Minnesota State Fair Food - Mostly 2010, with a few from 2008 and 2012

Click on a picture to start the slideshow. To look at a bigger version of the image, click on the button below the picture that says "1:1" - clicking on the picture will simply move the slideshow forward.

Greetings from Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. And Welcome to the 2010 Minnesota State Fair, Land of 10,000 available fat grams. Welcome to the MN State Fair Express Bus Attendees! You haven't gone 500 feet and we are offering you hot fat in a portable package! This the larger booth for that. It caught my eye two years ago because all I could think was overflowing grilled chocolate on the grill must stink. However, a marshmallow, chocolate and banana sandwich sounds better than grilled pb and banana to me ;) It's never too early - in the morning or in your life - to start eating corn dogs. Random Healthy Food Sighting #1: Look at all the pretty produce. And the really cool name of the bakery. A carb lover's dream, ruined by the presence of perfectly good protein. Spaghetti Eddie's - serving everything except Spaghetti, apparently. In 2012, this was what Spaghetti Eddie's was pushing at all their carts. Not exactly tempting. Okay, I'll admit it - I love the smell of fried bologna. Unfortunately, there was no bologna on the grill when we stopped here - I had to settle for a picture of their massive sausages and onions. Not a bad runner up. But not as good as.... ...the smell of evil mini donuts. We split a bag, however, they didn't last long enough for a picture :D Looks like someone has been sued for selling dogs that weren't exactly one foot long Upon leaving the Health Fair (see the wee little sign in the upper right?), help yourself to some Oven Fresh Brownies! First, the less obvious comment - is it really a cannoli if it's cream-filled? It's supposed to be ricotta. Then again, there aren't enough Italians in the Upper Midwest for sustainable argument. A shout out to the nice guy who let me take a picture of his Deep-Fried Twinkie...especially since I was the second person who asked. And really - is it not enough to deep fry a Twinkie? You have to dust it with sugar and drizzle it with chocolate? Random Healthy Food Sighting #2: A turkey sandwich in a pita pocket? What kind of State Fair is this? Are there enough Southerners in Minnesota to make these correctly? I know there are enough green tomatoes - super rainy summer up here... Dear Ragin Cajun: Why on earth would I want a Bread Bowl Breakfast - a mess of potatoes, eggs, and jambalaya, blackened steak or a cajun sausage - when I could just have a Beignet? Of course it didn't look like you had chicory coffee... Random Healthy Food Sighting #3: Rotisserie Chicken? Salads? You'd think some people don't want to eat Deep Fried Twinkies or something. Much like in 2008, I'm a little hesitant to eat something called a Fudge Puppy, even if it includes a Belgian Waffle. This food item was served at Sonny's Spiral Spuds. This is called a Chocolate Tornado Potato - a deep-fried spiral cut potato on a stick, and then dipped in chocolate. Because I always look at a glorified curly fry and think, “that needs chocolate!” I just loved the tons of staff in their bright orange, “We Fry Cheese to Please” t-shirts behind the counter. And the tottering pile of cheese curds on the counter. Still $5.00 for a heart attack in a paper dish. For those of you not familiar, Lefse is basically the Norske version of a crepe. So at this stand, you could get a lefse filled with butter, white or brown sugar, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, lingonberries, or whipped cream. Which doesn't sound too bad, but it was counteracted by the steaming pile of Swedish Meatballs and Gravy. Honestly - does that look like a Delicious Potato or something suspiciously NOT a potato? Looking at their menu display confirmed my fears: more suspicious than delicious. I will not eat it on a bun, I will not eat it on the run. I will not eat it on a stick, because it kinda makes me sick. I will not eat it on a boat, I cannot get it down my throat. At Sausage Sister and Me, they offered sausages wrapped by or stuffed into various things. I've had sausage-stuffed peppers before, but not like this. This was called the Tex Mex Sistah - a Tex Mex sausage wrapped in dough. Because good Tex Mex always involves wrapping their sausage in enough dough to soak up the spice. Sadly, they were out of spaghetti-and-meatballs-on-a-stick and didn't even have a picture on their menu. We were intrigued though, so they were kind enough to tell us how it was done. They mold meat and noodle pieces around sticks and freeze them extra-hard. Then when ordered, they quickly deep fry, and cover it in a meat sauce. Interesting, but I think I'd still rather just have a bowl of it. I did get a picture in 2012. I still think I'd rather just have a bowl of pasta. Colorful, eye-catching signage aside, this was already a must-visit for us. Why?.... ...because look what's at the top of the menu. Deep fried cheeseburgers! In our excitement, we totally forgot to look for the Mac-And-Cheese on a stick, unfortunately. Another shout out for the nice lady who let us take pictures of her deep-fried slider. (I keep looking at it and keep trying not to gag.) She actually said she had bought it to take pictures for her kids - she wasn't sure she was going to eat it :D I know I expressed my general distaste for Walleye earlier, but that was before 2012. The Walleye Roll up by the Lumberjack show? Best thing I've ever eaten at the fair. Elephant Ears are big wedges of fried dough. I still have yet to figure out the difference between this and a funnel cake. I think it's because a funnel cake is prettier and therefore has less fat and calories. It was a little too chilly in the morning for cold treats, but for my taste, I thought frozen key lime pie dipped in chocolate won over frozen cheesecake dipped in chocolate. Would it be less delightful if they grilled it away from view? Why on earth would anyone put the word “chuck” in the name for their sandwich? I hear “chuck” in relation to food, and I think “up”. These were from Rice Kristie Bars. I think these are quite possibly the largest rice krispy bars I have ever seen. I was not the only person taking pictures of this booth. And I still contend that it's just not necessary to deep fry an Oreo, Milky Way, Snickers, Three Musketeers or Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Especially