0 Minnesota State Fair 2014 - St. Paul, MN

People like it when I do a breakdown of what I ate at the Minnesota State Fair. (Well, my mother doesn't, since she thinks I'm going to die...)

And my sister PalmMapper and brother-in-law Uncle DumDum came over from Michigan to experience this State Fair for the second time. We did some serious damage to the food here. I'll do a quick write up, in case you're planning to go in the next few days.

Here's how it shakes out:

Deep Fried Breakfast Sandwich on a Stick (from the Sandwich Shop) - ham, eggs, sausage, cheese, in a pancake sandwich, and then deep-fried. Pretty delicious way to start your day at the Fair!!!

Chicken in the Waffle (from the Blue Barn) - fried chicken pieces covered in sausage gravy served in a waffle cone. Probably the best thing we ate at the Fair. Just beware of the malted milk ball at the bottom of the cone. It ruined everything. Ask for yours without the milk ball at the bottom.

Pig Collar Korean BBQ with Kimchee Pickles (from Famous Dave's) - Pretty boring meat unless you added some Devil's Spit spicy BBQ sauce. Not bad, just underwhelming.

Alligator on a Stick (from Bayou Bob's) - Alligator sausage on a  stick. It just tasted like a brat. If you want alligator, get the nuggets. They're sooo much better than this sausage.

Liftbridge Mini Donut Beer - I mean, you HAVE to try it, right? It was surprisingly good. The sugary rim helped, as well.

Pretzel Curds (from O'Gara's) - Quite awesome, in all honesty. Pretzel and almonds crushed up in the batter and deep fried. Great dipping sauce as well.

Deep Fried Buckeyes (from Spaghetti Eddie's) - deep fried balls of chocolate and peanut butter served with strawberry jelly. Suuuuuuuper rich. You'll need to split these between your entire family. But they are good.

Jello Salad Ice Cream (from the Hamline Church) (see mom? I went to church.) - Ice cream with cranberry and lime swirls with some marshmallow bits. Served with an extra izzy scoop on top. I got the pomegranate and didn't love it. Overall, not the greatest ice cream I've ever had.

S'More's Beer (from Giggles Campfire) - A coffee stout with a chocolate graham cracker rimmed cup. Not a terrible beer on its own. I liked the Mini Donut Beer much better.

Cheese Curds (from Mouth Trap) - Best cheese curds in the world. Every time.

1919 Root Beer (from the 1919 stand) - I love this root beer.

Teryaki Ostrich on a Stick (from China Town) - Ground ostrich meat on a stick. Served with teriyaki sauce and we grabbed some sri racha, as well. Pretty good, honestly.

Cheese Curds Round 2 (from Mouth Trap) - I told you they were the best curds in the world.

Hot Patty - Spicy Beef (from West Indies Soul Food) - Good and spicy, but not as good as they are in the Bahamas. It's ground up spicy beef in a pastry shell, like a caribbean empanada.

Beer Flight #1 (from the Ag Barn) - All four of these beers were super good. ALL of them.

Beer Gelato (from Mancini's) - It's like ice cream, but beer flavored. Good and refreshing, but I don't know that I need any more of it.

Sweet Martha's Cookies (from Sweet Martha's Cookies)(My sister had to get some) - They're just burnt cookie dough. Next.

Hot Dago on a Stick (from Luigi's Fries) - garlic sticks and meatballs covered in mozzarella cheese and baked. Served with peppers and marinara sauce. I shouldn't like this as much as I do. It's sooooo good.

Fire Dog (from Pickle Dog) - It's like a ham roll up, but with pastrami. A layer of cream cheese and a pickle inside, and then jalapeños inside. Super good and I'm going to start akin these for parties. Parties of ONE at my house.

Grainbelt Blu (from Schell's) - Blueberry flavored beer, but then they added some odd slushy foam on the top. Just get the beer. It is odd, but good. And purple.

Blue Cheese and Corn Fritz (from the Blue Barn) - Corn fritters with a tiny bit of cheese inside served with chimichurri sauce. Great sauce and great fritters, but I really wanted to taste the blue cheese. These were good, but filling at the end of the day.

