Every year (or at the very least, every other year), I hit
up the Minnesota State Fair. It’s one event of the year, I really look forward
to and actually put some prep work into: new foods, concerts, animal events, maps,
etc. I generally try to take a day off work, so I can truly maximize my time.
Some people like to go on multiple days, but I like to really blow it out of
the water on one day, and then let my body recover. I go all day – like ALL
DAY. This year, I got there at 9am and left at 10pm, pretty much eating the
whole time. How much can one person eat in a day? Read on, my friends…
1) I walked in the gate and immediately went to the Blue
Barn – everything they do there is genius and well-executed. This year, it was
no different. I decided between the new French toast sticks they had and the
Wild Bill’s Breakfast Bake. I think I made the right decision. Scrambled eggs,
roasted chicken, chorizo sausage, baked and topped with salsa, lettuce, pickled
onions, and cilantro. The baked ball in some sort of corn meal or smashed
tortilla chip ball was fantastic. The right proportions and everything. This
was the best thing I had at the fair this year and it was right off the bat. Go
there and get this (before 10:30am when they only serve lunch foods). You’ll be
glad you did.
2 & 3) Next, was Lulu’s Public House for a Breakfast
Buddy Bowl. A waffle bowl filled with hashbrowns, maple syrup, scrambled eggs,
cheddar cheese, bacon, and topped with a biscuit covered in sausage gravy. I
also got a Boozy Red Bull Slushie (tangerine flavored). And, yes, I know, it’s
breakfast. Tangerines are great for breakfast. I didn’t like the Breakfast
Buddy Bowl at all. I didn’t taste any syrup or cheese, the hashbrowns were
mostly onions, the biscuit was dry, and the sausage gravy had neither sausage
nor flavor. Not even the waffle cone bowl helped this one. Skip this breakfast
item, but DO get the boozy slushie.
4 & 5) Off to French Meadow for Mini Sco-Nuts. These are
buttermilk scone donut holes filled with chocolate, marshmallow, and Nutella,
and covered with powdered sugar. These were better than I expected them to be.
Fried perfectly and not too sickeningly sweet, like I expected them to be. I
also popped next door at Dino’s to get Loukamades (honey puffs). These were
dough balls fried, then dipped in syrup or honey, and then sprinkled with
cinnamon and sugar. These were good, but not magical. If you’re going to eat
both of these things, eat the Loukamades first and THEN the Mini Sco-Nuts.
Also, apparently, I’m on a mission to put as many ball-shaped items into my
mouth as possible.
6) I’m a cookie dough fiend, so I headed to the Blue Moon
Diner for a cookie dough flight. Three different kinds of dough: Brownie Swirl,
Euro Cookie Butter (with biscoff cookie type crumbles), and a lemon ricotta
cheesecake with blueberries. They also throw a small scoop of sea-salt ice
cream on top, just for fun. When you’re
in line ordering, I’ll call your attention to the fact that the menu board says
“Safe To Eat” on it – why don’t more fair foods proclaim that so
explicitly?!?!? Here’s the quick run-down. The brownie swirl was fine, the Euro
Cookie Butter was fine, but the lemon ricotta cheesecake (the one that was the
least like cookie dough) was pretty life changing. I’d go back there just for
this one by itself. The sea-salt ice cream was also a welcome flavor in the
whole mix. Kudos for Blue Moon for putting in a potato chip, a couple of
pretzel sticks, and a mini nilla wafer cookie to add some salt and texture to
it all. Brilliant!
7 & 8) I headed to Mancini’s al Fresco for some
beverages. I got the Schell’s Red Sangria Lager and Bad Weather Brewing’s Lemon
Sunshine ale. The Red Sangria Lager was fantastic. I liked this one a lot. Much
lighter than I would have suspected – I wish I had been drinking this all
summer while outdoors. The Lemon Sunshine just wasn’t lemon-y enough for me. I
wanted to really taste it, especially since it’s described as a
limoncello-inspired ale. I love limoncello, and if you hadn’t told me that’s
what it was, I would have missed it all together and thought it was just a
light summer beer. Get the Red Sangria Lager and thank me later.
