.

Looks gross. Sounds gross. Tastes …?

"It's like going to your favorite burger place," Cheryl told me by phone. "You get that burger, you get that milkshake. You take a bite of burger and drink a bit of milkshake. It tastes just like that. I told my husband, 'Take this away from me. I won't stop eating it.'"

Innovation is necessary because the insular world of fair food reacts quickly. A hit one season pops up on other menus the next. Staying one slobber ahead of the competition is a never-ending challenge. Even the Krispey Kreme burger is getting a makeover this year, thanks to a hungry customer in Indianapolis.

Seems a little boy at the Indiana State Fair insisted he just had to have a chocolate-covered doughnut for his burger instead of the glazed version. Just so happened Cheryl had ordered chocolate-covered doughnuts for the couple's personal consumption.

"I told my husband to get those chocolate doughnuts," she says. "That boy was the happiest person in the world."

The clamor for novelty foods started a little more than a decade ago, right about the time Food Network started showing things like deep-fried Snickers bars on their shows. "Man v. Food" on the Travel channel also spread the gospel of stunt eating.

The industry is light years away from when Cheryl's grandfather started the family in the concession business by selling fish during the Great Depression. He passed Carousel Foods on to her parents as it grew to include "grab foods" like burgers, hot dogs and sausages.

When the competition caught up, they switched to barbecue. After that, they hopped over to turkey legs. Now novelty food is their main bag, and nephews and in-laws are on the road with them six months of the year selling deep-fried butter.

"People call it 'fair food,'" she says. "I say that it's 'fun food.'"

If you can't look at a bag of popcorn doused with Strawberry and Cream, Double Butterscotch or Dill Pickle flavoring, maybe fun isn't your thing.

"People say, 'Oh, the calories!' I tell them this is something you don't do every day," she says.

"You're coming to the fair, you're gonna have fun. It's fun to try new things, healthy or not. Everything in moderation."

Moderation? Where's the fun in that?

Get me an Ice Cream Burger, please. Make it a double.