For the past several years we have heard friends from Minnesota talk about how wonderful the Minnesota State Fair is. Being a connoisseur of fried food, Lelaine has been dying to go. That is why we were pretty pleased when the stars aligned - our good Minnesota friends moved back to Minnesota and our friends Kevin and Meagan decided to get married in the upper Midwest the weekend of the fair.
Allen, Heather, Doug, Lelaine, and I flew out Thursday night and stayed with our Minnesotan college friends, Ryan and Kari (who we visited in San Francisco a few years ago, and have since added a little one named Evan), and Maile and Rob, who flew in from KC. Friday morning we woke up with one goal in mind - eat everything in sight. We accomplished that goal.
Over the course of the day I had a mere 22 different food items. We were well prepared - in addition to the wisdom imparted on us by our knowledgable hosts, two work friends, native Minnesotans, and fair aficionados Lisette and Emily gave us a list of the must haves. Lisette even has her own bench, with her and her husband's name on it, at the fair.
Here is the list in chronological order (I only had a bite or two of two-thirds of these) and judged on a scale of 1-5:
Roast corn 5
Beef taco 3
Fried cheese curds 5
Fried cookie dough 5
Cider freeze 4
Fried mac-and-cheese on a stick 3
Fries 4
Chocolate covered bacon 2 (big disappointment - I expected this to be my favorite)
Chicken fried bacon with maple sauce 1
Kettle corn 3
Venison jerky 4
Chocolate macaroons 4
Peaches and cream 4
Mini donuts 4
Turkey sandwich 3
Sweet corn ice cream 5
Pot roast sundae 4 (mashed potatoes, pot roast, corn, gravy, with a cherry tomato on top)
Corn and bacon pizza 5
Caramel apple malt 4
Bucket of cookies 4
Throughout the course of the day we also saw lumberjacks, butter queens, seed art, and a lot of other interesting things.
Three food items stood out. First, the corn. Not only was the roasted corn tremendous, but the corn ice cream, corn pizza, and corn on the pot roast sundae were pretty damn good. Corn won the MVP ingredient award in a landslide.
The second was the cheese curds. Some people had warned that this MN fair staple is overrated and not that good. Those people are wrong.
My favorite was probably the fried cookie dough. I love regular cookie dough, but frying it makes it even better. My only regret was that when we bought a bucket of cookies, I didn't go back for more fried cookie dough to make a sandwich out of it. Maybe next time.
Saturday morning, after giving our stomachs a few hours to rest, Lelaine and I headed to Red Wing, MN for the wedding. When I got dressed, my shirt didn't fit the way it did earlier in the week. I wonder why?
Being a male, I'm not a wedding person, but this was quite the extravaganza. It was on a farm. There was a pig roast, lawn games, goats, a chicken that got loose, a bluegrass band, square dancing, porta-potties, two kegs of Grain Belt, cool weather, a lot of friends, a ton of stars, and much more. It was a great night.
Sunday we drove back to Minneapolis and had a Juicy Lucy for lunch. The service was slow - Allen was concerned with withering away while we waited - but the cheese-stuffed burger wasn't bad. However, overall it furthers my belief that any place on Food Wars (there are two neighboring Minneapolis dives that claim to have invented the cheese filled burger) or Man vs. Food isn't nearly as good as the show makes it out to be. But in the 5-8 Club's defense, it is pretty difficult to follow in the fair's footsteps.
The rest of the day was relaxing. We then went to Minnehaha Park for a short hike and tried to rent a surrey (the line was too long), drank a few Surly's, and that night we went to a great Italian restaurant downtown.
Maile and Rob had to head home Monday morning, but the rest of us went to a Twins game that afternoon. Target Field is very nice. Definitely better than Nats Park, and one of the nicer stadiums I have been to. They even have a State Fair concession stand, but the cheese curds had nothing on what was served at the actual fair (although the steak sandwich at a different stand was pretty good). After the game we had one last beer together and then went to the airport.
