2023, Family, Food, State Fair

Fair Food – A Review

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This is not only not a comprehensive look at the 2023 State Fair Food Offerings, it is also not objective or even fair.  Just reflections from YA and me.

Don’t Bother

Cheese Curd Dill Pickle Taco.  Sounds good on paper but dill pickle ends up taking away from the cheese curd taste.  It also made the fried taco shell really soggy really fast.

Sweet Corn Ba-Sant.  Marketed as a cross between a bagel and a croissant with a creamy corn custard, this didn’t live up to its hype.  Not a lot of custard and if there was corn in there, I couldn’t tell.  A little dry.

At Least Once Every Year

Sweet Martha Cookies.  Get these early (so you don’t have to wait in a long line) but only get what you think you (and any companions) can eat before the day is up.  Wonderful when warm but “meh” if you still have some around the next day.

Pickle Pizza.  So much better than you expect.  White sauce, garlic, dill and then the sliced pickles.  Not an every day taste, but fun at least once.

Hot Honey Cheese Sticks.  Strips of fried Haloumi cheese slathered with a hot honey sauce (and for some silliness, a sprinkle of honeycomb cereal).  Hot sauce on cheese might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it didn’t keep YA and I from having it for breakfast more than once.

Yes Yes Yes

Roasted Corn.  Fabulous as always.  Perfectly roasted, dipped in melted butter, salt and pepper.  What more is there to say?

Cheesy Siracha Bites.  Little ball of dough, deep fried and then covered with cheese, green onions and chives.  Served with a siracha sauce that is the perfect hot/not too hot blend.

Hawaiian Shave Ice.  Still the best way to cool down on a hot summer day.  Biggest shave ice on the fairgrounds.  I always do cherry and orange.

Sota Sammie.  Grilled sandwich with peanut butter, almond butter and fresh blueberry jam.  Sounds good and tastes even better.

Deep Fried Blueberry Pie.  Really, how can you go wrong with this.  Freshly fried blueberry hand pie with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream.  This vendor added a cookie dough version of the pie this year but both YA and I say “why mess with perfection”?

Wedge-Hammer.  Refreshing combo of orange juice, lemonade, ginger and a splash of lime.  Not too sweet so just right for sipping in the sun.

Birthday Cake Mini Donuts.  The big surprise of the year, this new concoction turned out to be great!  The donuts themselves were a little fluffier than the usual mini donuts, doused with a cinnamon sugar mix and then drizzled with icing and sprinkles.  It was the consistency of the donuts that really made this a winner.

There were plenty of other foods and beverages over the visits we made, but we decided these were the highlights.

Can you stomach carnival/fair food?  Any favorites? Any really NOT favorites?

39 thoughts on “Fair Food – A Review”

  2. I visit the fair no more often than once a decade but when I do I am not even remotely tempted by the food. Robin is, of course, welcome to get anything that appeals to her but that usually isn’t much.

    Robin and I will sometimes share a bag of mini donuts. I have gotten an apple in the horticulture building but they are early apples, usually Beacon, soft and not very good.

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  3. Many, many people go to the Fair for the food. I am not one of them. Most of the food offerings don’t appeal to me – especially anything on a stick or deep fried. I don’t even care for the roasted corn (I prefer a smallish ear with small pale yellow and white kernels that just pop off the cob). This year I went twice (first time ever going more than once) for a total of 9 hours. In that time I consumed a cup of fresh squeezed lemonade, a vanilla cream puff, and a dish of Queen’s caramel apples with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. And in a reference to yesterday’s blog, I won’t stand in a long line for any food at the Fair.

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  5. We haven’t been to the Fair for 40 years, when we visited it upon the occasion of our honeymoon. We are toying with the idea of going back to the Fair next year. I am sure that the food choices are completely different now than then.

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    1. Me neither. But I also do not like much of it, so why eat it. My favorites are Mini donuts–must be hot– and the apple dumplings like Grandma made.

      I have a gardenng gig this morning. Will check in later.

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  8. Not a fair foodie in the least. Haven’t been to the state fair in decades. Don’t care much for greasy fried food. I have a sweet tooth, but would much rather get a good muffin, pastry, or doughnut at a quality bakery.

    I often wonder about the collective weight gain of the hundreds of thousands of fair-goers every year. Can’t be good for the health of the population overall.

    Chris in Owatonna–sounding a bit like a curmudgeon this morning. 😉

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    1. I actually did not gain any weight over six visits to the fair. I didn’t lose any either; I assume the extra food was balanced by the fact that my number of steps was way off the charts compared to normal.

