We sampled the Sligo Slider Bites and tried the new tots. We dug through plates of peri-peri chicken, sucked down sparkling lemonade, and yes—oh, gods above and demons below, yes—we tried the Pickle Pie. And after a long, hot, sweaty day, we have returned to bring you the definitive guide to the official new foods and vendors of the 2026 Minnesota State Fair.
As always, we’ve evaluated the new fair foods according to our peerless, pitiless Scarf!, Shrug, Skip system. (Accept no substitutes.) Did the mustache pretzel annoy us as much as we expected it to? Yep, and then some. Did O’Gara’s disappoint us yet again this year? Do you even have to ask? All will be revealed as you scroll through the frank and occasionally cruel (but never incorrect) reviews of the 36 official new foods and eight new vendors that follow.
All italicized menu descriptions courtesy of the fair’s PR team; all photos by us.
Deluxe Apple Fries and Iced Cold Cider
Price: $13 and $6 at Minnesota's Original Apple Fries
Minnesota's Original Apple Fries serves Apple Fries (fresh-cut apples, fried, tossed in cinnamon sugar and served with a side of caramel); Apple Fries Deluxe (larger portion of Apple Fries served with a side of caramel and whipped cream); and apple cider. All gluten-friendly and vegetarian.
How much of your day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together are you willing to budget for waiting in a single line? Ten minutes? Twenty? It took us 26 minutes and 15 seconds from the time we joined the back of the line at Minnesota’s Original Apple Fries until our fries were in hand. And I have bad news: Once word gets out about how good these things are, that wait is only going to get longer. Oh, the glory that is these fried, sweet, cinnamony treats, the crisp shells of which give way to soft slivers of red apple. You get an absolute pile of apple fries for $13, and they’re placed in a thoughtful vessel, too—a lesser vendor would slap ‘em on a plate and splash caramel and whipped cream on top, but these are separated, so they stay fresh and delicious while you walk. Now this is an apple that could tempt Eve. I hope Minnesota's Original Apple Fries, a new vendor this year, is at the fair eternally.
Verdict: Scarf!
French Chouxnut Sundae
Price: $11 at Bridgeman’s Ice Cream
Bridgeman's Salted Caramel Espresso ice cream piled atop a choux pastry donut filled with milk chocolate mousse and topped with dark chocolate fondant icing and chocolate curls. Finished with caramel drizzle, whipped cream and a cherry. (Vegetarian)
Credit where credit is due: Bridgeman’s latest State Fair food aspirant tastes homemade… in the sense that a child could have made it. The choux pastry works as a base but only because it’s so dense, and the dark chocolate fondant cracks like Magic Shell topping—not unpleasant, but an effect easily achieved at home. And that’s the issue with the French Chouxnut Sundae. Like so many of Bridgeman’s new fair foods, it just feels too much like you could assemble it yourself. Any ice cream aficionado worth their sugar is a single store-bought pastry away from creating this with ingredients they have in the house right now.
Verdict: Shrug
Butter Brew Mustache Pretzel
Price: $11 at Blue Moon Dine-In Theater
Handmade soft pretzel dough rolled in the shape of a mustache and baked. Coated in melted butter and tossed in a butter brew sugar mixture flavored with caramel, vanilla and butterscotch. Served with a side of vanilla soft-serve dip. (Vegetarian)
You’ve had a pretzel before, right? I’m not sure the folks at Blue Moon have—the “pretzel” in question is a thick, dry bread, with no discernible skin from a soda or lye treatment. Think garlic breadstick, if it was coated in cinnamon sugar—excuse me, “butter brew sugar mixture”—instead. But perhaps worse? The whole raison d'être of this goddamn gimmicky ‘stache is that it’s speared with sticks so you can hold it up in front of your face like the insufferable millennial you are and snap a photo… and our sticks were speared in the wrong side. Upside-down, the mustache looks kind of like a frown, and that’s the face this sad little lump of dough will have you making.
Verdict: Skip
Blue Moon Crunch
Price: $12 at Minnesnowii Shave Ice
Fluffy shave ice infused with blue moon flavor, dusted with Fruity Pebbles™ cereal and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. Inspired by the flavors of blue moon ice cream. (Gluten-free and Vegan upon request)
Who can say for sure what Blue Moon ice cream is? “No one can agree on what it actually tastes like; some claim it tastes of citrus with strong hits of vanilla, while others swear it is flavored with almond extract,” Food & Wine’s Khushbu Shah wrote in 2021 of the cult-favorite Midwest ice cream flavor. Still other folks claim it tastes like fruity cereal, cotton candy, or bubble gum. Maybe that’s why Minnesnowii Shave Ice’s Blue Moon Crunch is so meh. Its overwhelming flavor is a sort of sweetness that’s generic, not iconic like the ice cream that inspired it. It’s refreshing on a hot day, sure, but not the best chilly treat your money can buy.
Verdict: Shrug
Apple Donut Ham Grinder
Price: $19 at Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop
First Kiss® apples from Pleasant Valley Orchard, sliced into rings, battered, deep-fried and tossed in cinnamon sugar. Stacked with sliced uncured ham from Hidden Stream Farm, dressed arugula and drizzled with Crybaby Craig's Hot Honey, made with honey from Bolton Bees. Served with herb-whipped ricotta spread on a toasted hoagie roll from Emma Krumbee's Bakery.
