The 4th Annual Fran's Fair Awards for 2018!

And now, I present to you the 4th annual Fran’s Fair Awards for 2018!

Food Categories

Per tradition, the bad news first:

Biggest Disappointment - This one was “won” in a landslide: the Taco Cat General Tso’s Tacos. Until now, the Midtown Global Market booth has been Fair food magic. Not this year. Not even close. The one-noted, bland tacos were a huge letdown, especially after multiple food critics suggested they were worth getting. I think the effects of this will extend beyond the Fair - thanks to not only the bad food but also the rude service, I don’t really even want to try Taco Cat’s actual booth at Midtown Global any more even though I know multiple Taco Cat devotees. Sorry, no Minnesota Nice, no money from me.

Dishonorable mentions: Giggle’s. Basically the whole dang place. THREE beer disaster years in a row with this year’s Uffda Ale continuing the tradition. Add in overcooked walleye fries and you’re really testing my patience. Only the stellar duck bacon wontons and a terrible Taco Cat performance saved you from taking home this one. Also, Turkey to Go had a really off year this year. Multiple dry sandwiches. More juice, people - stop messing with perfection. You have one year to straighten this out. Next, we have The Hangar and their Slider Flight - the flight needs to be an actual flight of different meat sliders, for one thing. And the pulled pork was overdone. Finally, Sausage Sisters’ Up North Puff Pastry had potential - especially after their One Bad Dog main entree winner from last year - but it came up a little short.

And now for the good stuff!

Best Main Entree - Swedish Meatball SmörgÃ¥s at Blue Barn. You look at it and think “Swedish meatballs, gravy, lingonberry sauce and dill pickles on a bun? This can’t possibly work”, but then you bite into it and the lingonberry sauce and dill pickles are the perfect balance to the richness of the meatballs and gravy. It was superb, and I actually didn’t fully appreciate it when I had it early in the Fair this year, only after the rest of the Fair did I see it for how good it really was. Honorable mention: Peterson’s Pork Chops. Once again, gnawed that thing all the way to the bone. Amazingly consistent, amazingly good year after year. I see a Lifetime Achievement Award in their future!

Best Snack - August 27th, 2018 - likely to be the day I ate the best corn on the cob of my life. The roasted corn that day was so perfect I can’t even begin to do it justice. Super sweet, done just right, still warm, just the right amount of salt and butter… I think I’ll be chasing that one for a while. If there’s one lasting memory of the Fair, that’s it. Honorable Mention: the Produce Exchange Grilled Peaches with Goat Cheese and Honey. I thought the peach was the ideal Fair snack… until they started grilling them! Even better. Carmelized warm peaches drizzled with honey and cut with creamy goat cheese? So good. Probably would also be awesome without the extra toppings - that’s on my early list for next year.

Best Dessert - Strong category this year! And the winner is… the Dole Whip in a shocker! I’ve walked past this booth dozens of times, not realizing the goodness within. A dessert that’s light, refreshing, non-dairy, and simple. Just works. Looking forward to this being an annual tradition. Honorable mentions: Minnesnowii’s Mangonada Shave Ice. Points for creativity and the cold, tropical flavor mixed with a dash of heat is a winner. Also, the Dairy Bldg’s flavor of the year, S’mores sundae. Can’t wait to recreate this at home on a Family Movie Night! Ice cream, golden grahams, mini marshmallows, and chocolate sauce. Finally, Sara’s Tipsy Pie’s CranOrange 5. A nicely balanced sweet pie with a really subtle vodka kick.

Best Breakfast - At the Fair early several times, I got to work out several breakfast options. This year, I’m giving the prize to the Blue Barn’s French Toast Bites. Really light and fluffy french toast, which is hard to do in a home kitchen let alone mass produce for the hordes at the main transit entrance to the Fair. Bravo, Blue Barn! Honorable mentions: Blue Barn’s other breakfast offering, Wild Bill’s Breakfast Bake, continues to be strong, making Blue Barn a Fair breakfast powerhouse.

Best Drink - Finally the drinks have a strong year! The appearance of Anchor Coffee House on the scene has picked up the Fair’s coffee game, and some new beers were discovered this year. The perennial favorite mini donut beer was as awesome as ever, but it can’t win this category every year. I’m giving it to the It Takes 2 to Tango and 3 to Mango aged sour beer from the Starkeller Bar at Lulu’s Public House that cut through the noise of sour beer after sour beer at the Fair. The “hidden speakeasy” nature of the bar serving it combined with my appreciation of the craftsmanship of a 15-month aging process that produced a perfect 5.5% ABV / 5 IBU beer for summer fair drinking softened the admittedly steep $9 blow to my wallet for a 12 oz. pour. Honorable mention: Anchor Coffee’s Nitro Cold Press Coffee - I think every bit as good as the Farmers Union with the added benefit of being centrally located.