Farm Handsandwich (from the Blue Barn) - Braised beef with french fries and covered in pimento cheese. Great meat flavor. I liked this, but not as much as the Chicken in the Waffle. We may have gotten a second order of the chicken....

Seriously, this was one of the best State Fairs ever. I'm so glad my sister and brother-in-law got to come from Michigan to hang out with me!

Great time. Now, it's time to die.

Detail: Minnesota State Fair 2014 - St. Paul, MN

0 Munchkins - Milwaukee, WI

Some mornings, you just need 25 Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts and a chocolate milk. this was one of those mornings.

It brings back my childhood and eating donut holes with my grandfather at SpudNuts in Rock Island, IL. Sigh...

Detail: Munchkins - Milwaukee, WI

0 Glazed Donut Bread Pudding at Senor Wong’s – St. Paul, MN

This isn’t a full review of Senor Wong’s, but I like to give a shout out for creativity when it is due. After a generous meal at Senor Wong’s, I made the mistake of asking about dessert. Normally, I don’t care much about dessert, but I was curious what this place would be offering. I shuodnl’t have asked.

The special dessert was a Glazed Donut Bread Pudding. The more he explained, the clearer it became that I would be ordering this. I’ll explain a minute. But first, here is what they brought out to me.

It’s a glazed donut bread pudding, but it also has a lemon ginger glace, bananas foster, and fortune cookie streusel. Who even thinks of these things? The combination of these things was pretty creative and delicious. Very impressive. Well, most food you hit with a blow torch is impressive, to be fair. But this was a pretty delicious dessert. I WILL say that it was probably the most dense cake-like thing I’ve ever eaten. It actually took effort to get the fork through the bread itself. Like a brick. I also wish I could have tasted a little more donut in there, but it was very subtly there.

Again, I’m not a seeker of bread pudding in most situations, but I did have a fabulous donut bread pudding at the The Donut Cooperative in Minneapolis. That one set a pretty high standard for me, to be sure. But this version at Senor Wong’s was pretty good.

Detail: Glazed Donut Bread Pudding at Senor Wong’s – St. Paul, MN

0 Glam Doll Donuts – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I had heard about this new donut shop in Minneapolis from one of the local newspapers and also heard it was sort of a late night spot. We showed up after a roller derby event and found it well-populated and hopping. If you haven’t heard about this place, it’s a sort of retro flashback 1940-1950’s pin-up doll inspired donut shop that is open late, as well as the crack of dawn kind of hours. In fact, it’s open until 1am Thursday through Sunday nights. Brilliant!

But it isn’t all about the atmosphere here (though that IS very important and amazingly well crafted – by hand in many instances) – the donuts they make are both delicious and waaay outside the box (pun intended). The woman who comes up with the donut menu is immensely creative and not subtle at all with her flavor combinations. Call wacky donuts a fad if you want to, but if it’s done right, the fad is going to stick around for a LONG time – that’s my hope with this place.

D.Rough and I got a couple of donuts to split and try some new things. We got an orange, cinnamon, and ginger donut, a curry glazed donut stuffed with provolone, and D.Rough got one of those damn cake circles (some people call them cake donuts, but I won’t give that species the honor of calling it a donut) with peanut butter frosting and sri racha. I told you this place is adventurous.

The orange, cinnamon, ginger donut was really quite delicious. It almost tasted like an orange slice with a little bit of bite to it. Very tasty and recommended.

I keep hearing how the cake circles at Glam Doll are really much lighter and fluffier than many I’ve had, but I just didn’t want to take the chance that it would ruin my experience, so I didn’t try it. D.Rough loved the bites that she ate, and I did try the frosting, which was oddly wonderful. But I can’t give it a full review, since I couldn’t bring myself to eat it – I wasn’t in the mood for cake. I was in the mood for donuts.

The curry glazed provolone stuffed donut was the best thing I had that night. Maybe in the top 5 donuts I’ve ever had. I haven’t had a ton of savory donuts, but I would recommend this to everyone. It looks a little bit like an empanada – sort of a folded over and fried dough pocket covered with a slightly orange-ish curry glaze. Not a spicy curry, but still distinctly curry flavored. And the inside had this really awesome salty cheese in the center. It wasn’t molten, so it held together nicely and you got some with each bite without having to worry about all your cheese oozing out. Honestly, this made every part of me happy. Get this donut.

