You knew it was coming.  The review of the foods that YA and I sampled at the fair this year.  I’m thinking of this as a public service announcement for any trips to the fair that you might be considering for next year!

Staples/Old Favorites (Some of them anyway)

• Sweet Martha’s Cookies – every day. What doesn’t get eaten right away goes into my Tupperware to be dipped into as the day progresses.  Still yummy when they are warm and gooey.
• Potato Cheddar Crepe. This is YA’s favorite.  They make the crepes to order so they are also warm and gooey.
• The corn stand is an amazing piece of production and, of course, the corn is also fabulous.
• Pickle Pizza. Another of YA’s staples.  They’ve added a second outlet this year so while the lines were long, they weren’t as awful as prior years.  What she likes best is that the base is a white sauce, so the pickles aren’t sparring with tomato sauce for the lead.
• Cheese Curds. Like usual, the Mouthtrap curds in the Food Building are the best.  They also have a fabulous set-up so while the lines look long, once you’re in line, it goes really fast.  Warm, crunchy, not too greasy.  They’ve got all the other curds beat.

New Foods This Year

• Pimento Cheese Puffs at Shanghai Henri’s (International Bazaar). Pretty good, could have been fried a bit less; the crunch was a bit much.  Nice cheesy insides, not too spicy with a nice sweet and sour sauce.  5 stars
• Three Cheese Mac Savory Cone at Roons (near sheep/poultry barn). Like it says – mac & cheese in a waffle cone.  The mac & cheese had too many savory spices for me and the cone was a little “tough”.  3 stars
• Vegetarian Spring Rolls at Panda Palace (International Bazaar). YA ate most of these and reported that they weren’t anything special.  3 stars
• Sweet Squeakers at The Blue Barn (West End). White curds, battered, fried, dusted w/ cinnamon/sugar.  Topped with a lemon whipped mousse and raspberry sauce.  Header photo!  Interesting concept but WAY overdone.  You really couldn’t tell that the base of cheese curds wasn’t really recognizable.  4 stars
• Strawberry Crunch Mini Donuts at Solem’s (North End). They looked good but most of the strawberry flavor was in the topping, so after the top layer of donuts was eaten, the donuts themselves didn’t have a lot of taste.  And I have to say, putting crunch around the edge of the bucket looks striking, it is a MESS.  3 stars.

This isn’t by any means all the foods we plied ourselves with but a good overview.  Sad to say that there were no new foods that received 5 stars from us.  Next year when we print out our food list, it won’t include any of them.  But the old favorites didn’t disappoint.

If you do the fair next year, hopefully our research will be helpful to you!

What cheese is never yours?