'Tis the Season

We have a wide range of niche and mainstream interests here at your favorite online gathering place. Among them, an appreciate for the wonders of a good state fair. From Indiana to Minnesota to...well, just those two, we love a fair.

The Minnesota State Fair runs for two weeks around Labor Day each summer (August 27 - September 7, this year). It's the largest such fair in the U.S. in terms of average daily attendance, and more than two million people pass through its gates each year. (Texas tops the nation in total attendance, but their fair runs twice as long as Minnesota's.)  

One of the most-anticipated events in the run-up to the Fair is the annual reveal of food items that will make their debut that year. You know that we're all over this one. 

Fully 48 fair foods and drinks will be first-timers in 2026. Thirty-nine of these are new offerings from Fair veterans and nine are proffered by vendors new to the Fair. Sixteen are either sweet treats or drinks, and neither of those categories are really my cup of (bubble) tea, so we'll narrow our discussion to the remaining 32 savory stuffs, with an emphasis on the unique (so we'll skip the new french fry vendor, for example).

Let's start with the ethnic diversity. The Twin Cities are home to a surprising range of cultures, from the obvious Scandinavian to large Somali, Filipino, and Hmong communities. The latter is represented by the Hmong Corn Dog from Union Hmong Kitchen. The purveyors describe it thusly, "Pork Hmong sausage flavored with ginger, garlic, fish sauce, chili and lemongrass made in collaboration with Kramarczuk's. Skewered, dipped in a cornmeal batter and fried. Served with a side of citrus Kua Txob sauce." Would.

Not to be outdone, the good people at Lumpia City are bringing their Longanisa Cheese Curd Lumpia to the party. It's a "Homemade Filipino longanisa pork sausage combined with garlic and Wisconsin cheese curds, stuffed and rolled in a lumpia wrapper and deep-fried. Served with a side of sweet chili sauce." Lumpia, to the uninitiated, is essentially a Filipino egg roll.

A pair of vendors will offer two very different interpretations of bao buns. Rooted & Wild by Snack House brings a vegan version doused in hot barbecue sauce and topped with pineapple slaw. Meanwhile, RC's BBQ's giving us bao belly (pictured) presented as, "Smoked barbecue pork belly drizzled with RC's hot sauce and yum yum sauce. Topped with pickled vegetables and cilantro and served on folded, steamed bao buns." Fuck and yes.

Were I to head to the fairgrounds this year, one of the first places I'd have to go is the French Meadow Bakery & Cafe stall smack in the middle of the action. They're bringing Shakshuka Lamb Meatballs, which, shut the front door. If you haven't tried shakshuka, I insist you remedy that - it's a rich, thick often-spicy tomato sauce that's served with hearty bread and proteins like eggs, kabob, chicken, etc. Here's how the French Meadow folks describe their dish: "Seasoned lamb and pork meatballs stuffed with whipped garlic herb goat cheese and flash-fried. Served atop shakshuka – a blend of tomatoes, chili peppers, onions and spices – garnished with parsley and served with a side of chimichurri-spiced sourdough crostini."  

You'll want to sit down to eat it, so maybe hit the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild's tent and grab a cold one to accompany the shakshuka.

We'll close our preview with one last item, because we're running out of gas, but do hit the link above to check out all of the options. We'll stay away from the Pickle Pie offered by LuLu's Pie House, as well as the Dill With It, Cookie! from Urban Glow Mocktails. Several elote and elote-adjacent dishes look delicious, for sure, but maybe some other time. Cafe Caribe's putting lobster with garlic butter on a cheeseburger. Goddamn lunatics. Mancini's al Fresco's Walking Chopped Italian Grinder puts a whole new spin on nachos, and I would definitely try it. But the last thing we'll highlight comes from Midtown Global Market's Irie Jamaican Express.

Smothered fries may not seem all that exciting, but get a load of their Jamaican Jerk Chicken Loaded Fries. That might be a perfect combination.

I'll be headed to the Loudoun County Fair next week, if only for the pig calling. I hope at least one of our readers gets to the Minnesota State Fair this year, or at least some fair. It's a good clean gluttonous slice of Americana.

Reflux Redux

 State Fairs back? STATE FAIRS BACK

This, of course, is a deep fried, thinly veiled excuse for me to post probably my greatest work on this here website: my trip to the Indiana State Fair 12 years ago. Come, relive the journey with me. 

G:TB State Fair Month

Molten cream cheese hurts when it spills from within the crispy envelope of a perfectly fried pickle and lands on one's hand.

This was one of many things I learned when I visited the Minnesota State Fair last week.

Like the Teej before me, I ventured boldly into that Midwestern staple on a mission to see, smell, taste, and experience all of nature's bounty. At least all that can be fried.

I went with colleagues on the Fair's opening day. I was told by everyone that the first day of the Fair's two-week run is generally the best, because the grounds are in the best shape and the yellowjackets haven't yet figured out where the good trash cans are. Everyone was right.

The first day of this year's Fair set a new attendance record, with more than 133,000 Minnesotans (and me) passing through the turnstiles. As you can see in this shitty photo I took as I turned onto one of the main thoroughfares, that's a shitload of folks.

Shortly upon my entry, I met up with my team, and one of the fellas who works for me made it a point to grab me a beer. It's good to be the king. Our meeting point was Fresh French Fries (one of two on the 322-acre property). We met there because it's operated by the family of a colleague of mine. His father started the concession 40 years ago. It's grown to the point where each of the two stands go through 240,000 pounds of potatoes each year, and gross more than $1.2m in 12 days. My colleague Dan always takes vacation during the Fair to run one of the stands. Pretty tidy little business.

And so my first fried food of the Fair was all in the family.

After we scarfed a good helping of fries, we played some midway games. I lost at a shooting game where one shoots actual bb's at target, at whack-a-mole, and at that stupid game where you try to knock over three leaded bottles with a softball. Then I lost to Tony at bumper cars. Tony's a former Green Beret, so he knows how to handle his ride.

Trained killer, that Tony

It was at that point that I went to the fried pickle stand. Man, do I love fried pickles. It turns out that I also love fried pickles with cream cheese, but I didn't learn that until after I received a second-degree burn on my hand and realized that the prudent course of action was to wait until they cooled down.

I recovered quickly, numbing the pain with another beer, before enjoying cheese curds, lefse, shrimp and grits balls, fried feta, and roasted corn in relatively rapid succession. I closed out my gustatory efforts with a sampler courtesy of the Minnesota Brewer's Guild.

I didn't take any pictures with my head inserted into a cartoon body, but I did visit The Current's booth, which was cool. I missed out on seeing Belinda Carlisle and Hootie & The Blowfish, because bad planning, but I saw Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar's teams working their booths with gusto. Saw the Trump booth, too, but gave it a wide berth.

Crowds annoy me as much as the next guy, and perhaps more, but the Minnesota Nice vibe in St. Paul, combined with postcard-perfect weather, several tasty brews, and gleeful work friends happy to be playing hooky to make for a most excellent afternoon. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Just let your cream cheese-filled fried treat cool for just a minute.