Our bodies are now in recovery mode, and sadly I felt it was best to eat a salad for lunch today. Hope to post pictures in the next few days.
Allen, Heather, Doug, Lelaine, and I flew out Thursday night and stayed with our Minnesotan college friends, Ryan and Kari (who we visited in San Francisco a few years ago, and have since added a little one named Evan), and Maile and Rob, who flew in from KC. Friday morning we woke up with one goal in mind - eat everything in sight. We accomplished that goal.
Over the course of the day I had a mere 22 different food items. We were well prepared - in addition to the wisdom imparted on us by our knowledgable hosts, two work friends, native Minnesotans, and fair aficionados Lisette and Emily gave us a list of the must haves. Lisette even has her own bench, with her and her husband's name on it, at the fair.
Here is the list in chronological order (I only had a bite or two of two-thirds of these) and judged on a scale of 1-5:
Roast corn 5
Beef taco 3
Fried cheese curds 5
Fried cookie dough 5
Cider freeze 4
Fried mac-and-cheese on a stick 3
Fries 4
Chocolate covered bacon 2 (big disappointment - I expected this to be my favorite)
Chicken fried bacon with maple sauce 1
Kettle corn 3
Venison jerky 4
Chocolate macaroons 4
Peaches and cream 4
Mini donuts 4
Turkey sandwich 3
Sweet corn ice cream 5
Pot roast sundae 4 (mashed potatoes, pot roast, corn, gravy, with a cherry tomato on top)
Corn and bacon pizza 5
Caramel apple malt 4
Bucket of cookies 4
Throughout the course of the day we also saw lumberjacks, butter queens, seed art, and a lot of other interesting things.
Three food items stood out. First, the corn. Not only was the roasted corn tremendous, but the corn ice cream, corn pizza, and corn on the pot roast sundae were pretty damn good. Corn won the MVP ingredient award in a landslide.
The second was the cheese curds. Some people had warned that this MN fair staple is overrated and not that good. Those people are wrong.
My favorite was probably the fried cookie dough. I love regular cookie dough, but frying it makes it even better. My only regret was that when we bought a bucket of cookies, I didn't go back for more fried cookie dough to make a sandwich out of it. Maybe next time.
Saturday morning, after giving our stomachs a few hours to rest, Lelaine and I headed to Red Wing, MN for the wedding. When I got dressed, my shirt didn't fit the way it did earlier in the week. I wonder why?
Being a male, I'm not a wedding person, but this was quite the extravaganza. It was on a farm. There was a pig roast, lawn games, goats, a chicken that got loose, a bluegrass band, square dancing, porta-potties, two kegs of Grain Belt, cool weather, a lot of friends, a ton of stars, and much more. It was a great night.
Sunday we drove back to Minneapolis and had a Juicy Lucy for lunch. The service was slow - Allen was concerned with withering away while we waited - but the cheese-stuffed burger wasn't bad. However, overall it furthers my belief that any place on Food Wars (there are two neighboring Minneapolis dives that claim to have invented the cheese filled burger) or Man vs. Food isn't nearly as good as the show makes it out to be. But in the 5-8 Club's defense, it is pretty difficult to follow in the fair's footsteps.
The rest of the day was relaxing. We then went to Minnehaha Park for a short hike and tried to rent a surrey (the line was too long), drank a few Surly's, and that night we went to a great Italian restaurant downtown.
Maile and Rob had to head home Monday morning, but the rest of us went to a Twins game that afternoon. Target Field is very nice. Definitely better than Nats Park, and one of the nicer stadiums I have been to. They even have a State Fair concession stand, but the cheese curds had nothing on what was served at the actual fair (although the steak sandwich at a different stand was pretty good). After the game we had one last beer together and then went to the airport.
Our bodies are now in recovery mode, and sadly I felt it was best to eat a salad for lunch today. Hope to post pictures in the next few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment