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 C. G. Hooks Eatery – White Bear Lake, MN (Bar-B-Quest Championship!)

It’s the final round of the 2013 Bar-B-Quest and it’s C.G. Hooks against Q Fanatic. We had recently been to C.G. Hooks, so I won’t go into a ton of detail in the review, but I do want to make sure people know what to expect. C.G. Hooks is top-notch BBQ and they beat a lot of also-good BBQ joints to get to the final round. So far, they beat Ikea, Lee’s & Dee’s (the number one seed), and Hickory Hut. No small feat if you ask me.

So, LowVee, Kevin, and HotGirlsBrother met me for lunch. It’s the middle of winter, but this place is still going strong. We ordered our usual orders – baby back ribs with cornbread and beans and coleslaw for all of us. I also got an order of potato wedges to start with, since I was the first one there. And, since they have 1919 root beer on tap, I and almost everyone else got a large glass of that. I love that stuff.

The wedges came out and still weren’t super crispy. I had asked the server if she could make them a little crispier than they normally are when I ordered, but it didn’t happen. They taste delicious, but they’re still floppy enough to have texture issues going on with them. They do have the dry rub seasoning on them, which is fantastic. So I’m hard pressed to complain about these. That being said, they didn’t last long on our table.

The baked beans were a variety of different beans. Some large, some small. They also have some pieces of meat cut up in the beans. Coupled with the seasonings they put in here, none of us were disappointed with the baked beans. They’re always really good here.

Cole slaw – pretty good slaw, plenty of seeds and seasonings. It’s a good complement to the smoky flavor of the ribs. It isn’t the best in the world, but it’s pretty darn good with these ribs.

The cornbread is awesome. It’s in the shape of a fish, which makes it fun, but it honestly is sweet, crispy on the outside, and fantastic. No butter required.

The ribs – This is what you come here for. There is plenty of meat on the bones and there is a nice char on the outside. Not all the way across, but a considerable amount of bark. Nothing to complain about. This time around, the ribs were a little fattier than we’d had in the past (you can see the detail in the photo), but I know the fat flavors the meat. It was just not as melt-in-your-mouth as usual. Some bits of gristle to contend with. Don’t get me wrong – the flavor was still there and combined with our expert BBQ sauce chemistry wizard HotGirlsBrother, it makes for a realllllly impressive rack of ribs. Here's the recipe: two parts K.C., one part Ghost, and a splash of Carolina Vinegar. Bam!

Here's how LowVee likes to make her sauce. I think she has a "problem". Of course, that means, HotGirlsBrother and I are enablers...

We opted to not get ice cream this time, even though we were all eye balling the case. They have fantastic ice cream here and if it weren’t 3 degrees outside, we may have done it. Next time…

We said a number of times, no matter how the championship turns out, we’ll be back here to C.G. Hooks this summer and rent a pontoon boat to go out on the lake for a few hours with some ribs and beers. That sounds like the best afternoon ever, in my book. We shall see how C.G. Hooks fares after we go to Q Fanatic the following day.

Here’s the Bar-B-Quest bracket as it stands now. I’m really looking forward to seeing who comes out on top!!!!

www.cghooks.com/CG_Hooks_Tallys_Dockside/Home_Page.html

Detail: C. G. Hooks Eatery – White Bear Lake, MN (Bar-B-Quest Championship!)

0 C.G. Hooks Eatery – White Bear Lake, MN (Bar-B-Quest 2012)

It’s been a while since we’d had a Bar-B-Quest outing, thanks to a ton of busy summer schedules. But we’re back on track to finish this whole thing up. I won’t do a complete review of C.G. Hooks, since HotGirlsBrother and I went there a previous round and declared them fantastic. Basically, we had to bring LowVee here so she could verify we weren’t on crack and so she could compare it to the upcoming bracket (see the below bracket if you’re confused by this).

C.G. Hooks serves wine and beer, as well as 1919 root beer. That's got to give it some points, right????

We started with some Dixie Chips (basically JoJo fries). (I’ll forget to mention I was late and LowVee and HotGirlsBrother had to order these as their own appetizer so they wouldn’t starve to death while I rolled in 15 minutes late). They had good flavor to them, since they were sprinkled with the dry rub seasoning C.G. Hooks uses on its ribs. Great flavor, but they were a little floppy. I wished they were super crispy and then we would have raved about them, for sure.

The food is another thing though. The sides are soooooo good. The baked beans are filled with GIANT beans, some kind of meat, delicious seasonings, and probably something else magical. We love these beans and they will not disappoint. The coleslaw is also delicious. It’s got some tang to it (they might have changed their recipe since the last time we were there), and the right amount of pepper and celery seeds. Really quite a good showing, so far.

