The Great Minnesota Get Together, Part 1

The day after our trip to the cabin and our unexpected but welcome dinner at Panino’s, it was time for one of the main reasons we traveled to Minnesota, the Minnesota State Fair. Now, if you’ve been to the fair, or any state or county fair for that matter, you know that one of the main reasons you go is for the food. There are hundreds of options and while we couldn’t get to all of them, I have nine different places that we visited and I’ll have to break them up into 3 posts. My co-worker Sue, who grew up in St. Paul and actually went to high school right around the corner from Joan’s childhood home, was disappointed because we didn’t get to the Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar, but here’s the first three of the great options that we did hit.

Now, if you remember I said that Davanni’s sells their famous hot hoagies and as much as Joan says there is a difference, a hoagie, a sub, a grinder, a hero are all the same. I also told you to stay tuned for one that I tease Joan with by saying it is the same, but is most definitely NOT. That would be a Corn Dog vs. a Pronto Pup.  Even though they may look the same, they are very different. Most likely you know what a corn dog is. Take a hot dog, batter it in a cornmeal batter and deep fry it. If you don’t like corn dogs because of the corn meal batter, go to the fair and try a Pronto Pup. It is battered and deep fried like a corn dog but with a lighter wheat flour batter, not corn meal. You still get the crispy batter without the corn taste. Here’s where we got it and this is what I got:

This is always Joan’s first stop at the fair and it was our first stop this time. We’re off and running. That’s one delicious food stop down, many more to go. We headed down the street a little ways and came across another Minnesota State Fair staple, cheese curds. For those of you not familiar with cheese curds, they are little nuggets of cheese deep fried (of course). We got our cheese curds from The Mouth Trap. Here’s the stand and here’s what we got:

To wrap up this first segment of our trip to the fair, here’s one more bit of deep fried goodness, mini donuts. These are sold several different places throughout the fair, but we got ours at Tom Thumb Donuts. These are just as they sound, little donuts that they fry, cover with sugar and put in a big bag for you. We got our bag, sat on a bench and munched them all down before we knew what happened. Here’s the stand and the bag of donuts they gave us:

After our bag of donuts, we took a ride on Ye Old Mill which is the oldest ride at the fair. It is a classic “Tunnel of Love” boat ride and is, for the most part, the same ride that opened 98 years ago.

Next up will be part two of our trip to the Minnesota State Fair.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Minnesota State Fair

Location:

1265 North Snelling Avenue N, St. Paul, MN

Website: http://www.mnstatefair.org/

Date of Visit: August 29, 2011

Time of Visit: All Day Long

Has It Been on TV?: Probably on local TV News broadcasts.