when this is the end result. Looks so appetizing, doesn't it? You know, I can get those from Domino's when I get home tonight. Excuse me? (Apparently it's some sort of sausage on a stick.) Okay, they smelled heavenly. But when does the combination of hot bread, cheese and garlic not smell good? It needs to be an air freshener... This bakery had bunches of stuff that sounded good - Croissants, French Toast Tots, Scones. A little odder were the Reuben Pretzels and Risotto Poppers. Smelled great walking by, though. If I was going to have ice cream, this would have been the flavor... ...and I did have it in 2012. Absolutely wonderful. Disturbing anthropomorphic chocolate chip cookie aside, these were a deep temptation for me. Because there is so little better than a piping hot cookie and a glass of cold milk. But I was saving my calories for... ...chocolate covered watermelon. We were disappointed by this. They should have used seedless watermelon, and not served huge wedges frozen solid to a stick. Really hard to eat. We should have just stuck to regular chocolate covered fruit - the berries looked good. Mmmmm..... They got it right. No pesky BBQ to mess up your portable potato experience. Deep Fried Alligator, Cajun Fries...and Sugar Free Lemonade! Because we want the diet-conscious to eat OUR fried food. Were the neon green shirts really necessary? We get it - you're deep-frying a reptile. But really, it looks like it could be a pork rind. Now, on the other side of Bayou Bob's, there was a roasted corn booth. THAT looked awesome. Probably the best/worst uniform of the day. Then again, when you take a job battering and deep-frying cheese on a stick, the outfit is probably the least of your worries. Much as in 2008, I am mystified. Pizza is food you already eat with your hands - why do you need to wrap it on a stick? And doesn't that just make it a calzone anyway? Look at those pickles. I can see why you might need a stick for those - too big to get a good hold on. But I'm not sure about the pastrami and cream cheese wrapped around the pickle on a spear - waste of a good pickle! Best turkey leg picture I got all day. Since it was a cool day, they seemed marginally less gross to me this year. Lunch time! Since our chosen options were a few booths apart, we split up. I opted for grilled shrimp on a skewer (aka a stick). It was quite tasty. I didn't get a picture, but I think everyone knows what shrimp on a skewer looks like. Wandering down to meet my husband, I passed our least favorite stop from 2008, Ole and Lena's Hot Dish on a Stick. I heard other people discussing the grossness of this food item, which I think accounts for the new addition of.... ...the deep fried banana split. Had to draw people in somehow. From 2008, here's the composition of Hot Dish on a Stick: Meatballs. Tater Tots. Wrapped in Cornmeal. Deep Fried. On a stick. Also from 2008 - Because it isn't nasty enough, it needs to have a cream-of-mushroom and hamburger dipping sauce. The Deep Fried Banana Split makes so much more sense now, doesn't it? Next to Ole and Lena's, we have Mashed Potatos on a Stick (Bacon Cheddar Mashed to be precise). Look like oversized tater tots to me. Next! Points to this booth for the strong branding effort - a pepper shaped booth was distinctive. But do ravioli need to be fried? So my husband revisited a favorite from 2008 - the Scotch Egg booth. Sausage wrapped around a hard boiled egg and fried, he previously described it as breakfast on a stick. (A friend took one look at the picture from back then and said something along the lines of how he thought it had a heart of darkness.) Here is the Scotch Egg from 2008: the white sauce is the horseradish dipping sauce. A few improvements in 2010: more horseradish sauce (which was awesome), less sausage (which made it easier to eat), and the option to have it sliced in two first, which also made it easier to eat. My husband had eaten the first half by the time I took this picture. We both agree - if you're going to indulge on food-on-stick, make it this. And note the massive Arnold Palmer he got at my Grilled Shrimp booth before he headed out to buy this. Now it's not JUST a pickle on a stick. Nor is it a fried pickle on a stick. It's a GIANT fried pickle on a stick. And you can take your picture next to the pickle on the side of the booth! So there are political booths at the State Fair every year. But I think Jack Links had the best political poster of 2012. Somehow we missed this before 2012 - I guess I don't consider Summit to belong in the International Bazaar section of the fair. This isn't actually a beer popsicle - it's a paddle with tasting samples. Okay, I am known for taking my Thanksgiving leftovers, layering them in a bowl, and nuking them until piping hot. Goppy, but less likely to result in gravy on your shirt than when eating a hot turkey sandwich. However, after seeing this similar concept titled “Pot Roast Sundae”, I may have to reconsider.... It wasn't the giant steak sandwich, turkey leg, and mug of sarsaparilla themselves that got me giggling - it was that they rammed giant forks into them. Even the mug. I was wondering what a Porkette was - I was hoping for something more exotic, like a miniature pig's head on a stick. This is the Minnesota State Fair after all. Crudite is entirely too healthy - we have to deep fry it! I decided to be brave in 2010 and really throw myself into the State Fair food experience: I was going to place an order of Pig Lickers - bacon (not deep-fried) dipped in chocoalte and sprinkled lightly with sea salt. (The Pig Ear Fries merely looked like fresh pork rinds, from what we could tell - inside Famous Dave's it was really shady and hard to see or take pictures.) And here they are - five slices of bacon generously dipped. The verdict? Not bad - nice combo of sweet, salty and savory/smoky. That they were chilled actually helped the flavors stay distinct. I didn't finish them, though, won't have 'em again, and had to eat some crackers on the way home to settle my stomach. Almost every summer and fall event/fair has pork chops on a stick. I just thought the name of the seasoning was funny - Hog on a Log. And here's the pork chop itself. Most people sat down with these - I'm guessing they're still pretty difficult to eat while walking. As we wind down the food portion of our adventure, is it ironic this ad was on the express buses?

All photos and content Copyright 2008 - MnFoodOnStick.com