Fran After a 13 hour Fair day that included a return home after midnight, we were a bit worn out and moving slowly the next morning. Katie, in a wise stroke of self-preservation, opted to stay back, which meant that Fran and Chris would be tackling Chris’ second day visit on their own. Undeterred, the duo eventually got mobilized and headed off to the Fair once again, this time utilizing the free Park and Ride so that Chris could get the full arrival experience! There’s something about being on a bus full of Fairgoers talking about all of the things they want to do and foods they want to eat that makes the trip in extra fun.
Arriving at the Transit Hub, we paused for the obligatory selfie in front of the marquee.
Unlike yesterday, today we got right down to business with the food. This being Chris’ last day, we had to be efficient and strategic. And once again, Chris will be providing the guest food ratings.
We started our morning with the West End Wafflepalooza! There are three critical items in the West End involving waffles: the new Bacon Wrapped Waffle Dog at Nordic Waffles, the Chicken in a Waffle at Blue Barn, and the Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich at West End Creamery. Yes, we did them all.
First up was the Chicken in a Waffle, which we ate while waiting in the always-too-long line at Nordic Waffles. This is essentially popcorn chicken in a waffle cone with sausage and gravy. By all accounts, this shouldn’t work. And yet it has been a favorite in years’ past. I was curious to see if it still held up.
It proved very solid! The waffle is really just a vessel here, although it has a bit of sweetness that is nice between bites of the slightly-spicy chicken and the rich sausage gravy. The thing that makes this dish for me is the play between the chicken and the gravy. It’s super flavorful and satisfying to eat. Chris rated this a solid 3 stars.
From Nordic we got the Bacon Wrapped Waffle Dog. The official description of this is mind-boggling: “Griddled bacon-wrapped Kramarczuk hot dog served on a Nordic Waffle with cheddar cheese, pickle slices and crispy onions and drizzled with burger sauce.” There’s no way this was going to work, and to be honest, I didn’t have high hopes, thinking that there’s no way they get all these components balanced and cooked correctly. However, Chris had honed in on this very early in his trip prep and was very excited to try it.
To his credit, Chris was 110% correct with his Fair food radar on this one. This was a-maz-ing! A crazy medley of textures and a veritable flavor explosion. The Kramarczuk dog’s quality jumps out of this! The only miss on the whole concoction was the use of sliced cheddar cheese instead of a liquified or shredded cheese, but honestly, I didn’t notice, this was so good, and Chris scored it a 3.5, “so good I forgive the cheese”. A surprise hit!
Since we invested a lot of time in the Nordic line, we also tried their other new item, the Dill Pickle Lemonade. This one was quite polarizing in the Fair lead-up at my office. I was in the no-go crowd, but here it was in front of me.
This was fantastic…..ly awful. What was weird was that it actually tasted good - for the first 3 seconds. And then with every sip, an incredibly unpleasant cloying, stinging aftertaste kicked in at the back of the throat. So bad. Chris rates it a 1.5, “just didn’t work”.
To finish off Wafflepalooza we got the hot toasted waffle ice cream sandwich, and executed a pro move by going off-menu and adding Nutella (barely visible in photo) on Katie’s suggestion. This was another favorite from years gone by and I hadn’t had one for quite a while.
It was still quite yummy! It’s a lot to commit to a Fair dessert, but a waffle ice cream sandwich with light, crispy, still-warm waffles is a couple steps up from a cookie ice cream sandwich. The Nutella was pretty subtle here, but better to have some than none. Chris rated it a 3.0.
Even with the conclusion of Wafflepalooza, the rapid-fire eating continued. We had a long list to get through and limited stamina after the marathon day yesterday. So without further ado, it was time for mini donuts! In a somewhat unorthodox move, I skipped the traditional Tom Thumb and Tiny Tim vendors and opted instead for Grandstand Mini Donuts. I’d only discovered them myself earlier this year, but their strong performance had me steering Chris back to them for another try.
Chris raved about these, giving them 3.5 stars and lamenting that “these should exist outside the Fair!” I am debating whether to tell him that mini donuts do indeed exist outside the Fair, at places like Target Field and even at a small chain I recently discovered in Ames, IA called Humble Donuts where they will custom make you a half-dozen or more with different toppings. Apparently they are not so readily available elsewhere? Yet another reason we are spoiled here in the midwest.
And now, finally, we paused the eating. And what good timing, because I wasn’t totally prepared for what we encountered next - the Pet Pavillion live surgery suite.
Yeah, you read that right. There is a place at the Fair where you can watch live surgeries on pets. Here we happened upon a cat being spayed. It was VERY GRAPHIC. The surgeon would reach into that incision and pull out various organs while the live commentator - let me pause and re-emphasize, this is an actual surgery on a cat being commentated live for a crowd - would explain what organs we were seeing.
Folks, pet surgery is not delicate. That’s all I’ll be saying about that. As we walked away, Chris wondered if the cat had properly consented, given the massive breach of health information privacy we had witnessed!