Now, I’ve decided I need to go to Glam Doll often enough to figure out the donut schedule and when I can get certain donuts. I’m REALLY glad this place is open late and is more fun than I thought it might be. Wel done, Glam Doll. Quite an impressive operation you have here. Thank YOU for being so awesome.

www.glamdolldonuts.com

Detail: Glam Doll Donuts – Minneapolis, MN

0 Yo-Yo Donuts and Coffee Bar – Minnetonka, MN

If you didn’t know, I love donuts. I’ll, of course, argue with you about whether cake donuts are real donuts (they’re NOT – they’re cake circles), but I love raised fried donuts with frosting, glaze, sprinkles, filling, cereal, or whatever you’ve got for me. I found out there was a donut place very close to my office in Eden Prairie that I hadn’t been to. If there’s any reason at ALL for me to get up early for work, it’s donuts.

The store is in a strip mall, sort of off the beaten path in Minnetonka. It’s actually quite a large space, especially compared to many donut places I’ve been to. They also roll a lot of business through here, which I was pleasantly surprised to see. People were ordering two and three dozen donuts for their offices and Yo-Yo never seemed to run out. They have quite a selection of donuts, rolls, twists, bear claws, and yes, those damn cake circles.

I ended up with a vanilla frosted donut with chocolate drizzle and a large cinnamon twist. I also ordered a white milk and a chocolate milk. I assumed the milks would be small cartons, or even small bottles. They weren’t. They were in huge 18 oz cups with lids poured out of a jug. Whoops! It’s a good thing I love milk. Hahahahaha

I know it’s difficult to do anything different with donuts, but these people have perfected the donut. TONs of glaze on the cinnamon twist and lots of cinnamon and sugar on the inside. The outside was crunchy and the inside was super soft. And the flavor of the dough itself was something special. I'm not even sure what it is about them, but they just have a "brighter" flavor to them. Maybe it's the fact you can actually TASTE the dough, as opposed to just sugar and/or grease, but it was fantastic. I was really surprised how much I liked this thing.

The same went for the vanilla frosted donut. Tons of frosting on it and the donut itself had the perfect texture. I think some donuts can be helped by heating up or making the outside moist. I disagree with that, in this case. They were perfect they was they were.

Uh… I think I have a new favorite donut place…

www.yoyodonuts.com

Detail: Yo-Yo Donuts and Coffee Bar – Minnetonka, MN

0 Valley Pastries – Golden Valley, MN

It was disc golf Saturday, and I was driving all the way across the Twin Cities to play the course in Plymouth. When these longer drives occur, I try to find a good place to stop along the way, so I can bring the guys the nourishment they need to make it through a round of disc golf. Donuts always hit the radar first. Valley Pastries was close to the course and I could still make it before the round started. Perfect.

The shop is in a small strip mall in the Western suburbs. It’s a pretty small shop, but the cases are full. One case is mainly donuts, the other is mainly cookies. I ignored the cookies and focused on the donuts. There were a bunch that I wanted to try, but I knew if the guys didn’t eat what I brought, I’d be eating the left overs. I had to pick wisely. The ladies behind the counter were very friendly and got me taken care of without any problems at all. Super nice.

I got a glazed apple-filled donut and a raspberry jam filled bismark.

I also got a chocolate raised donut and a maple frosted cinnamon roll.

And I finally asked what these huge donut hole looking things were. They were, in fact, huge donut holes. Biggest donut holes I’ve ever seen. You weren’t going to be popping these bad boys into your mouth. They were like two- or three-biters. Here's a photo so you can see the scale.

Fortunately, all of these donuts were really good. Better than average and I’m glad I popped in there. They were moist without still tasting of grease, like some places. The fillings were fresh tasting and I’d be happy to go back here anytime I head that direction. The only downside was they didn’t have milk in the cooler to drink with your donuts. Just water and sodas. Not to worry though, there’s a gas station within walking distance if you HAVE to have milk with your donuts.

Valley Pastries
2570 Hillsboro Ave. N.
Golden Valley, MN 55427

Detail: Valley Pastries – Golden Valley, MN