Minnesota State Fair

Having grown up in Maine, I moved to Minnesota with the general understanding that fairs were kind of small county events, with lots of farm animals and some cotton candy circulating. Thankfully, I have come to know better. In Minnesota, as with many midwestern states, the fair is a very very big deal. I generally go at least twice a year, and eat as much food as possible while I am there. This year, though I only went once, it was all I hoped it would be and more - as usual! I have some fair-going rules, and one of them is that I only go with people that will split every food order with me. In this way, I get to try tons of food, avoid feeling sick, and it all costs half as much.

On Tuesday evening, my friend Kate (who is a tried and true fair companion) joined me on a Minnesota State Fair adventure. We shared an order of each of the following:

- Fried Green Tomatoes

- Cheese Curds

- Swedish Egg Coffee

- Corn Dog

- Lemonade

- Hush Puppies

- Mini Donuts

Most years I also eat a Scotch Egg (a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage, dipped in bread crumbs, deep fried, and presented on a stick), but

we ran out of steam before we made it to that vendor. We also were serious about finding the Funnel Cake Fries (new this year!), but the stand had closed by the time we located it. We skipped the chocolate covered bacon (it's apparently kind of gross), Martha's cookies (a bucket of 'em costs $14), and all the deep fried candy bars (melty and delicious, but we filled up before we got over to that corner). I usually make a stop at Custard's Last Stand, mostly out of appreciation for the vendor name, but a gi

rl can only eat so much food in one evening. The twittersphere was all abuzz regarding the smoked salmon on a stick, but I wasn't coordinated enough to seek out that vendor, either. So many things to eat, so little time! It's no wonder that some people make a habit of going 4 or 5 times a year!

Somewhere along the way we stumbled upon some live music: Rock It Science was to

tally rocking out, and we stuck around long enough to see them perform Total Eclipse of the Heart - followed closely by Sweet Child of Mine.

As you may have noticed, we didn't spend time in the animal barns... and the reason for that is simple: a few weeks ago I visited Kate in Milwaukee, and we went to the Wisconsin State Fair. In addition to enjoying such culinary delights as Cream Puffs

(made by the Wisconsin Bakers Association) and Loaded Baked Potatoes (made by the Wisconson Potato Association), we visited tons of animal barns AND we won a trivia game. I love fair season.