9) Off to the Coliseum for Swine and Spuds. They had a pork
belly on a stick contraption that sounded good. Bacon-wrapped pork belly and
mashed potato croquettes, served with your choice of sauce – I got the sweet
chili sauce. The pork belly was sadly overcooked to the point of being tough
and dry (I didn’t even know that was possible and I’ve had Asian super fried
pork belly, which somehow isn’t dry, nor tough). The bacon was done about
perfectly for my taste, which I totally understand means it was underdone for
most people’s taste. The mashed potato croquettes were actually delicious, though.
Not even sure how they got flavor into those, but they did. And everything went
well with the sweet chili sauce they had. Maybe pass on this one and try
something else from here – other things on the menu looked good. (I also ate this while watching them judge cows, since it's air conditioned in there.)
10) Also in the Coliseum, there’s a shop (hidden in the
south concourse that you need to traverse the animal crossing to get to) called
the Snack House. They have something called Memphis Tatchos. I’m a sucker for
tater tots of any variety, so I had to get these. Tater tots (in the Taco John’s
Potato Ole or Burger King Hash Rounds style) covered with banana slices, bacon,
and covered with a peanut sauce – just like Elvis would have liked. The tots,
bacon, and bananas worked really well together, once you get used to it. I
liked these a lot and for some reason, I thought these would feel heavier in my
guts. I DO wish the peanut sauce was a little more peanut forward, but it was
still there. And kudos to the guy that drizzled it on there like a PRO. I’ll
also go out on a limb and say if that peanut sauce was more like a Thai peanut
satay sauce, it would have beaten all the other foods at the fair. This was
better than expected.
11) Off to the grandstand to find Hideaway Speakeasy (which
isn’t hidden at all, aside from being on the second floor concourse). They have
something new this year called Cotton Candy Bubble Trouble. They take a
champagne flute and stuff it full of cotton candy – yes, like the cotton candy
you get at any fair in the country. Then they pour Cannon River Winery’s
Sparkle Edelweiss (Minnesota’s FIRST sparkling wine) over it to dissolve the
candy into the bubbly wine. First off, you’re going to get some really odd
looks as you walk around the state fair with a champagne flute filled with pink
champagne, but embrace it like the baller you truly are. Secondly, this mainly
tastes like prosecco UNTIL you get closer to the bottom where all the sugar has
settled and it begins to taste more and more awesome. Interesting chemistry
experiment and one you need to witness being poured right in front of you. Fun,
weird, and increasingly tasty!
12) Beer flight at the Agricultural Building – always fun! I
went with the Dark and Roasty flight (all Minnesota beers). In order of most
favorite to least favorite: Steel Toe’s Dissnet Dark Ale; Lake Monster’s Last
Fathom Dark Lager; Summit’s Great Northern Porter; and F-Town’s Moon Boots
Peanut Butter Porter. But they were all pretty good, though. When I went out to
a bench on the street, a random old guy asked me if I was drinking a lot of
coffee (indicating my beer flight), and I told him these were all beer. He
couldn’t believe it, but then he got very serious and told me to remember to
hydrate and take it easy. YOU DON’T KNOW ME, OLD MAN! Hahaha, I assured him I
would.
13 & 14) Off to O’Gara’s for some deep fried avocados
and a Sweet Corn Summer Ale from Lakes & Legends Brewing. The deep fried
avocados were just ok. I think I would have preferred them not fried (which is
amazing I’m even saying that). The chipotle ranch sauce REALLY overpowered these,
as well, sadly. But the fried flavor really hid the avocado flavor. The Sweet
Corn Summer Ale didn’t taste enough like corn, which is what I was really
hoping for. Not necessarily corn-water from a can, but I wanted there to be at
least a HINT of corn flavor there. Bummed about both of these.
15) I headed to the Texas Steak Out booth for Cheesy Nacho
Corn on the Cob. This is like Texas’ version of elotes, for those of you that
love Mexican corn. It’s corn on the cob covered with Mexican crema (like a mild
sour cream), then covered with crushed Doritos, and THEN covered with pump
nacho cheese. This is probably one of the messiest foods I’ve ever eaten. But
it was reeeealy tasty. Just get a billion napkins when you pick up your food.
The three cops I was sitting with in the dining tent behind Texas Steak Out
were quite impressed with how little I got on my shirt, and then they admitted
the only reason they were eating in this particular tent was because people
were coming out of it with the faces completely covered in sauce, chips, and
cheese. It was pretty hilarious, honestly. But this stuff is fantastic. (Sorry for the color. The tent above me was red.)
