MN State Fair 2018 - Visit #3

Katie Richards Fabrizio and Fran return for day 2 with Pat Rivera and Steve Barden.

We had been in the Fairgrounds for a full two minutes without food, so I corrected the situation with some fried pickles. As good as ever!

We got a late start to the Fair today so by the time we got there, we were ready for lunch. This is the new Messy Guiseppie from Mancini’s. Basically, an Italian sausage sandwich. Secret menu ProTip - you can ask for this on garlic bread instead of Italian bread. This one was also ordered “extra messy”. This one’s a winner! Sausage was legit. Sauce was yummy. Garlic bread added a little flavor to the whole package. Huge amount of food for the price ($8.75), too.

The day started out rainy, but that didn’t stop us from hunkering down for a free outdoor stage folk concert. Steve and Pat had been at the Fair all morning and had run into and had a chat with the banjo player earlier, so we wanted to catch their show. That guy on the left is playing a saw, and it was amazing what he could make that thing sound like!

Pat had the butter sculptures on her bucket list so we headed over to the dairy building. Today’s carving was on break but we got to see some of the previous days’ work. Here’s the carving for this year’s Princess Kay of the Milky Way winner! Pat asked what they do with the sculptures afterwards. They take them home. Some keep them for years and years in freezers. Others use the butter to hold a big community corn roast.

While in the Dairy Bldg. we tried a chocolate malt and this year’s sundae flavor of the year, S’mores. Both winners! S’mores was really nice, we’re going to try to recreate it at home - golden graham cereal, mini marshmallows and chocolate sauce made up the topping.

We wandered over to the Agriculture building next, to see the giant vegetables, the bees, the winning christmas trees, and this the First Kiss apple. This is a brand new apple developed at the U of Minnesota (they’re famous for developing new apples). Look for it in stores soon! This was its first public preview. It’s super yummy! Crunchy and sweet. Yum!

The Ag building also houses the crop art. All of these photos are made with seeds. Here’s one of the blue ribbon winners, a depiction of Mary Tyler Moore.

Here’s Linda who made that picture and many others. She and her mother are both famous seed artists!

I really liked this one because of all the detail.

Some of the themes are classic Minnesota…

….while others keep up with the times.

This was another blue ribbon winner. So clever and so talented! See if you can recognize the combination of children’s book character and modern politics. :-)

We were ready for adult beverages after that. Lift Bridge Brewery to the rescue! Three Mini Donuts and one Farm Girl please!

Bucket of cheese curds from the Mouth Trap. This is the first time I’ve had enough people to go for the whole bucket, very exciting. :-) Curds were super yum as always, the Mouth Trap never disappoints.

Another new food, the Up North Puff Pastry from Sausage Sisters and Me in the Food Bldg. This is getting good reviews from the food critics. We didn’t like it all that much. It was just ok. The inside is filled with sausage, cheese curds and dill pickles. I really wanted it to work out, but it’s probably skippable.

After all that heavy food I needed a pick-me-up. This is not a great picture (generic cup, anyone?) but inside is some delicious coffee from the Farmers Union. I’d actually never had their regular coffee before - it’s just as good as their fancy nitro cold press. Plus, Farmers Union totally remodeled, check out their fancy coffee counter now.

Onwards to the Creative Activities building. The miniatures are always impressive. This one reminds me of Convention Grill.

Harry Potter!

Someone out there is passionate about both Star Wars and tennis, and found a creative way to combine the two. This is what I love about the Fair - whatever it is that people are into, they are really into it!

Cake decorating. Love the campground cake blue ribbon winner!

Come on, how awesome is that Cookie Monster cupcake in the lower right?

This is the new General Tso’s Taco from Taco Cat, Midtown Global Market’s representative for the first half of the Fair. This also got great reviews from the food critics. It should be called Disappointment on a Tortilla. So one-noted, and the General Tso’s is not a good version of General Tso’s. It needed some sort of crunchy, vinegar-y slaw to punch this dish up. I’m not sure what the critics were tasting. Also, at $12, it was criminally overpriced. So, this one’s a big miss. Also, the Taco Cat staff were kinda rude. So, boo. The good news is that Mama D’s is moving into the booth for the second half of the Fair, so this disappointment is gone.

While in the International Bazaar, we took in some performance art. I post this without further comment (even though there is SO MUCH commentable material in this picture).

Let’s finish this on a better food note. We hit the Produce Exchange for the new Grilled Peaches. We opted to add in the goat cheese. I think there was some honey drizzled on there as well. It was very good! The only quibble is that the peach got a little too soft. But I’d still chalk this up as a winner, and would even say you could save the extra money and get this without the goat cheese and it could be just as good.

And that’s a wrap for us! Steve and Pat are headed back there for day three but Katie and I are sitting this one out (real life beckons, work and childcare). I hope they enjoyed their first introduction to the Great Minnesota Get-Together! Katie and I will be back at the Fair again before it’s over. Still so much to see and do!