Sunday, September 4, 2011

Minnesota State Fair 2011


Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce

This year, I decided to do just a little bit of research on the Minnesota State Fair, a.k.a."The Great Minnesota Get-Together". Did you know, for instance, that Minnesota has the second largest state fair in the country? It is surpassed only by the Texas State Fair in total attendance, and that is only because the Texas State Fair runs twice as long. Minnesota has everyone beat with its daily fair attendance. Yesterday, the second Saturday of the fair, my husband and I stood in line with 215,845 other people. I think most of them wanted to try the Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce.


This was the sea of people waiting for a fish taco.

Avoiding crowds was out of the question, so we just focused on trying out a few new things that sounded good to us, some old standbys, and checking out some of our favorite attractions. Now, I'll be honest--we actually spent two days at the fair, so not all of this food was consumed in one day.


Fresh Fruit Wrap

Aside from a few favorites, Pete and I don't generally go for the deep-fried-food-on-a-stick things. We were there early on the first Saturday (6:30 A.M.--yikes!), so I found this fruit wrap to start out with. It was pretty good.


Fresh French Fries

So far we have managed to keep "fresh" in the title. All of the potatoes at the Fresh French Fry booth are Minnesota grown and not out of the ground for more than 2 days--hence, fresh. Traditionally, we stop for the Fresh French Fries first, but today we waited until it seemed a reasonable hour for fries: 9:00 A.M.


Funnel Cakes


Chocolate Malt

It was getting to be time to check out some of the attractions. 


A woman on stilts...


A piggy.


Nope..not us on this ride...


A Kemp's Cow.


A quick cooking demo: How to make a Black Forest Cake. Donna Nowicki did a great job decorating this and explaining the how to's. She wanted me to point out, however, that she didn't have a chance to finish it off with piping on the bottom.

And on to more food. My list of must haves included two things from the Blue Moon Diner:




Asian Pulled Pork Tacos....


And the good enough to post two pictures, Sweet Corn Ice Cream...I've gotta learn how to make this stuff....


Pete had a veggie burger with chipotle mayo...I stole a bite.


A visit to the Fine Arts Exhibit...this one is called "Wild Ride".


Complete with thong underwear....


Fresh Lemonade.


Why indeed.


The Minneapple Pie...my pick as best food of the day!


The crust was like a warm cookie...sooo tasty.

And another Summer comes to an end. Now bring on the pumpkins--I'm ready for Fall!

7 comments:

  1. I just had to check this out being a MN girl myself! Looks like you had a delicious sampling of the food! I still need to try the sweet corn ice cream, but I am going back to the fair tomorrow so there is still time ;)!

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  2. Amy, enjoy your day tomorrow! I had a blast at the fair this year--so many things that I didn't get to post them all. :)

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  3. That looks like so much fun. Fair food is some of my favorite; especially because it's only available once a year. Splurging is not optional.

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  4. Fun posting! Where did you find the fish tacos? Everything I saw was friend and on a stick!

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  5. Claudia, the Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa are a favorite! The only reason I didn't talk about them was because I featured them last year, lol. They are in the food building at San Felipe Tacos. I wish now that I had tried their pork tacos--the Asian Pulled Pork Tacos from the Blue Moon Diner were good, but a little salty for my taste.

    Kristen, you would love the Minnesota State Fair--it is the best!

    Klecko--so sorry I missed your Dutch Quick Bread Demo--I did see the link for the recipe. I'm giving it a try as soon as I nab some Gouda!

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  6. You've had fun, and ate scrumptious things wonderful combo :)

    I need a fair near to have tacos and ice creams, very soon!

    Cheers,

    Gera

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