I love going to the Minnesota State Fair, and every year for more than 15 years, I’ve been trying out new foods at the Fair. This year I have a problem: There are several great foods, plenty of good ones, and lots of Fair foods I’d be mad about spending money on. And yet, when my wife asked me what the standout was, what food I’d ranked No. 1, I hesitated. I’m not sure I have a No. 1 this year. We visited the Fair on opening day with a Minnesota Monthly team made up of three of our editorial team members, my son Seth, and my friend Dan, who’s been doing this with me for at least 10 years.
Before I share my list: Can I make some requests?
- Enough with the “unofficial” new State Fair foods. The Fair should either put all the new foods on their list or not. My list of “new” foods this year is over 40; the Star Tribune ranked 88. I host a radio show from the Fair at 3 p.m., so I cannot and will not try all of these.
- A drink is not a new food. I’m not going to try your lemonade and rank it the best new food, or your soft serve beer. Actually, I am going to try your soft serve beer, and I did love it but I’m not ranking it.
- $16 is the new $12, and $10 is the new $5. The Fair is expensive.
- Stop it with the dill. I’m over it.
Here’s my review of the new foods we got to enjoy on day one, with updates as I get to them because I wasn’t going to wait in the long lines at Minnesota Farmers Union or Summer Lakes Beach House.
BLUE RIBBON WINNERS: We loved them!
Royal Hawawshi at Kosharina Egyptian Cuisine ($13): The more we thought about these, the more we liked them. Hawawshi is an Egyptian street food, griddled crispy bread stuffed with ground beef, sort of like a quesadilla. This was so fresh and so handmade, the temperature nearly burned my fingers! Great flavor and spices in the ground beef (I got allspice, cumin, coriander) and served with an addictive tahini dip. If you got this out to dinner for $13, you’d be thrilled. Kosharina Egyptian, near the Grandstand
Tacos de Mole at El Burrito Mercado ($15): Disclaimer: I love El Burrito’s mole and have for decades. So, I knew this was going to be good, but I didn’t know how enjoyable it would be. Deep-frying flour tortillas with shredded chicken is dangerous stuff at the Fair. The chicken could easily be dry, and the tortillas could easily be underdone. A touch of cheese in the chicken mix helped keep ours juicy, and the mole was spectacular. I would smash this again. At El Burrito Mercado, located at the International Bazaar, south wall
Bao Belly at RC’s BBQ ($16): The smoked barbecue pork belly is truly spectacular—great smoke, tender to bite into, and enough meat without being too fatty. This is barbecue perfection. The sauces were a little messy, but tasty. This is a sit-down-and-eat food. The bao buns were controversial in our group—they weren’t as fluffy as you might have wanted, but I thought they were stout enough to hold the meat and pickled veg. At RC’s BBQ, located on the north side of West Dan Patch Avenue between Liggett & Chambers streets
Hmong Corndog at Union Hmong Kitchen ($16): This is what the State Fair is all about for me: a mash-up of Hmong culture and State Fair culture. Start with Yia Vang’s ginger, lemongrass, and garlic Hmong sausage refashioned into a hot dog. Dip in corn dog batter. Serve with crazy spicy citrus Kua Txob sauce (I love, you may need to ask for the sweet/sour sauce) and enjoy on a stick. Price is aggressive ($16), lines are long, you decide if it’s worth it, but it’s objectively delicious. At Union Hmong Kitchen, located at the International Bazaar, south wall, west corner
Tanghulu at Iemochi Japanese Confections ($12): On the one hand, you’re paying $12 for three strawberries and three grapes. On the other hand, it’s so joyful. Bite into the candy coating, then a slice of Mandarin orange explodes with juice. It’s ‘grammable, it’s fun, it’s tasty. One bite was my move—pop the whole slice of orange in or the whole strawberry. Four varieties: strawberry, green grape, Mandarin orange, and dual-mix with strawberries and grapes. At iemochi Japanese Confections, located at the International Bazaar, south wall
RED RIBBON WINNERS: We liked these.