I popped by the Pet Center to pet some of the dogs there.
I’m a sucker for dogs of all kinds and there are people who literally sit there
all day and let tens of thousands of strangers pet their dogs. Best idea ever.
I love that there is a Husky Club of Minnesota – yeah, you and me both, buddy.
I didn’t have anyone along with me to make fun of me freaking out over every
dog in the building, so that worked out well for me. Hahaha
Then, when I walked outside, they were doing a golden
retriever agility course demo, so I got to squeeeeee a little bit more. I’m
like a 6 year old sometimes.
16 & 17) Giggle’s Campfire Grill was up next. I needed
to try the Duck Bacon Wontons and a Dill Pickle Beer. The wontons had duck
bacon, sweet corn, and cream cheese inside a wonton skin and were served with
some sweet dipping sauce (which was great, and now I’m wondering if it wasn’t
that orange-ish “duck sauce” that you get in a little condiment packet from
Chinese restaurants – maybe). The wontons weren’t very full (portion-wise), but
they had decent flavor. Probably more hype than anything, but they were good.
The dill pickle beer was odd, but definitely drinkable. It smelled a TON like
pickle juice, but only tasted like a
moderate amount of pickle juice. I like that it was served with a tiny pickle
and a cheese curd garnish. More fun than tasty, in my opinion, but worth trying
to horrify your friends.
My next stop wasn’t food related, but it honestly was number
one on my list of to-dos at the fair this year. Even before all the food and
beer. It was the All-Star Stunt Dog Splash show. All kinds of dogs jumping
crazy distances off the dock into the water. I was flying solo, so it was easy
for me to get in the front row (especially since I showed up extra early to get
primo seating). These dogs are jumping like 25 feet and appear to love every
second of it. There were a couple of trick dogs and a Frisbee dog, as well. I’m
so glad I went to this thing. It was tons of fun.
18) Off to Vegie Fries for the new fair food item: Cherry
Bombs. Battered and deep-fried licorice bites. I love that they were on
toothpicks, to be honest. I also love that the ratio was right. Small bites of
sweet red licorice with salty batter and powdered sugar. I’m not sure these
were at the top of my list, but they were better than I thought they would be.
And I like that they really went for it.
19 & 20) Ball Park Café always has the best beers, so I
went and got Bauhaus Brew Labs’ Shandlot and an East Lake Brewery Kirby Pucker.
The Shandlot is one of the best shandys I’ve ever had. Great balance of beer
and lemon and very refreshing. I hope they bottle this. The Kirby Pucker was
claimed to be a sour wheat beer, but in my non-beer-snob opinion, it wasn’t
sour enough to be a “sour” but yet it was too sour to be a regular wheat beer.
It’s probably a gateway sour for some people, and thankfully, I still enjoyed
it. Try it or not, I won’t be offended.
21) Back to Giggle’s Campfire Grill to get Sociable Cider
Werks Raspberry Hard Cider. It was really good and tart, and I’d drink a lot of
this in the summer. I’m not usually a fan of their ciders, but this one I DID
like a lot. Great work!
22) Against my better judgement, I went to the Green Mill
booth (I’m not a fan of their restaurants, but their new 2017 food item
intrigued me). The Pizza-rito is a parmesan-crusted flour tortilla filled with
pepperoni, sausage, risotto, mozzarella, and marinara (and served with even
more marinara on the side). This thing was surprisingly good. Good ratio of
ingredients to tortilla and sort of like a fancy hot pocket. I liked this more
than I wanted to. Hahaha
23) To the Sandwich Stop! A lot of people have been talking
about this Bacon Fluffernutter sandwich. It’s a grilled cinnamon bun sandwich
with a bacon, marshmallow, and crunchy peanut butter filling. It comes with
some sort of dipping sauce, but I asked for a side of maple syrup and a side of
raspberry dip. The maple syrup was good, and it even accentuates the chunky
peanut butter flavor. But, if you can get that raspberry sauce, you’ll love it.
This sandwich is being talked about for a reason – it’s really good.
We walked by the KBWB radio booth and they were interviewing The Pentatonix on the air. They were the headliner at the Grandstand Stage this night, and they're a pretty big deal (if you like a capella singing groups). I may or may not have been man-handled by the police when I tried to get closer.