Best Food Value - Last year I wrote “2018 preview: I just read that there’s a decent basic burger to be had at the Midway Men’s Club for $2.25 [Note: $2.75 with cheese this year]! A $2 burger at the Fair? Unheard of!” Well, I’ve been there, I’ve had it, and it was even better than anticipated! It’s definitely not the fastest kitchen but I really appreciate a reasonably priced, decent tasting food option (especially when it’s right next to the Kidway, and when the money goes to charity). Also, the hints of White Castle flavor are a bonus!

Weirdest Thing I Ate - Honestly, probably the Swedish Meatball SmörgÃ¥s, and we’ve seen how that turned out! Also, the Duck Bacon Wontons, and I’m glad I did! It was one of my biggest regrets of things I missed last year, and the wait was worth it. Yum! Moral of the story is - try the weird stuff, people!

Biggest Regret of Food I Didn’t Get To This Year - I didn’t make it back for Blue Barn’s Corn Fritz, my Best Snack from last year. I also missed the Danielson and Daughter’s Onion Rings this year. And I probably should have just gotten a One Bad Dog instead of the Up North Puff Pastry from the Sausage Sisters.

Best Rediscovered Classic Food - Fresh French Fries. There’s not much to say - they’re just good!

Best New Food - And the winner is… the Farmers Union Heirloom Tomato BLT! I really, really hope this becomes an every-year thing. Top-notch local ingredients all the way through, generous with the tomato and bacon… it’s a perfect match for the Farmers Union and a great way to take a break on their back patio. I wanted two more of them right after we finished it!

Non-Food Categories

Best Music - To the bluegrass/folk family band whose name I don’t know but who played the stage near the DNR one morning in the rain to like 7 people and featured a guy who played a saw (as in, cut down a christmas tree saw) amazingly well! I had no idea you could do that.

Best Non-Musical Entertainment - This goes to the miniature horse cart competition, which had us all in stitches at various points. Such tiny horses, such not-always-tiny riders, such unflappable smiling show faces! Good stuff. Honorable Mention / Henry’s Choice: the bungee trampoline ride, which we tried for the first time this year. Two minutes of pure joy each and every time for Henry!

Best Unintentional Humor (special category for 2018) - The International Bazaar stage’s….performance thing. The “artistic director” of a performance troupe led some sort of storytelling….I can’t…. it was…. well, you just had to be there, sorry.

Best Art or Craft - The Crop Art collectively. It was a very good year with lots of amazing entries, my favorite being Swampiest Busy Town Ever, which cleverly used Little Critter (from the children’s book series) to create a scathing rebuke of the current state of national politics. Also, we met a true expert in making crop art out of seeds while she was giving a demo. My favorite part was when Katie asked “So… what’s your favorite seed?”. (The artist replied “timothy”, for the record).

Best Educational Exhibit - We had a really interesting chat with a beekeeper in the Agriculture Building about how queen bees become queen bees, and how the hives grow and split. Did you know that a queen bee is no different than any other bee except that she ate different food?

Best Non-Food Value - It’s really hard to choose just one. This year, Henry and I had a ton of fun exploring the Minnesota Twins kids play area, especially their miniature baseball field where the kids could play wiffle ball. Henry stepped into the batters box and proceeded to knock line drives all over that field, to the delight of the crowd. So much fun! Honorable mentions: sheep haircuts! Always a crowd-pleaser (at least if the crowd includes Henry.) Also, the horse shows were once again popular - we continue to discover new events every year, like the speed saddling competition. Special thanks to the 4H’er who shared his pig Kermit with us and let us scratch Kermit’s belly and feed him marshmallows.

Most Minnesotan Experience - Voting on how the DNR should spend the special Legacy Funding tax money that they get to preserve habitat, build and maintain parks and trails, and educate the public about natural resources. Minnesotans take their natural resources very, very seriously, and at the DNR building they had different boxes you could drop puff balls into to vote (categories like “acquiring new land for preservation”, “maintaining trails”, “public education”). They are then going to compile a report for the legislature on how the public would like to see that money allocated. Legacy Funding has raised more than $2 billion in the past 10 years and I’m proud that as a state we’ve made this a priority. You can learn more at https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/legacy/index.html.

Grand Prize - Best Thing at the Fair!

The 2018 Fran’s Minnesota State Fair Grand Prize for overall excellence, awesomeness, and all-out Fair perfection goes to….

Pat Rivera and Steve Barden! Pat and Steve traveled 1,129 miles all the way from Georgia to experience the MN State Fair with us, and they did not go halfway on this folks. They went on Monday all day with us. They went again on Tuesday all day with us. And they went back again all day Wednesday without us! More than that, it’s that they came to the Fair open-minded, soaked it all in, and lived the Great Minnesota Get-Together to its fullest. So, it’s my honor and privilege to award the 2018 Fran’s Minnesota State Fair Grand Prize to Pat and Steve. Thanks for coming and allowing us to be your Fair hosts - so much fun!

And with that, the 2018 Fair sadly comes to a close. The good news is, only 353 days until the 2019 Fair opens!!! Happy fall, everyone! 😃