The corn bread is described as “fishy”. Don’t be alarmed, it isn’t dipped in fish guts or anything. It’s just shaped like a fish. It’s also really sweet. My pieces was a tad dry for my liking, but it comes with butter, so I fixed that right up. Thankfully, the flavor is top notch and made my mouth happy.

The ribs were being anxiously awaited by all of us. The last time we came here (as a group)(I’ve come a couple of other times – don’t tell those guys that), we got a small dipping container of one sauce. The sauce was good, thankfully. This time, we had our choice of six different sauces. THAT’s what I’m talking about. And we tried ALL of them, including various combinations of them. Here they are lined up in order of our democratically-voted preference.

• Memphis – we’re not a fan of cinnamon in our sauce, which was why it was voted bottom of the list.
• Carolina Gold – a mustard based sauce that just didn’t trip our trigger.
• Pineapple Sauce –which I really WANTED to like, but didn’t care for it as much as I had hoped. Maybe with something other than ribs it would have been awesome.
• Carolina Vinegar – really an excellent sauce (vinegary, oddly enough).
• Ghost sauce – This one brought the heat, but thankfully, also brought the flavor. We liked this one in moderation.
• Sweet K.C. – really tasty sauce that we thought was probably the best if you had to pick one.

We didn’t have to pick one, which ruled. We decided the best option was one part Ghost, two parts K.C., and a splash of Carolina Vinegar. Mix that up, and you’ve got Jesus in a dish.

Aside from the sauce, the meat on the ribs was melt in your mouth kind of stuff. The dry rub had an incredible flavor (told you so, LowVee) and there was very little fat to contend with on the bones. We knew this place was going to get a high rating from LowVee when she actually finished her entire half slab. It may not have been that she was hungry, but more the fact that she didn’t want to share these ribs with anyone. ANYONE. These are seriously delicious ribs.

And to top everything off, we had room for ice cream. C.G. Hooks is partly an ice cream shop and has really fun non-standard flavors of ice cream. After much sampling of flavors, I finally decided on the Cookie Dough and also a scoop of Blue Moon (it’s fruit loop flavored ice cream – why the hell WOULDN’t I get that?). Soooo good. I’d also recommend the cake batter one that LowVee and HotGirlsBrother got. All of us were pretty darn excited after this particular visit.

This Bar-B-Quest is going to be a really difficult decision when we get to the final rounds. I’m looking forward to it more than I should be.

Detail: C.G. Hooks Eatery – White Bear Lake, MN (Bar-B-Quest 2012)

0 2012 Minnesota State Fair – St. Paul, MN

My sister PalmMapper and brother-in-law UncleDumDum were in town celebrating their 10 year anniversary. The trip was a surprise for my brother-in-law, who has never been to a State Fair before. He’s always wanted to check it out and who better to go with than someone who can also eat their weight in fried food! ME!!! PalmMapper had printed out a couple of new fair items (which coincided nicely with my own list that I always write up) and we headed out to the fair.

We got there early to ensure we could see D.Rough on TV at the KARE-11 building. In fact, we got there too early, so we started eating without her. There’s no better time for breakfast than… uh… breakfast time. We headed into the food building and started the day right.

Ham, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Stromboli from American Stromboli. It’s hardboiled eggs chopped up with ham and shredded cheese baked in a pizza dough - delicious and comes with a side of salsa. While you’re waiting in line, you get to look through the window and watch them make cinnamon rolls… which of course means we had to get a cinnamon roll, as well. Really good dough perfectly baked and with TONS of cinnamon. And of course we got it iced with sugary frosting – which melts immediately on the hot roll. Perfect way to start the morning.

We headed into the other wing of the food building to find Rajin’ Cajun. The entire building was empty and we didn’t think it was open. Thankfully, there were workers behind the counter who were willing to make our breakfast sliders (right before the power went out in the entire building). The breakfast sliders were a trio of small buns filled with steak, Cajun sausage, and ham (each slider has its own meat). They also had scrambled eggs and cheese on them, and each was complimented with an incredible homemade garlic mayo. We actually ate this in order of our favorites, accidentally: ham first, just ok; sausage second, pretty good; steak last, really beefy and tender. I had heard the steak might not be the best, but we must have gotten a good piece because we were thrilled with it. AND it’s really cheap for three sandwiches.

