Category Archives: State Fair

2024, Family, Food, State Fair

Fair Food Review `24

29 Comments

Another great year at the Fair.  Five trips for me… six for YA (she did a Grandstand show on Tuesday).  As usual, we had a list of foods that we wanted to try; some of them are new offerings this year and some are our annual favorites.  When we started to work on the list, YA said “where is last year’s list” and was disappointed that I didn’t have it on the computer.  So…  now we have a spreadsheet.  Figures.  What follows is this year’s food review.

New Stuff

  • Cookie Butter Crunch Mini Donuts. Vanilla sugar mini donuts topped w/ cookie butter drizzle and Biscoff crumbles.  Not overwhelmed by the Biscoff taste.  They also dipped the edges of the bucket in the cookie crumbs which was cute but VERY messy.
  • Deep Fried Haloumi Cheese. Cheese wrapped in filo and fried, served with sweet chili sauce.  Cheese had an unusual texture – more like thick cottage cheese.  Very very salty.   Could have been much better.
  • Berries & Cream Nordic Waffle. Such a good idea but the problem with the Nordic Waffle is that to make them flexible enough to fold around different items, they have to be on the soft side of cooked.  Doesn’t take long before they’re a little limp and mushy.
  • Chili Mango Whip. YA tried this, as she’s liked the Whip options before.  This was their mango whip with a  “chamoy and tajin” topping.  She said it was “ok” but a little “fake” tasting.  She didn’t have a better explanation.
  • Patata Frita Focacciawich. Kettle chip flavored ice cream between focaccia bread topped w/ honey butter, kettle chips.  Sounded intriguing and smelled marvelous but the focaccia overpowered everything else and the ice cream on it’s own really didn’t have much kettle chip flavor.
  • Amish Donut. In a surprising turn reversal of roles, YA wanted to try to the Amish donut from Peachey’s – enough to stand in line for almost 45 minutes. (I didn’t not stand in line with her – no way I’m waiting that long for anything, even a donut.)  The donut had a great smell of vanilla and sugar but it was heavy and my three bites sat like lumps in my stomach.  We threw the last 1½ donuts away.  That’s right, VS threw donuts away.

 

Oldies but Goodies

So all the new foods we tried this year were a bust.  Luckily there are plenty of other favorites that don’t disappoint!

  • Cheesy Sriracha Funnel Bites. Hot, cheesy fried bites with green onions and sriracha mayo.  They love me here so I get ranch on the side as well for no extra cost!
  • Roasted Corn. Why does it taste better at the fair?
  • Australian Battered Potatoes. We had them with ranch and cheese this year.
  • Sweet Martha’s Cookies. Most dropped food item at the fair… I always bring a Tupperware but still only get the small serving.  They’re really best the first day.
  • Potato Cheese Crepe. YA’s favorite savory breakfast.
  • Pickle Pizza. I could live without this but YA loves it!
  • Brim’s `Sota Jammy Sammy. Almond butter and Minnesota blueberry jam on grilled cinnamon bread.  Yum-O.
  • Cheese Curds. One day we had the garlic ones, yesterday we had the ranch ones.  We always get the smallest dish.  Too many cheese curds can do us both in.
  • Potato Pierogis. Also another savory breakfast with a tangy horseradish sauce.
  • Hawaiian Shave Ice. What can I say?  Gotta have it every trip!

Guess the spreadsheet will be updated for next year by removing the new foods only!

What’s on the menu for your Labor Day?

2024, animals, Food, Kids, State Fair, Weather

Mother Nature – 1. VS & YA – 0.

40 Comments

I’ve been to the Fair in all kinds of weather.  Granted, no snow but light rain, heavy rain, serious winds, tornado watches and heat.  Lots of heat.  In fact, last year there were five days that were 90 degrees and higher.  I was there for two of those days.  The other three days were no slouches either, temperature wise. 

So on Monday bringing in a forecast of 90, we weren’t too worried.  We took our fans and headed out, getting on the first bus and arriving at the fair at 7:45 a.m.  Got a cold bottle of water right away (along with a crepe and cookies….) before heading to the animal barns.  We thought it would be a good strategy to get the barns done before the day got too crazy.  This was a good strategy but after an hour or so petting cows, lambs, goats and horses in non-air conditioned barns, we were squirming.  At that point it was only 80 degrees but the humidity was 85% and you could feel every percent of that.  We were both dripping.