Two minutes later and we were ready to eat again.
What I am about to say will no doubt upset some, but we call ‘em like we see ‘em (or, taste ‘em) folks. Near the Pet Pavillion, in the North End craft tent shopping district is Jammie Sammies by Brim. Brim has been a Fair darling since being added as one of the first gluten-free Fair vendors a few years back. They get buzz every year, and this year they won one of the 12 best vendor awards. Plus, I know that this item is a favorite for multiple people who follow my Fair posts. So, it felt like a must-try again, after having tried it once in the past.
We got the standard Grilled Sota Sandwich. This is on gluten-free cinnamon bread and is filled with nut butter and Minnesota blueberry marmalade.
I’ll say this, it LOOKS good. That’s an excellent looking toast and you can tell the blueberry marmalade is fresh and the nut butter was just made. This SHOULD be amazing. But it just wasn’t. :-( It was very bland. I want this to be better, and I am glad there are more gluten-free options for folks, but this just isn’t working for me. Nor for Chris: He gave this sandwich his lowest grade of the trip: 1 star, and said “don’t believe the hype. I should know better than to eat peanut butter when conserving room for real Fair foods.” Ouch. And before someone counters with “well you just don’t like gluten free foods”, I’ve had amazing gluten free food at the Fair. I still think about Auntie M’s funnel cake from last year! This sandwich is just a miss for me.
Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better for Brim. Having already had a lackluster vanilla cold brew from them earlier in the Fair, I tried their straight cold brew this time. It’s from Big Watt, I have had it before in other settings and liked it straight, this can’t be bad, right? But it just felt watery. At least I used the coupon which meant the drink was free with the sandwich purchase. Good thing too, because that’s a $7 cold brew.
Chris opted for their lemonade and scored that a disappointing 2.0, also commenting that it seemed bland. Clearly other people are feeling the Brim vibe a lot more than we were, so I’m just going to chalk this up as a “not my taste” and move on.
To round out our North End visit, we checked out the rotating exhibit building, which this year is a display called The Sweet & Selfie Experience. I had heard this described as “mostly a place to get good selfies for Instagram” (I mean, it’s in the very name!), which is pretty close to my definition of a nightmare. But, the afternoon was heating up, we were wearing down, and it has air conditioning, so in we went.
Glad we did! I think both the name and the description undersell this exhibit! It was indeed part selfie heaven, but it was also so much more. Chris remarked “it feels like I just walked into a candy museum for free”.
It’s easily worth a 30 minute stroll through to explore the exhibits and learn a bit about the history of the candy industry. There even were some fun nostalgic throwbacks to my childhood. I found the golden ticket!!!
Back outside, we headed south through the historic Machinery Hill district. I think this might be my most Fair-y Fair picture of the year. It’s got a little of everything - old tractors, farm scenes, the Sky Glider….
While in this area Chris commented “the old tractors don’t look that much different than new tractors.” How do you say “I am a city guy” without saying “I am a city guy”? If we’d had more time, I would have taken him to the John Deere pavillion to get him straightened out, but alas, that’ll have to wait for another year.
And here’s a picture of Chris humoring me and posing for scale in this picture of a giant moose in the Eco Building.
Onward to the Fine Arts building, where we spent some time doing a this-is-no-joke scavenger hunt amongst the art. We didn’t finish, but we did figure out how many pounds of potatoes you could get for $15.96.
Adding to the list of “things you didn’t think you could do at a state fair”, we then popped into the U of Minnesota’s research study building, where - per Chris’ prediction - within 10 seconds we were enrolled into a study. Here I am walking through a giant inflatable colon as part of a study on men’s attitudes towards colon health screening. Chris has some thoughts about their methodology - I’ll put him in touch with the dissertation committee when I get back to the office.
Next up was an item that we’ve just never gotten around to trying all these years but which comes up from time to time in “favorite Fair foods” conversations - the Reuben Bites at O’Gara’s. There was a coupon for them in the coupon book, so why not?
Well, how ‘bout a packet of Kraft Thousand Island to say “that’s why not”? Everything about these was below our Fair standards. No homemade dressing. A too-uniform outer crust that screamed “I came out of a Sysco carton!” Now, I’ll be honest here: if I’m at a bar having drinks and I ordered these, I’m enjoying them well enough. The filling was perfectly adequate and it tasted like, well, a bite of a reuben. But it was just so… institutional. Not good enough for the Fair. Chris concurred, rating them a 2.0.
It was mid-afternoon by this point, and I sensed an opportunity. The lines would be short at this time of day at the Hamline Church Dining Hall, where we would find one of the buzziest new foods of the year, the Holey Hamloaf sandwich with Egg-in-a-Hole bread. I got a measly single bite of one earlier in the Fair thanks to the “OMG we are SO not ready for this onslaught” experience on Fair day 1, so I wanted a second chance. I also just wanted to get Chris a little of the church dining hall experience, which was once a mainstay of Fair dining but is now down to just two left.
