The 2nd Annual Fran's Fair Awards for 2016!

Without further ado, I present the completely subjective, heavily biased 2nd annual Fran’s Fair Awards:

Food Categories

Disappointments - Getting the bad news out of the way first. The biggest disappointment this year had to be the Harry Singh’s Chicken Curry Roti. Completely bland curry wrapped in unremarkable roti. Such a letdown. Dishonorable mentions: the Produce Exchange peaches had an off-year this year. Let’s hope they return to form next year. The fried (St. Louis peeps: toasted) ravs were not good, and the BBQ burnt ends had so much promise but did not meet expectations.

And now, the good stuff!

Best Main Entree - The Peterson’s pork chop defends its title easily. The sheer number of strangers that came up to ask us about it and where to get it attests to how much I must look like I’m enjoying it when I eat it! Honorable mention to Lulu’s BANG BANG Chicken Tenders.

Best Snack - Thanks to fall-offs in both the peaches and the roasted corn (which wasn’t bad and got better as the fair went on, but did not match last year’s sweetness), this goes to the Pretzel Haus pretzels in a surprise! I’d never tried these before, but the combo of the super light and fluffy inside with the crispy outside, and the little extra toss through the oven before serving, made these ideal walking snacks. Lots of honorable mentions in this category, including the Mouth Trap Cheese Curds, which were stellar this year, the deep fried pickles, and the Poncho Dog (which some might call a main entree, but for me a corn dog is clearly snack territory.)

Best Dessert - The Rabbit Hole’s Carpe Diem lived up to its new-food buzz, but in an upset I have to give this one to another new dessert, the Farmer’s Union Blueberry Aronia Coffee Cake Ice Cream Bar. Whole blueberries, chunks of coffee cake, and high quality ice cream all came together for the perfect refreshing dessert-on-a-stick.

Best Breakfast - Perhaps the biggest upset of the year, this goes to the Breakfast Spam sandwich! Spam, egg and cheese on a simple bun, but it gets the job done and was actually executed a lot better than the other breakfasts I tried this year. The crispiness the Spam edges got from the grill is what made this sandwich stand out. Honorable mention to the banana nutella crepe from the French Creperie. There are a lot of worse ways to start your day!

Best Drink - Same winner and runner-up as last year - this has to go to the nitro infused coffee at the Farmer’s Union, closely followed by the Ball Park Cafe’s mini donut beer. The two or three other lackluster coffee experiences I had at the Fair this year just reinforce the nito coffee’s worth, while the mini donut beer continues to move past gimmick status into legitimate Fair beer hall of fame. Another honorable mention goes to the Blue Barn’s Blueberry Basil Lemonade.

Best Food Value - I’m going to toss this one to the $1.50 cider freezes from the apple stand in the Agriculture Building this year. Consistently overlooked, and they shouldn’t be!

Weirdest Thing I Ate - I suppose this must go to the Reuben Pickle Dog. Pastrami, pickle, and sauerkraut seemed pretty standard, but add in the cream cheese and things took a weird turn. I liked it, but it was odd. The deep fried Snickers bar wasn’t so much weird as just horribly, ridiculously decadently wrong, but I could toss that in here as well. Perhaps I’d throw deep fried olives here as well, but again, not too weird. I’ll do better next year!

Biggest Regret of Food I Didn’t Get To This Year: For two years’ running, I’ve missed the Chicken and Waffles at Blue Barn. I also have some ice cream miss regrets, including the sweet corn ice cream at Blue Moon and the Honey Sunflower ice cream at the honey stand in the Agri Bldg. I have to pick up my ice cream game next year!

Best New Food - I’m going to single out the BANG BANG Chicken Tenders at LuLu’s. A nice portion size for the price, and the sauce was excellent, and not made wimpy like a lot of “spicy” things at the fair can be. Honorable mention to the moroccan-spiced Rustic Beef Pastry at French Meadow.

Non-Food Categories

Best Music - I did a terrible job of making it to musical acts this year, so there’s not much competition here. But since this was my first ever time seeing a show at the Grandstand, I’ll give this to Heather Masse and one of the Steele sisters (don’t know which one) duet’ing on a Prince tribute with Nothing Compares 2 U during Garrison Keillor’s show.

Best Non-Musical Entertainment - Because it’s the Fair and you’re supposed to see super cheesy entertainment at the Fair, I’ll give this to the Flippenout extreme trampoline act.

Best Kid Activity - Goats were once again popular this year, with another goat owner talking at length about her love of goats. Henry loved giving her goat a hug. The horse shows in the Coliseum were again a solid performer. The Kidway rides were popular but the ridiculous ticket prices and super loud music are downsides. So this category goes to the Skyride this year, because Henry was so excited to ride it, shouting “hi people down there!” and waving between giggles. Honorable mention goes to the cow milking demonstration room and the practice cow with the milking machine nearby, which Henry tried out and then declared himself ready to be a farmer.

Best Art or Craft - The seed art was again excellent, with this year featuring several Prince tribute pieces. But the winner this year - the collections of miniature vegetables, which I guess are part craft and part gardening, but all fun!

Best Educational Exhibit - The Minnesota Newspaper Museum (and the volunteer who showed me how the old machinery worked). Honorable mention: The alternative transit displays in the Eco Experience Building, including the Surly bikes and the electric cars.

Best Non-Food Value - Most definitely not a value, but I’m taking over this category to commemorate the completion of a 4 year long quest. We started collecting the State Fair posters in 2012, but my first Fair was actually 2011, and I wanted to complete the collection. But I soon learned that the 2011 poster sold out. I’ve tried many ways to find this poster, including having the State Fair Foundation go through their attic archives of posters, and searching online at places like Ebay many times. But this year, the artist had a booth and was selling his work, including his print that was selected for the 2011 poster! So I got to buy it right from the artist, completing my collection. A value at any price!

Grand Prize - Best Thing at the Fair!

2016 Minnesota State Fair Grand Prize: This is the year that the Peterson’s Pork Chop reached legendary status. I don’t know how they do it, and I don’t care as long as they keep doing it. Single best item at the Fair. While in line for one we met a guy who, after years of hearing about this pork chop from his friend, drove from Colorado to the Fair just to have one. And after he bought it we saw him in the crowd and asked him how it was, and he loved it! And our friend Jen suddenly started talking about making an annual migration from Seattle after she had the pork chop. How can I not award the grand prize to an item that’s drawing people from other time zones?!

That’s a wrap for 2016! All your Facebook feeds will get a break from me until next year. 😃