Fran Katie and I headed to the fair last night for our second date night at the Fair!
Katie was sporting her latest custom tee shirt!
First stop, the Blue Barn, this time for the Blue Cheese Corn ‘Fritz’ and the Hill Country Beef Pocket (new this year). I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the beef pocket, but it’s beef with black pepper mushroom sauce inside, and it’s delicious! Blue Barn just keeps cranking out winners. A bit too pricey for what it is, though, at $9. Next photo for the fritter review!
The corn fritters were fantastic! Loaded with cheesy corn flavor. The chimichurri dipping sauce puts this over the top. I love these and would gladly eat more of them!
I’m super excited about our next stop: the Hamline church dining hall. This place has been at the Fair for ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS!! This is Fair Food of Yesteryear… cafeteria style food line, communal tables. We had never done any of the church dining halls so we were really pumped.
This may be the most Minnesotan thing I’ve ever done. “Church basement” type meal of wild rice meatballs with cream sauce and cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, slaw and a dinner roll. On the perfect pink tray. In a church dining hall. At the Fair. That’s like three layers of pure Minnesota right there. The meatballs, which are new this year, are super yummy, and I was also raving about those potatoes. We’d never done this because they close early (7pm) and I never really wanted to commit a whole meal like this to one place, but it’s a classic Fair experience and I’m glad we made it this year!
Now for something completely different, the new Tejas Express Pork Tamale, which has been getting rave reviews this year. Definitely yummy, particularly the corn dough, which was moist and flavorful like a tamale should be. It’s substantial and filling. But it needed more of the pineapple and corn relish, and it was overpriced at $10. So, a mixed review.
We stopped to watch some hip hop dancers on the family stage. After their show, they brought all the kids up on stage for a mini dance lesson, which was cute.
Then to the thing Katie had been waiting for: a water flight from the Water Bar! We learned a lot about water and water systems from our water bartender, and then it was time for the big tasting. We each got three samples for tasting. We both ranked ours as #2 best, then #3, then #1. Next picture for the reveal…
Buhl is way up north on the Iron Range. Detroit Lakes is in western MN near Fargo. And of course St. Paul was representing the metro. She explained that the order we had preferred was also the order of least treatment to most treatment. Our water bartender explained that Buhl water comes from underground and doesn’t require a lot of treatment, while St. Paul water comes from the Mississippi and that surface water needs a lot more treatment. We were tasting the aftereffects of that extra treatment. All three were good, but Buhl had that “nothing but water” taste!
This giant and somewhat scary Paul Bunyan would boom out corny recycling jokes when you pushed the button. It was strangely fun!
Next we went to see the children’s artwork in the Education building. It’s always impressive to see what they can do. This farm scene was fun because it was made by a class of special eduation kindergarten through 2nd graders.
Ok, this “Old Man” drawing was done by an 8th grader!
And this drawing was by a 6th grader!
Some of the grand prize winners. That’s a 7th grader on the eagle, a 4th grader on the snowmen, and a kindergartener on the polar bear!
Next up was another pass through the Creative Activities Building. Paper cutting. Extreme paper cutting!
Next stop, Horticulture Building. Minnesota’s finest tomatoes…
….and carrots!
We always stop by the crop art. These are made entirely from different color crop seeds.
This year, there was plenty of art poking fun at Trump. The detail work on this one is impressive.
Trump/Putin was a recurring theme.
I have no idea what category this one was!
Back to food. The Midtown Global booth in the Int’l Bazaar has switched over to Rabbit Hole. This is their Lefse Good Times Roll dessert. Take cream cheese, marshmallow, roasted pineapple, lots of mint, green mango powder, almond brittle and vanilla ice cream, and roll it up in lefse for a “street food” style dessert. This is the one item of the night we bought on a whim, having seen no reviews of it. IT’S AMAZING! A total winner. It somehow works, and really embodies that “super weird out of left field Fair concoction” spirit. The Rabbit Hole folks wow’ed the Fair last year with their Carpe Diem dessert, and somehow outdid themselves this year.
This was an food fair oldie that I had just never checked off - hotdish on a stick! Meatballs and tater tots fried up like a corn dog and served with cream of mushroom dipping sauce. Very Minnesotan. The best thing I can say after having it is, now I’ve had it. Or at least half of it, before we tossed it. Clever idea in theory, terrible idea in practice! Moving on…
Finally got around to the Produce Exchange peach. They’d been somewhat underwhelming the past two years, but this one was great! Careful though if you have that thing where some fruits can trigger your seasonal allergies - this one did a doozy on both of us! Still an amazing peach, though.
We ended the night sitting on our favorite patch of lawn at the Fair listening to an acoustic rock band in the West End Market. It’s always fun to relax in this cozy corner of the Fair with some good music and the Fair sights and sounds in the background. That’s it for this visit! One last visit with Henry and the family is on tap for Sunday!
2017 Minnesota State Fair - Visit #3