Stick it

The Minnesota State Fair is the second largest in the country (the first, quelle surprise, is Texas). It's ten days and acres and acres of midway rides, 4-Hers running around with celebrity poultry, etc.

If you get a whole bunch of the country's food writers in a bus and you take them to the fair, their pursuit narrows to this:

Foods on a stick.

There were fifty-few items at the fair served in this way, some defying all odds. Here are some of the highlights:

• Corned beef and cabbage on a stick
• Spaghetti and meatball on a stick
• Sloppy joe on a stick
• Pork chop on a stick
• Rocky road scone on a stick
• Coca cola cheesecake dipped in chocolate on a stick

I ate them. Some of them with secret fear and loathing. Still, when all is said and done, they weren't the most notable edibles at the fair. Single best food: cheesecurds, really just lumps of battered and deep-fried cheese, served extra greasy and with ketchup. Single worst: Deep-fried Spam curds (just like the cheesecurds, only the surprise in the center was Spam. Gave me an instant salt/nitrates hangover). Oh, maybe the Spam tied with those KoolAid pickles that seem to be turning up everywhere. Why should a dill pickle be coaxed into tasting like grape KoolAid?

Comments

[Ken]

Not to be picky when it comes to geography but it is NOT the "Minneapolis" State Fair but the "Minnesota" State fair and it is actually located in St. Paul! Also, forget about the foods on a stick and give me a good old fashioned footlong hot dog. :)

[The Mouth]

Oh, mercy me, Ken. You are so right. I'm correcting my major gaffe right now. I thank you from the bottom of my blogging heart. I didn't eat a hotdog, but I ate something called an Uffda brat (a Norwegian brat wrapped in potato lefse--not bad at all).

[ken]

Interestingly, when I lived in Iowa, I received a flier one day that listed the top ten things found only in Iowa. Number three was the Iowa State Fair.