Fun (and eating) at the State Fair

On Thursday, Mitch and I went over to "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" - also known as the State Fair, held near the University of Minnesota Campus in Minneapolis.  We parked at the mall and rode a bus into the city, saving us from sitting in traffic and from paying a ridiculous amount to park.  

We were so excited!  This, obviously, was my first time to the fair, and Mitch's first time in about ten years.  The main reason for going to the fair?  FOOD.  Minnesota's fair claims to be the mecca of foods on a stick.  You can pretty much get anything on a stick there.  We'll get to that, though.  Due to today's technology (thank goodness for Blackberry's), we were able to use the internets to choose the food or activities we wanted, then locate it on the fair map.  Pure genius.  

We did the typical fair stuff first - looked at the animals, even though most of the barns were closed for the day when we got there.  Still, we were able to look at the miniature ponies.....

(This kid's shirt is great, by the way - "Awesome ends in ME") - the weird albino horse with the blue eyes......

......the cute baby cows........

.......and the cute little piggies.  These ones were really going to town!

What is it about baby animals that is just so cute?  Take this little piglet, for example, sleeping in his owner's hand.

Absolutely adorable, this piggy is.  The cow is cute.  The small horses are cute.  You look at these and think, "This could be a GREAT pet!"  Sadly, they grow up to be big and ugly.  Then they are only good for food.  It's hard to picture that when you're looking at these babies!  The most interesting part of the animals was this poor pig below, who was literally having those babies you see as I was taking the picture. 

Those pigs are about 5-60 minutes old.  Another one came out while I was standing there.  You can even see their umbilical cords!  Once walking into the baby animal barn, Mitch quickly turned around and walked out.  Apparently, he doesn't share my love of baby animals.  Or any animal, for that matter. 

Like I said, the main reason we went to the fair was to EAT.  You can get pretty much anything in the world at the state fair, and it's all on a stick.  Corn dogs, pork chops, alligator, corn, pickles, pizza, spaghetti & meatballs, fried candy bars, hot dish (code in MN for casserole), bacon....the list goes on and on.  After the animals, we made it our mission to find the best corn dog in the fair, and that we did, at the Pronto Pup Corn Dog Stand.

Here in MN they are smart about condiments, and apply your ketchup and mustard by painting it on the dog.  Amazing!

After the corn dogs and a bottle of water, we went to find mini-donuts, by far my favorite food of the fair.  At this stand, they make the mini-donuts fresh on a press when you order them - 

 
 - then they come out of the oil, are tossed with cinnamon & sugar, and are put in a bag for your enjoyment.  

As you can see, it didn't take long for Mitch and I to polish off all 16 donuts.  They were SOOOO good!

Once the donuts were gone and we looked through the honey displays (really good honey lemonade!), checked out all of the winning baked goods, and sampled homemade ice cream made with real wine, we went to the food barn to find cheese curds.  Wisconsin is technically home to the cheese curd, but because we're so close, you can readily find them at the MN fair.  

I think the name of these curds is so clever!  My mouth certainly was a trap for these tasty fried hunks of cheese -

"Mmmmm.....its good!"

A new food at the fair this year was probably the most-talked about food - Famous Dave's was offering dark-chocolate-covered bacon.  

Chocolate?  Good.  Bacon?  Good.  Chocolate-covered bacon?  Not so good, at least in my opinion.  Mitch seemed to like it - there wasn't any left in his paper cup!

What do you wash all of this great fair food down with?  Beer, of course! 

While we were unsure as to whether or not we would buy beers at the steep fair price, Mitch's mind was quickly made up when he saw Wally the Beer Man selling beers outside the Famous Dave's tent.  Who is Wally, you ask?  Quite possibly the most famous man in Minneapolis-St. Paul.  Wally used to run an insurance company, but then decided he would sell beers at the Twins baseball games, and became an instant celebrity for his trademark "Beer Here!" call.  Mitch has one of his baseball cards and everything.  (That's right, the beer guy's got a baseball card).  So, Mitch digs out his money, hands it to Wally, and this exchange went down:

Mitch (in an excited, high-pitched voice):  "Wally, I'll have a beer.  I have one of your baseball cards from when I was eight years old!"

Wally (in a grovely voice):  "Well, now you've got beer!"

Classic.  Wally was kind enough to pose for a picture with his biggest fan.

Maybe the best part of the whole day was the Leinie's band shell, where you could get all the Leinie's you wanted - and free samples!

The fair was great - something that Mitch and I will make an annual event.  If just for the mini-donuts!