Walking Chopped Italian Grinder at Mancini’s ($13): I do you think you’re going to love this—but it needed a little more meat than we got, and it needed a little instruction. You’re getting a bag of Old Dutch potato chips and then a cold chopped Italian salad. I loved the salami, pepperoncinis, green olives, artichokes, roasted red peppers, and fresh mozzarella pearls, tossed in Italian dressing. I just wanted more, and I wanted to be told to crunch up the chips and mix it up, and maybe I needed a spoon instead of a fork. At Mancini’s al Fresco, located on the north side of Carnes Avenue between Nelson & Underwood streets
Apple Fries at Minnesota’s Original Apple Fries ($10): These tasted like apple pie—delicious. The line was about 35 minutes to get them; I don’t know that they’re quite worth that, but there were a lot of lines today. So, let me be honest… I wouldn’t have enjoyed these beauties if it wasn’t for the kindness of the lovely couple pictured above who let me sample a couple of their apple fries. Fresh-cut apples, fried, tossed in cinnamon sugar, dip them in caramel. Yum. Located on the north side of Dan Patch Avenue between Underwood & Cooper streets
Fiery Hot Ranch Bites at LuLu’s Public House ($13): I didn’t love the deep-fried ranch bites from LuLu’s, but I really enjoyed these. A terrific upgrade, to be honest. The spicy dust of the Hot Cheetos-type spice was the perfect balance to the cream cheese/ranch filling. LuLu’s Public House at West End
Cracklin’ Corn Ribs at Blue Barn ($15): Don’t eat the whole cob! I took a bite of these corn cob quarters and had to spit out the cob. The corn itself is good—dipped in tempura butter, fried, great flavor (although my serving was a little heavy on the salt). Topped with bacon ranch, green onion, and candied jalapeños—I loved that part. Served on a bed of pork rinds. Blue Barn at West End
Al Elotay Hummus at Baba’s ($13): From a culinary standpoint, every time I eat a hummus bowl from Baba’s at the Fair, I’m pleased. It’s so creative and well done: Elote gets reimagined as corn hummus (although it wasn’t super corn-flavored to me), topped with Arabic elote, Arabic chorizo, pecorino Romano zhug, harissa oil, microgreens, and cilantro. The texture of the chorizo was a little more meat stick than I’d prefer, but otherwise this was a delight. East side of Underwood Street between Murphy & Lee avenues
Butter Brew Mustache Pretzel at Blue Moon: I love this for the fun factor—the giant mustache “pretzel” is made for photos, and “I mustache you a question” jokes. And it barely tastes of pretzel; it’s more akin to a cinnamon bun, coated in butter, and tossed in sugar with caramel, vanilla, and butterscotch. It’s served with a soft-serve dip that is a little too ice creamy to dip. This is objectively fun, and it had me giddy and also maybe it should be called a pretzel? At Blue Moon Dine-In Theater, located on the northeast corner of Carnes Avenue & Chambers Street
Ube Cheesecake Wontons at Saturday Dumpling Co. ($10): Crispy, deep-fried wonton on the outside, filled with creamy ube cheesecake, and finished with sweetened condensed milk and Biscoff cookie crumbles. Make sure you look at the filling after you take a bite—it’s shockingly purple! Eat this fast—I really liked it—but if you don’t, the wonton gets a little chewy. At Saturday Dumpling Co., located in the Food Building, east wall
Crispy Kubbeh Bites at Holy Land ($18): Too much beef is my only real complaint about these very interesting meat pockets. Bulgur wheat is the foundation of the outer shell, stuffed with seasoned beef and warm spices, fried, and served with a dill pickle yougurt sauce. Five of these would feed 10 people for $18. International Bazaar
Bucket of Chicharrones at San Felipe Tacos ($12): Does anyone need a $12 bucket of pork rinds? No. Does anyone want that? Again, perhaps not. But are these really well executed chicharrones? They certainly are. Sprinkled with a little chili pepper/lime seasoning, served with a creamy chipotle sauce, you can serve yourself hot sauce and chamoy. You can get a boat of chicharrones for $8. Probably a better choice. My prereview was mad that these seemed so boring but if you’ve never had pork rinds, maybe this is exciting for you? At San Felipe Tacos, located on the southwest corner of Dan Patch Avenue & Underwood Street
Dill With It Cookie! At Urban Glow Mocktails ($5): This was on the bottom of my list of new Fair foods, and I officially stand corrected, mainly because this is just a nice white chocolate chip cookie. There is a dill flavor, and there are little fine pieces of dill pickle in it, but the dill does more what a sprinkle of sea salt does. This is a big, soft, nice cookie. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Urban Glow’s Mocktails are fabulous—right at the North End entrance. At Urban Glow Mocktails, located at the North End, northeast section, across from the North End Event Center
NOT FOR ME: Skip these.
Longanisa Cheese Curd Lumpia at Lumpia City ($14): Something about this didn’t sit right with me. The Filipino longanisa pork sausage tasted a bit off, almost like a maple/breakfast sausage, and combined with the bright yellow Wisconsin cheese curds in the crispy Lumpia was a disappointment. West side of Liggett Street between Carnes & Judson avenues
Pickle Pie at LuLu’s Public House ($12): What do you do as a food writer with something that’s objectively well-executed but it’s nothing that I’d want to spend money on? “Not for me” is what I said when I ate the pickle pie. It gives pickle dip; it’s nicely balanced in a cream cheese mixture with a hint of potato chip seasoning, and the pie crust’s shortbread vibe anchored the whole thing. But would it be better with corned beef? Or potato chips? Or vegetables? Or maybe you should eat the fiery ranch bites instead! At LuLu’s Public House, located at West End Market, south of Schilling Amphitheater
Surf ‘N’ Turf Burger at Cafe Caribe ($16): The lobster was actually the most enjoyable part of this culinary innovation that no one asked for. The ⅓-pound burger was under-seasoned, the pepper jack cheese was lost in the chipotle mayo on the top, which clashed with the lobster anyway. Service here was so delightful, but this has too many flavors, hard to eat, and I spilled sauce on my jeans. At Cafe Caribe, located on south side of Carnes Avenue between Chambers & Clough streets
Chinese Sausage & Cheese Poppers at Saturday Dumpling Co.: We got almost no sausage flavor; these were cheese poppers. Not bad but when you promise a sausage and cheese popper, I want sausage. $10 for five poppers. Saturday Dumpling Co in the Food Building
Shakshuka Lamb Meatballs at French Meadow ($16): The shakshuka tomato, chili pepper, onion spice blend was fabulous, and then I dug into the meatball. Lamb and pork—not great flavor, not great texture. The alleged whipped garlic-herb goat cheese didn’t help make it most moist either. Loved the chimichurri-spiced sourdough crostini, but there are better options. At French Meadow Bakery & Cafe, located on the north side of Carnes Avenue between Nelson & Underwood streets
Dubai Whoopie Pie at Dino’s ($13): My initial cynicism about the Dubai chocolate trend being two or three years too late was surpassed by the blandness of the chocolate and the dryness of this dish. Just way too dry. At first, I thought it was the chocolate cakes on either end, but then I tried the pistachio cream filling alone and maybe it was the abundance of nut in that creme. Loved the crunch topping of shredded filo, though. I’d have that in my Greek yogurt every morning! At Dino’s Gyros, located on the north side of Carnes Avenue between Nelson & Underwood streets
When Pigs Fly at Sausage Sister & Me ($14): What a mess. From a culinary standpoint, the pork sausages were great, the puff pastry was nicely composed and tasty, but four big chunks of meat on a stick did not work for me. The stick broke when I tried to hold it up, the toppings (chimichurri; sweet pepper coleslaw; melted cheddar and chili crunch; and pickle aioli) fell all over the place. No. At Sausage Sister & Me, located in the Food Building, east wall
SOME DRINK NOTES:
Blue Barn’s Hugo Spritz and Espresso-tini Frozen Seltzer ($11): Both excellent. The Hugo shocked me—it’s a sparkling, white Minnesota wine with hints of elderflower. There’s some mint in there too. It’s refreshing and fabulous with a 6.5% ABV, thanks to Scandia’s Rustic Roots. Blue Barn’s espresso martini seltzer is from Pryes Brewing: frozen, coffee, vanilla, topped with a cold foam. Yum.
LuLu’s Public House’s Soft Serve Royal Peach Beer ($12): This one-upped last year, also thanks to Pryes. Their peach sour magically turned into a soft serve, and it’s great as a twist with last year’s raspberry. They’re also doing a cool sangria soft serve sundae ($12) with a delicious fruit medley that I’d eat all by itself.
Ball Park Cafe’s Homer Black Pepper IPA: This is a legit good beer: bright citrus and grapefruit hops up front, light pepper on the finish. It’s not spicy at all (sorry fans of Surly’s Fiery Hell, and by fans, I mean me). It’s dry and crisp and super-well made by the team at Surly Brewing.
I liked Ball Park’s Tropic North as well, brewed by Back Channel in Spring Park. A fruit wheat ale, it had strong guava and prickly pear notes, but still was balanced enough for a beer drinker to enjoy. Just 5% ABV.
The Watermelon Mule at Andy’s Grille was so popular, it sold out by 3 p.m. Watermelon, lime, and ginger; it has you convinced you’re really drinking a watermelon Moscow Mule. Sugar rim, 6.5% ABV, nice job.