Walked up to the Pet Pavilion to find that the German Shorthair Pointers were not doing any of their demonstrations.  We did pet the dogs that were there and wandered about looking at a few displays but it was brutal.  I would have been willing to sit in the sun (with my fan and my baseball cap) to watch the dog dock diving, as it didn’t require any movement on my part, but YA didn’t want to.  It was nasty enough that neither of us was too interested in food and we’d filled up the water bottle three times.  YA didn’t even last through one level of the Grandstand, which she normally loves – if there was air in there, you couldn’t tell. 

I wasn’t too happy either and I didn’t want to do anything in particular enough to try to coax YA into it.  So for the first time EVER, we headed back to the bus at noon.  Didn’t even pretend that we might come back so skipped getting our hands stamped on the way back.  When the bus arrived, the folks getting off said “it’s freezing on the bus”.  I said “great”. 

When we got home we lounged in the backyard in the shade, filled up Guinevere’s little pool, soaked our feet and tried not to feel completely defeated.

What do you do when it’s hot hot hot?

2023, Family, Food, State Fair

Fair Food – A Review

39 Comments

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?

2023, Food, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Waiting

14 Comments

One of the new vendors at the fair this year is a bakery; they have three items on their menu – an Amish donut, a peanut butter chocolate donut and sweet tea.  No coupon.  We stopped by a few time over the last week and the lines were unbelievable.  The photo above was taken at 11 a.m. on Friday and doesn’t even begin to do the line justice.  It was the longest line I’ve ever seen at the fair – even longer than Pickle Pizza last year and Nordic Waffle their first year.  Based on how fast people were being served, I’m guessing people were waiting 45 minutes or so for their donut.  Pickle Pizza and Nordic Waffle at least move faster than that!

I once slept out overnight outside of Dayton’s to get Bon Jovi tickets.  I got to the Fitzgerald at 5 a.m. for the last Morning Show and several baboons waited with me for quite a while for Jim Ed Poole’s service.  And I will admit to sitting outside Aldi’s once a year for 2+ hours to get the wine and cheese advent calendars, but at least I’m one of the first few in line and the wait is spent sitting in my stadium chair.  But I’m generally not good about lines; I tend to start weighing the benefit of what’s at the end of the line versus the time I’m spending standing in it. 

So I’ll be passing on the Amish donut.  If they return next year, maybe it won’t be such a crush.

What are some times you’ve stood on line for a long time?  Was it worth it?

2023, Family, Food, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Wagons Ho!

45 Comments

YA was three when I took her to the fair for the first time.  We took her umbrella stroller although she didn’t use it too much that day (YA never liked any kind of enclosure – no exersaucer, no playpen, no doorway jumper).  The following year we didn’t bother with the stroller at all – she kept up with no issues or complaints.

Since this is our experience, we are both a little surprised at the stroller revolution.  Strollers have gotten bigger and bigger as the years have gone by.  Now there are side-by-side doubles, front to back doubles, not to mention all the additional pockets, cupholders and clip-on fans.  They seem like a lot of trouble to me but they are clearly popular with parents of toddlers.

I shouldn’t be surprised that strollers have taken the next step – wagons.  The fair was full of them – large wagons, almost all with canopies.  They remind me of the old Conestoga covered wagons that took settlers west. Most of them also have a lot of extra storage area and, of course, cup holders.  Most of them have seating and trays (think tv tray) inside.  And have I mentioned storage?  Cookies, stuffed animals, shirts, bubble blowers, straw hats…. If you can find it at the fair, YA and I have probably seen it in one these wagons over the last week.  I saw a handful filled with so much stuff that there wasn’t room for the kids.  On Wednesday, a family with their full wagon held up the bus back to the park `n ride as they figured out what to do with all their stuff before they could fold it up to go in the bus luggage compartment. 

Who know what the next step in stroller evolution will be but for now I’m absolutely sure that if I looked closely enough, I’d find that one of these covered wagons was named “Intimida”!