We headed back to the KARE-11 building and watched the Minnesota RollerGirls get interviewed by Eric Perkins. He’s a hilarious guy that just got a promotion to Sports Director – which he’ll be fantastic at. Congrats, Perk! Now it was time to find the 1919 root beer booth – I’ll never get enough of this stuff. It’s my favorite root beer.

We walked around a bit and found the animal barn. I claim I like to go here to watch animal surgery – which they have set up in a sterile booth with cameras and then bleachers outside it to watch the action. But the real reason I like it there is I get to pet the cute dogs. Sure it isn’t cool and it isn’t tough-guy, but I don’t care. The dogs are awesome. This year, the Great Pyrenees stole the show. Beautiful dogs.

After a quick swing through the fine arts building, we eventually found our way to the International Bazaar. One of the new items they had this year at the Midtown Global Market booth was Camel Burgers. UncleDumDum wanted to try one, since he had already ridden a camel at the Minnesota Zoo a few days earlier (I’ll see if I can score a photo). He grabbed one and had it cut in half so we could split it. The sandwich could use some sauce or something, since the meat itself is a little bit dry. It’s got a decent flavor, so it isn’t bad, and I will say it’s way better than the camel on a stick I had last year at the fair.

We headed to the Holy Land Deli (one of our favorite places in the Twin Cities anyway). D.Rough got a gyro on a stick, which ended up looking like a gyro steak on a stick. I’ve never had gyro meat cut this thick and I was worried it wouldn’t be crispy like I like it. But it honestly was a good piece of gyro meat (did I mention it is on a stick?), especially paired with the tzatziki sauce dip that comes with it.

We had to get the lamb fries, since they were the talk of the fair. Lamb testicles! The sign says they’re grilled, but they aren’t. They’re clearly fried. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with these things, but we absolutely went for it. The balls themselves don’t taste like much, to be honest. They just taste like “fried”. Not fried meat. Not fried anything. Just fried. The Holy Land dip that comes with them gives them some flavor, but it just didn’t taste like much. So for $5, you get some bragging rights, but not much else. Meh.

Next on the docket, poutine from Duke’s Poutine. As you know I’m participating in a Twin Cities Poutine Crawl trying out all the poutine in the Twin Cities. This was basically a requirement at the fair. The fries were pretty good. I like when there are bits of potato skin on the fries for texture and flavor. The gravy was a little lack luster and bland (still salty, but not much meat or even gravy flavor). But the real winner was the curds. We all ended up fighting over them. Very tangy and held their shape in the heat of the gravy and fries, but had the squeak that lets you know they’re serious. This was a pretty solid dish of poutine, especially for a fair truck.

Right across the street from the Poutine truck was the Icee truck. I had to get one – blue and red mixed. Nothing fancy, especially considering we walked by an Icee truck earlier that had like 10 different flavors. But I would have gotten these two flavors anyway – I’m old school - so what was the point? Delicious. And now, Coach is jealous.

We needed to rest our feet from walking, so we popped into the air-conditioned coliseum to watch the bull judging. Sure it isn’t action packed, but it’s just the thing you need after a morning of walking and eating.

We had to get Scotch Eggs – a hardboiled egg encased in deep fried sausage. I really like these monstrosities and get them whenever I see them. This year, the one we got was a bit dried out, even though I drenched the thing in maple syrup (they have other more normal sauces to put on them, but I like syrup). Just ok, this year.

PalmMapper was finally worn down by the cheese curds signs. You can only walk by cheese curd booths so many times without stopping to buy some and she had reached her limit. I’m not even sure which booth she got these at. They were delicious, as always. They could have been fried a bit longer in my opinion, but a deep fried cheese curd is a good thing, no matter how you look at it.

Deep Fried Pickles from The Perfect Pickle were next. I love these things. We get the sampler pack – regular, Cajun, and cream cheese-stuffed. These things are always delicious – today was no different. And they have Dew at their booth, which is a bonus for me.

We headed into Heritage Village so Rita could try this new beer from Schell’s Brewery – it’s a Shocked Radler, which means it’s beer with Grapefruit in it. UncleDumDum was unsure about trying it, but he tried it and liked it. …And then we spend much of the remainder of their trip going to Twin Cities liquor stores trying to find it (it isn’t in bottles until next year). Good stuff, according to everyone who tried it. I was still drinking my dew. But we did get photos of D.Rough and Rita hanging with the raccoons and hyenas.

I was feeling desserty – which doesn’t happen often. I needed a cannoli from Ole’s Cannoli (pronounced like Oleee, not Olé like in a bullfight – though it still cracks me up when I hear it pronounced that way). I’m man enough to get sprinkles on my dessert – and I’m glad I did. The fried shell of this cannoli was a little thicker than most I’ve had, so it was difficult to break into pieces, but the flavor of it was just right, so I’m not complaining. Also, the mascarpone cheese filling was spot on to the hundreds I’ve had in Italy and Sicily, so kudos to Ole for nailing it!