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        1. Of course I’m paying for it now. My feet are so mad at me — I think it’s gonna take a couple more days before they forgive me.

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  9. I have only attended the fair as an employee in the DNR building. I gave out brochures in the stand outside the building. Once I worked in the corner inside the building, giving out more brochures and answering questions. I had 30 minutes for lunch. I tried Sweet Martha’s cookies and cheese curds. Then I dashed over to the MPR booth, then back to work. I’m not planning to go back to the fair. I’m not a fan of sticky, greasy, hot and sweaty, too many human bodies packed in one place. There are some things I’d like to see but the crowds have to be really thinned out. I could be convinced to go in the rain. Maybe.

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    1. I always stop by the DNR stage to see who’s playing and hopefully see some dancers. In 2019 the DNR temporary tattoo was the emerald ash borer. It was actually fairly large for a temporary tattoo and brilliantly colored. I had three of them on me for a while.

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    2. When we have gone, we usually try to get there early, when the animal barns are the only things open. After we tour the barns we wander around until about noon when it starts getting really crowded. That no doubt is part of the reason we don’t eat much.

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  10. I haven’t been to the fair since volunteering at the MPR booth in the 90s. I don’t remember what food I ate. My memories are the horse shows, the draft horses and enjoying the butter sculpture as well as the good time volunteering.

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    1. One of the big french fry concessions has been right next to the MPR area for decades so you might’ve had French fries. The fried pie concession stand is right across from MPR now.

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  11. When I go to the Fair I want to see the animals and 4-H exhibits. I exhibited a succulent garden one year when I was in Grade 11, having won at the Rock County Fair.

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  12. Actually, the last time we went, after watching a terrific Manhattan Transfer performance at the Grandstand, we walked through the animal barns at about 10 pm. Very quiet, peaceful, no crowds, almost had that area to ourselves.

    Chris

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  13. We try to go at least twice every year, and food is a major part of each trip. The Fair and Yule are the two times I relax my veganism a bit–if something is made with honey or the breading has egg in it, I sometimes eat it anyway–but these days there’s actually quite a lot of plant-based food out there. I always have an Irish Apple Tipsy Pie (vegan!), roasted corn (without butter), and chickpea roti (although they’ve hiked the price to $17, so I may swap that for falafel next year). Usually we also get Earth Wings (fried cauliflower) from French Meadow, but decided to skip this year, as the other food was pretty expensive and we can easily get them at the restaurant. I also missed my frozen chocolate banana and vegie fries because I just got too hot and tired to stay any longer.

    This year I had masala dosa and bhajia from MomoDosa and lentil sambusas and fried plantains from Afro Deli, all very good. I did not get anything from the Herbivorous Butcher because their food is always ridiculously salty. The fried green tomato sandwich at the Farmer’s Union was very tasty, and they make good oat-milk lattes. According to my roommate, the chicken momos with tomato chutney were great, but the other new foods she tried this year–Italian hand pies and fried butternut squash, IIRC–were unremarkable.

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    1. The sambusa from the Afro Deli was the only thing on our list that we didn’t manage to get to this year. I’m glad to hear it was good.

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  14. I haven’t been to the state fair since I was about 17 yrs old. Went with a 4H project, and my sister and BIL met me and took me on a bunch of rides.
    At the county fair, it was the ADA Malt stand that I’d head for first. Fried cheese curds, Mini donuts. I’d try the cookies now.
    It used to be in the 4H kitchen was the only place all year I could buy an ice cream drum stick. Mom never bought ice cream treats for home; maybe they didn’t have them in stores. I ate a lot of them at the fair. At least 1 or 2 / day.
    (We were there every day because mom and dad ran the ‘All you can drink milk booth’ for a lot of years. And dad worked in the Farm Bureau booth. I worked in that a few years and it was quiet; no one was interested. I worked in the milk booth and the malt booth too.

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  15. One of my favorites is a strawberry smoothie that is offered at a booth near the pet pavillion. I started getting it when I was volunteering for the Humane Society and the booth was close by. Sometimes I get a banana in it, too. It’s very simple and fresh, just frozen fruit in a blender. Another good bevrage option is the birch beer.

    You used to be able to get chocolate dipped strawberries in the Coliseum for a dollar. That’s no longer an option, though.

    I always like the salted nut rolls too. I didn’t get one this year, but with any luck they’ll be back.

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