What would you have wanted in your Conestoga if you were heading west?

2023, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Notes From Opening Day

39 Comments

Just a few observations from Opening Day at the Fair!

Cookies.  Sweet Martha’s has made a big change, well a big change in my book.  Instead of the smallest size coming to you in a paper cone, it now comes in a cup.  Of course, they still fill it up 50% higher than the lip of the cup, so I continue to need my collapsible cookie container!

Tantrums.  Normally you see more tantrums in the afternoon but this one little gal (I’m guessing four years old) was getting the day off to a rip-roaring start.  I’m not even sure what she was raging about but her poor father was sitting on the curb, holding onto the stroller (which she was trying to rip out of his hands), while he tried desperately to “reason” with her.  I didn’t want to pry, so I didn’t hang out long enough to see how long the meltdown lasted but as worked up as she was, it might have been awhile.

Community Building.  One of the bands in the parade was the Eden Prairie High School Band, which is a whooper.  As the muscians marched by, I noticed that the entire drum section was wearing pig ear headbands from the Oink Booth.  None of the rest of the band was sporting any headgear.

Creating a Stir.  There was a fairly large crowd at AFL-CIO Corner, but all but one of the little kiosks was quiet.  Turns out six St. Paul Firefighters were present to sign and sell the firefighters’ annual calendar.  Two of the six were wearing muscle shirts, the others no shirts at all.  They were doing a brisk business in calendars and photo ops.

Sad Shakespeare.  I have a pretty high tolerance for Shakespeare in any form and it’s a good thing.  There was a short performance in the West End towards the end of the day.  The little troop did the Pyramus and Thisbe play from the end of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  It was a silly bit and only lasted 15 minutes but without the rest of the play to explain it, it didn’t make much sense.  The poor sound system didn’t help them much.  Pyramus’ death scene however was a hoot.

Have you ever worn a team hat?

2022, Art, Family, State Fair

Lobbying for a Hobby?

67 Comments

This is the last State Fair update, I swear.  Until next year anyway.

On opening day of the fair, I always go by myself.  I go where I want, do what I want and don’t have to give a moment’s thought.  This way I can spend as much time in the Fine Arts Building and the Education Building as I like.  Over the years I’ve discovered that most everyone else does not have enough  tolerance for how much time I can spend looking at dioramas made by 2nd graders, woodworking projects by junior high kids and robots built by high schoolers. 

I also spend a lot of time looking at the quilting projects.  I love looking at quilting – it is just fascinating to me.  Taking all those smaller pieces of fabric and imagining a bigger piece of art.  A little bit like crop art, now that I stop and think about it.  Every year I walk slowly through the entire quilting section; I particularly like the “Quilt on a Stick”.

Quilt on a Stick

Then I always spend the next hour thinking about taking up quilting as a hobby.  Where I could take some beginner classes, where I would put the frame, what kind of cabinet for fabric.  It takes about an hour before I shake it off.  I always have more than one time and space-swallowing hobby!  My paper crafting takes up an entire room my of house.  The number of kitchen toys I own (fancy-dancy pans, fondue pots, ramekins, apple peelers, salad spinners) necessitated a huge shelf in the basement.  My gardening stuff takes up the back wall of my garage.  I really do NOT need another hobby. 

Unfortunately this year YA wanted to do the Education Building on one of the days we went together, so I got to see the quilts twice.

Then I needed to talk myself off the ledge.  Again!

Any hobbies you’ve toyed with starting?

2022, Art, Family, Mysteries, State Fair, Uncategorized

Mysteries of Life

60 Comments

When I was visiting my mom mid-August, we talked about the State Fair – more than once.  She wanted to know about all the things that I like to do, which is funny since Nonny would hate the State Fair.  In fact, it would be a toss-up as to which of my parents would hate the State Fair the most.  Probably my dad.  I’m not sure where my genetic pre-disposition to loving the fair came from… certainly not from either Nonny or JB.

The food, the things for sale, the animal barns and the pet pavilion are easy to explain.  Crop art was harder to explain and when I got around to the Butterheads, I was really at a loss.  I’m not sure it ever made sense to Nonny.  Truly when you think about it, how could it make sense to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Dairy Princess and her court having their heads carved into huge chunks of butter over the course of the fair?  Sounds clear enough, typed out like this, but it wasn’t that easy to explain to my mother.  I did send her the above photo a few days ago but she hasn’t responded yet.  She’s probably still shaking her head over how I “turned out” after she so carefully raised me!