24) My friend LooseChange and I both wanted to try RC’s BBQ’s
newest food item: the double Dose of Pork Belly. It’s a 100% ground pork belly
burger topped with crisp smoked pork belly, pepper jack, coleslaw, and pickled
onions. I heard some harsh reviews of this, but I really didn’t care. It was
good. The pork burger was the best part and was the winner between the two
doses, but the pork belly on top was also good – I just wish there was more of
it. The coleslaw was a fantastic addition this this. I didn’t taste much pepper
jack, but I think it had melted into the meat, which is fine. I liked this one.
LooseChange and I also had to hit the Llama costume contest.
If you’ve never been to one, you should probably do it. You should also drink a
LOT before you go. It’s so bizarre and funny, and yet, the contestants and the
judges take it as serious as the heart attack I probably should have had by
now. The costumes MUST be worn by both trainer and llama and I thought you were
supposed to entirely cover the neck of the llama, but a few llamas made it into
the event with exposed necks. Most of the kids in this event (all 7th
graders through freshmen in college ages) really tried hard and got creative.
But a few of them… I’ll be blunt… kind of phoned it in and threw a sheet over
their llama and made up some speech about what they were supposed to be. It was
a fun event and I’m glad I got to see it. I've done a separate Llama Costume Contest post, so you can see all the costumes.
25) Had to get a 1919 root beer. This is probably a record
year for how long I actually waited before getting one of these. I love this
root beer so much.
26) One place that was on my “maybe” list was the Fried
Fruit & Fried Olives stand. Might as well go there! I got the bacon-wrapped olives that were
deep-fried. I thought they’d be individually fried, but they were fried as one
long corn-dog looking unit (but you can still break them off individually if
you try hard enough). These were pretty good, especially with the ranch dip –
keep in mind, I’m not a ranch-on-everything kind of person, but in moderation,
it can be a nice sauce. This thing was SUPER salty, which is my style, so if
you’re watching your salt intake, maybe don’t get these. Otherwise, GET these.
27) I was slowing down, so I went back to the Ball Park Café
and got a Bent Brewstillery Hungarian Cheery Wheat Ale. It had just a little
bit of tart-ness to it, which was perfect, and a solid cheery flavor. It was
almost a cross between a beer and a cider. I really liked this one a lot.
28) I can’t claim I ate all of these, but I did have more than
my fair share of a bucket (not a boat) of Mouth Trap Cheese Curds – they’re the
best at the state fair and always have been.
29) just when I thought I was done eating, one of our
friends appeared holding a Puff Daddy On A Stick from Sausage Sister and Me. I
have had these before and they’re always good. It’s a Thai sausage wrapped in a
puff pastry. He definitely had over-imbibed by this time of the night and,
while brandishing this meat-filled skewer like a knife at my mouth, told me, “Rule
number one: Don’t be scared!” then he shoved the pointy skewer into my cheek,
missing my mouth completely. Only a small amount of blood, thankfully hidden by
my beard. I did eventually get a piece of pastry-wrapped sausage off the skewer
and into my mouth, which was pretty much the perfect way to end this evening at
the fair (minus the bleeding part). My apologies, no photo.
We finished the night watching the great Tanya Tucker perform at the free Leinenkeugel's stage. She's a legend and still has the pipes.
Overall, this was probably my most gluttonous year at the
Minnesota State Fair. I spent 13 hours eating and drinking non-stop. The animal
events I went to were pretty choice this year and nothing let me down in that
aspect. A few food items were meh, and a few were unexpected wins. That’s how
it goes with these things.
Here are some stats from the day.
- 13 hours at the fair
- 29 food items eaten/drunk
- Of those 29, 11 were boozy (I’m including the beer flight as one) plus one root beer
- 8 items had some sort of fruit or vegetable in them (so more than I usually eat in a day)(that means this was a healthy day, right?)
- Only 10 items were fried
The best foods at the fair this year (in my opinion):
- Breakfast Bake from Blue Barn
- Cheesy Nacho Corn on the Cob
- Bacon Fluffernutter
- Memphis Tatchos
- Mini Sco-Nuts
- Two Doses of Pork Belly
The best beers at the fair this year (in my opinion):
- Bauhaus Shandlot
- Bent Brewstillery Hungarian Cherry Wheat Ale
- Schell’s Red Sangria Lager
I hope you get to try some of these before they’re gone
after Labor Day! Enjoy!
