The Great Minnesota Get Together

Ahh yes, the Minnesota State Fair - gotta love it. When I first moved out here, I had no idea what a big deal the state fair was. Honestly, I don't even think there's a state fair in NY/CT/NJ. If there is, it's not as popular as the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR.

The background (Minnesotan blog readers can skip this part).

Every year, around Labor Day, the MN state fair takes place for (10 days?) at the State Fairgrounds. From morning until night the fair is open with endless amounts of activities: showing animals, seeing baby animals, horticulture, local companies advertise in booths, music, concerts, amusement park rides and MOST IMPORTANT of all... FOOD. Fair food is greasy, unhealthy and extremely delicious. Ladies and gentlemen, I have to say.. the majority of the food at the state fair were unknown entities to me until my first MN state fair experience. Yes, yes, there's always the classic - cotton candy, hot dogs and hamburgers. But.... it's so much more than that.

First, MN state fair food has a popularity of "food on a stick". Everything you can think of is served on a stick - pickle on a stick, cheese on a stick, fried fruit on a stick, pork chop on a stick, if you can think of it, they have it. Exhibit 1 - bacon on a stick

Second, most food at the fair is deep fried. Greasy, drippy food. Fried candy bars, fried cheese, fried hot dogs, everything. A fair trip is not complete without fried cheese curds. Cheese curds? Yes, little nuggets of cheese, deep fried. Exhibit 2 - cheese curds

Third, very much like our Asian excursion, the state fair is full of PEOPLE. The people watching is worth admission itself. There are so many people that state fair goers often take shuttles to there from remote parking locations. Exhibit 3 - Minnesota's "people mountain, people sea"

In conclusion, our state fair experience was well worth the over-priced, artery clogging, lard and sodium overloaded, sugar showered food. What did we have you ask? Our golden food list included:

A BUCKET of cookies (exhibit 4)

Cheese curds

Mini donuts

Gyro

Shaved Ice

Cotton Candy

Hot Dog

Burrito

Some custard, corn, and tater tot hotdish on a stick- worthy of it's own blog.