What’s the latest mystery you’ve read?

2022, Family, Food, Mysteries, State Fair, Uncategorized

Corn Fed

63 Comments

I remember the first time I saw someone take a picture of their food about 20 years ago.  It was dinner with a client at Swan Court, at the Hyatt in Maui.  It was a lovely evening and we were seated outside along the lagoon when we noticed a young couple sitting close to us taking photos of their plates before tucking in.  The client and I were too polite to laugh out loud, but we did roll our eyes and we talked about it more than once over the next two days. 

Little did we know that we were witnessing the beginning of a worldwide trend.  These days social media is filled with pictures of people’s snacks, meals, drinks…. any edible will do.  For this trend, YA is all in; we can’t ever eat anywhere without the obligatory photo before she begins to eat.  And often I have to move my plate or my glass or my coffee cup so it doesn’t mess up her photo.

State Fair is about the only time I join in the food photo frenzy.  Cheese curds and cookies subtitled “Breakfast of Champions” got texted to several friends.  My pretty Margarita lemonade made the cut as well as the French Toast Bites but most of my comestibles went undocumented.  YA took photos of everything, including her roasted corn in the photo above. 

Considering how common food photos are these days, I was really surprised when a woman standing near YA said in a loud voice “Oh it’s just food.  Eat it already!”  YA just ignored her; as the aggrieved mother, I was mustering up a zinger for this woman but she had already disappeared into the crowd.  I was really stunned by this, first because YA wasn’t obstructing any traffic at all and second because taking pictures of food is so very common these days.  I can only surmise that this poor woman had been driven to distraction by her kids that day at the fair, keeping her from all her first bites of fair food by taking photo after photo!

Tell me one of your favorite corn recipes!

2022, Family, Food, Kids, State Fair, Uncategorized

Fair Eats

50 Comments

My stomach was a little unsettled yesterday.  Not actual distress… just feeling a little sensitive.  I suppose after five days of fair food, it’s only to be expected.  Especially Sunday.  In looking back, except for the cookies and the Hawaiian shave ice, every single thing I ate was fried.  Yikes.

I’m blaming a lot of this on YA and the State Fair marketing types.  For years YA and I have gotten our coupon booklets ahead of time; we used to go through them on the bus on the way to the fair but last year and this year, YA went through a week in advance and put post-it notes on the foods she was interested in.  Then the marketing types sent us an email listing all the new foods for 2022.  YA perused this seriously and then made a list.  Yep, she’s my daughter, isn’t she?!

A few items got listed after I took the photo and what you also don’t see is that each night that we got home from the fair, she highlighted any of the foods we’d eaten during the day.  Truly the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

It will be much easier to tell you what we DIDN’T get to.  We passed the vegan corn dog trailer more than once but it never seemed the right moment.  I’ll try harder next year if they come back.  We did want to try the sweet potato poutine but you have to really want it to stand in the lines at The Blue Barn in the afternoon.  We stopped at the global market for arepas and moletes but neither of them looked that good so we tried something else.  And even though YA put the tirokroketes on the list, she was never in the mood when we passed Dino’s.  She also decided against the cotton candy float.

Some of the items got multiple tastings (cookies and Hawaiian Shave Ice are daily staples) and cheese curds, of course.  We hit the fried blueberry pie more than once – it was a new food and it was terrific.  Cheesy Siracha Funnel Cake Bites (way better than you’re imagining), Fried Pickles and Roasted Corn are favorites.  We got the pickle pizza on the first Saturday before it went viral; the lines were blocks long in both directions on Sunday.  It was fun but again not worth standing in line that long.  In fact, I always buy my cookies in the first hour and put most of them in a Tupperware that I raid as the day goes on, because I can’t do the afternoon lines. 

Just reading through all of this had made me realize that as much as I love the fair, it’s probably a good thing it only happens once a year.  It might take my stomach until next year to recover!

When was the last time you got carried away with anything?