It was time for beer flights back at the Ag building. The ag building (pronounced “AYG building” in Minnesota)(I got told I wasn’t allowed to make fun of Minnesota accents while AT the MN State Fair – it’s apparently an unwritten law, enforceable by punching) had a huge exhibit on hops since home brewing is so popular now. This also created an absolute madhouse for trying to get tickets and get in line for the beer flights. They had four different sets/flights of beers from Minnesota: Dark, Light, Belgian, and something else I can’t remember. You can’t mix and match, so I went with the Belgians. All were delicious, however, you have no idea what you’re drinking. The cups aren’t labeled at all, so it’s almost pointless, unless you’re only hoping for four small cups of beer for $8. Next year will be better… right guys? Better system? Just a hint…

Teriyaki Ostrich on a stick at Chinatown in the food building. Looked like a meat lollipop, actually. And surprisingly, this was pretty delicious. The meat itself was much better than other ostrich I’ve had (sounds weird to say, but yes, I’ve had other ostrich), but it was better without the teriyaki dipping sauce. We almost went back for more of the ostrich.

D.Rough swears by the cheese curds at the Mouth Trap in the food building. So we scored some. They were better than the curds we had earlier, if only because they were fried a bit longer to get crispy. Delicious.

UncleDumDum had never had lefse before (it’s a potato pancake – a Swedish thing), so he popped in to Lynn’s Potato Lefse and got one filled with lingonberries. I like these things but only enough to eat some if someone offers. I don’t think I’d order one for myself. It’s a little bit dry and could always use more filling in my opinion. But if you’re Swedish, I’ve heard these are the holy grail of lefse. I could take it or leave it.

You’ll notice, up to this point, I haven’t done anything with bacon. I’m not an addict. I can stop anytime I want. I don’t need bacon all the time. That being said, I DOOOO love the bacon on a stick at Big Fat Bacon. So we grabbed one. The bacon is super thick and deep fried. You can also put this delicious chipotle orange glaze on it, which I highly recommend. I really like these, even though they’re nothing fancy. They’re just fantastic.

D.Rough and I tried the sweet corn ice cream last year at Blue Moon. It’s really good, and really weird. But we liked it enough to try it again, since we were near it. This year, we got cayenne peanuts on it, instead of the honey bacon glaze. I like this much better. The ice cream actually has pieces of sweet corn in it, as well as some corn nuts – which is a brilliant touch, I might add. The dish is about the perfect size to split with someone. UncleDumDum wasn’t a big fan, but the rest of us ate it ALLLLLLL.

We passed by Luigi’s and I mentioned they have the best Hot Dago on a Stick ever. UncleDumDum had never had one, so I said it might be worth it (although he should also have a real hot dago sandwich from a restaurant). It was. These things are sooo good here. Garlic breadstick, meatball, garlic breadstick, meatball, garlic breadstick, meatball, garlic breadstick – then cover it all with mozzarella cheese and bake it. Then serve it with marinara sauce. Man, these things are awesome.

Back for more 1919!!! This time, a large.

And another repeat from last year – the Yankee Apple Pie Chocolate Sandwich. The whole things sounds horrific, but it honestly is one of my favorite things to get here. It’s apple pie filling and some chocolate sauce cooked between two slices of bread until toasted. Then cover the thing with powdered sugar (which apparently gets all over your black shirt while eating, especially if it’s windy). I’m glad we got this on the way out of the fair, or I might have gotten two. They’re fantastic.

I think I can safely say we did some damage at the 2012 Minnesota State Fair. I’m not sure if it was amazeballs enough for UncleDumDum to come back and do it again, but I had a blast hanging out with my awesome family. We like to eat, and I’m sure we eased into the five-digit calorie zone for the day. Thankfully, I only let myself do that once a year. Then I start training for next year!!!!!!

Top 5 things at the 2012 Minnesota State Fair
1. Hanging with my sister and brother-in-law
2. Yankee Apple Pie Chocolate Sandwich
3. Hot Dago on a Stick
4. 1919 Root Beer
5. Poutine (especially the cheese curds)

Bottom 5 things
1. Beer flight debacle
2. Lamb Fries – still, I now have bragging rights
3. Camel Burger
4. Scotch Egg
5. Severe lack of cute puppies in the animal barn

Detail: 2012 Minnesota State Fair – St. Paul, MN