I remember the taste of the one from last week more than this one, unfortunately. This was fine, but didn’t stand out. And it’s a ton of food to commit to during a Fair visit. I’m not a 70+ year old midwesterner so maybe I am not the target demographic of those who would be nostalgic for ham loaf, though. At any rate, Chris rated this a fine-but-unremarkable 2.5 stars. We did get a good church dining hall experience when, while we were examining the sandwich and Chris asked “What is hamloaf anyway?” the woman next to us said “I worked in a meat department for 40 years, it’s half pork half ham.” When you mic-drop that sort of knowledge on us, we just have to give you respect!
We now needed a palette cleanser and a cool off in the afternoon heat, and I knew just the place. We ducked into the Ag Building for a cider freeze from the apple stand.
I knew these were tasty, but I was not prepared for how much Chris was going to enjoy this! He raved about it the entire time eating it, scored it a 4.0, and immediately set to work on how to recreate them at home!
By now, we’re running out of gas and the crowds are really piling in (and yet, attendance didn’t even hit 200,000 on this day! The daily record is 270,000! I can’t even imagine) We still hadn’t visited the animal area, though, so we soldiered on.
The chickens were happy we made the trek.
The goats were doing their best to stay cool and take it easy.
By now as it is getting late in the Fair, the farms are proudly displaying their ribbon winnings so far in the Horse Show.
Oink!
We had finished our clockwise circuit of the Fairgrounds, but we wanted to see another animal competition. With time to kill, Chris had one last request: more cheese curds. So we backtracked to the Food Building to make it happen! As we were walking, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take a brief detour through the Ye Olde Mill ride. Chris was excited to make memories, having no idea what to expect!
I’m intentionally not putting images of inside Ye Olde Mill. Everyone should just…. experience it. It’s indescribable! I know, because Chris tried and this is what he came up with: “Ye Olde Mill… it’s there.” It’s a 100+ year old vestige of Fairs of yesteryear, and in my opinion it should not be missed!
We did get the curds, and they were just as good as the day before!
Since we were in the neighborhood, one more mini donut beer, as well.
Back amongst the animals, we settled in for the junior division of the Goat Showmanship competition. Here they’re judging the handlers, not the animals. When they say “junior division”, they mean it!
This judge was drunk on power and took for-ev-er to decide the contest. (Ok, so he was mostly using the time as a learning opportunity for the kids, but that makes for a less exciting blog). While we waited for the verdict, we stepped outside to Bridgeman’s for their new item, the Bee Sting Sundae. It has hot honey and spiced peanuts to provide the “sting”.
This was fine but not outstanding. Chris gave it 2 stars, I’d probably throw another half-star at it, but overall, good ice cream but unremarkable. It wasn’t super spicy, but I’m not sure I really want any spicy with my ice cream.
After the goat showmanship competition ended we thought we were done for the day and we exited the sheep barn for the transit hub. However, fate had different plans for us - we took a wrong turn out of the sheep barn, which steered us right past Turkey-to-Go. Turkey-to-Go is the first ever winner of Best Fair Food and a top-5 food item for me and Katie, at one point occupying the top spot before being dethroned by the Peterson’s Pork Chop. I looked at Chris and said, “crazy idea, but since we’re here…” and you know what happens next.
We got a half-pound Turkey-to-Go as well as their Raspberry Mint lemonade.
On the surface the Turkey to Go sandwich is so simple - turkey on a bun. What’s so special about that? Well, there’s magic in that marinade. Chris took one bite of the turkey and said “I can’t believe you were going to let me leave the Fair without having this!” 4 stars! “So simple yet indescribable!” And it is indescribable - no amount of words can adequately capture the essence of this, but it’s the perfect Fair sandwich.
And in a land of disappointing lemonades, the Raspberry Mint lemonade was notably not-as-disappointing! It’s not earth-shattering, but it did earn a 3.0 from Chris, which is an achievement in the category I think is maybe the most underwhelming at the Fair (and most ripe for a shake-up!)
With one last food win in the books, it really was time to head for the gates. Chris’ two-day introduction to the Fair was coming to an end, but no one can accuse him of not committing to the cause! An intense but extremely fun 48 hours, and I think we’ve got another Fair convert in our midst now! Congrats to Chris on a very successful first, but hopefully not last, Minnesota State Fair!
And, this is also a wrap for the Fabrizios for Fair 2023. With the intensity of the four days already spent here and the weather forecast for the remainder of the Fair, we’ve decided to forego our traditional Labor Day visit. We don’t feel like we’re missing out given how much time we did spend here each day this year. There are always things left to do and new foods left on the table, but we DID the Fair this year and are content to look forward to next year to do it all again.
As is my tradition, I always get my stamp on the way out, as a symbol of hope for future Fair visits. Stay tuned for my annual fair awards wrap-up, and also some expanded content now that FAIRly Obsessed is a reality!
2023 Visit #3: Introducing Chris to the Fair!