So much fair food seems like something that arrived on a freezer truck in a big plastic bag. A ball of something or other, a pocket full of whatever, a fried base piled with various stuff of indeterminate and unspecific origin. Like, a sandwich with arugula and a delightfully herby cheese spread? One piled with salty sliced ham from a farm that’s mentioned by name, in this case, Hidden Stream Farm in Elgin, Minnesota? That is just not a thing you encounter outside of the Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop. Now, would I pay $19 for this sandwich in the real world? I would not. But in the dusty, hazy parallel universe of the State Fair, after you’ve been shoving hot garbage and a series of skips down your gullet for hours, I cannot emphasize how freaking good this sandwich tastes to you. Worth every penny. And I haven’t even mentioned the tasty lil First Kiss apple donuts they put on here—those should also star in their own dessert!
Verdict: Scarf! (With the caveat that a person not consuming 40+ new fair foods in a six-hour span might not feel so strongly about it.)
Banana Butterscotch Barnraiser
Price: $11 at Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop
Vanilla pound cake layered with roasted bananas, butterscotch sauce and caramelized croissant croutons made by Patisserie 46. Topped with whipped cream from Stony Creek Dairy and garnished with nut-free cereal mix made with Corn Chex®, Biscoff® cookie butter, chocolate chips, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. (Vegetarian)
On the other hand, we were shocked by how forgettable this Banana Butterscotch Barnraiser was. While the photo on the menu shows a healthy garnish of puppy chow on top, it was noticeably absent from ours. And that’s a real shame, because without that much-needed crunch, this thing didn’t have much going on texturally. It tasted fine, but could’ve used more butterscotch; banana was the dominant flavor, which is really saying something, because banana is barely the dominant flavor in a banana. If you’re already planning on standing in the (very long) Farmers Union line, it’s a decent add-on item, but it’s certainly not worth the wait on its own.
Verdict: Shrug
Two-Tone Bloody Mary Mocktail
Price: $9 at Urban Glow Mocktails
Homemade tomatillo salsa layered with a zero-alcohol blend of tomatoes, herbs, spices and olive brine. Garnished with a skewer of pickle, cheese, tomato, olive and an Urban Glow Cheweenie™ sausage.
Ah, yes. The drink with the salsa in it. Now, as a michelada enthusiast, I can conceptualize how this alcohol-free savory drink should work, but I still think “NA bloody mary” is a bougie way to sell you cold soup in a cup. The real problem is that the Two-Tone Bloody Mary Mocktail doesn’t taste like much. It needs something brinier, something spicier, something more memorable to mix up its aggressively tomatoey taste. Speaking of mixing up, this got better when we stirred it so the tomatillo salsa wasn’t sitting at the bottom. It got better yet when we added a splash of Urban Glow’s dill pickle lemonade. You should simply get the dill pickle lemonade, friend.
Verdict: Skip
Shakshuka Lamb Meatballs
Price: $16 at French Meadow Bakery & Cafe
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. (Gluten-free upon request)
Technically, these meatballs are tasty. Technically. Clearly balled by hand, they boast distinct lamb notes and contain generous pockets of flavorful goat cheese. (Any evidence of flash-frying was absent from our dish, but whatever; ditto for the chimichurri dusting on the crispy crostini.) The question you must ask yourself: Do you want heavy, hot, saucy food amid the sweltering heat and barnyard aromas of the fair? Some might. Others, like us, struggle with the idea of a pipin’-hot gut-bomb in this setting, even if the execution is on-point. If you get it, split the balls (youch!) with a pal who appreciates Maghrebi cuisine.
Verdict: Shrug
Dubai Whoopie Pie
Price: $13 at Dino's Gyros
Dubai chocolate-inspired whoopie pie made with pistachio cream sandwiched between two dark chocolate cakes. Rolled in Dino's Dubai crunch topping of shredded filo, crushed pistachios, honey and brown sugar. (Vegetarian)
Social media trend-chasing always feels a little lame, and we were subjected to bad/astronomically expensive Dubai chocolate at last year’s fair. Dino’s take tastes better, but dry, cakey discs filled with grainy chocolate do not a killer dessert make. Choosing your sweet treat at the fair shouldn’t be done lightly—you gotta ace a rare calorie indulgence like that. And with so many better (see: this year’s outstanding Apple Fries), there’s no reason to pick the Dubai Whoopie Pie. Similar, you could say, to how there’s no reason for a desert playground for the ultra-elite to be built via modern-day slavery, but, please, let’s not get political.
Verdict: Skip
Chorizo Manchego Croquettes
Price: $12 at Paella Depot
Spanish-style potato croquettes filled with manchego cheese and Spanish chorizo. Lightly breaded, fried and garnished with chives. Drizzled with homemade lemon garlic aioli. (Gluten-free)
Here’s a dump from our critic’s notebook: “paste-like,” “goop,” “hot Play-Doh,” “mush,” “falls to pieces when you pick it up,” “not flavorless, but off-putting.” So yeah, Minnesotans can confidently skip what Paella Depot bills as “the hotdish of Spain.” And let it be known! If a Spaniard said disparaging things about our state’s beloved tater tots and ground beef, it’d get a little 1898 up in here, if you catch our threat of war/drift.
Verdict: Skip
Honey Brisket Battered Potatoes
Price: $22 at Australian Battered Potatoes
Deep-fried Australian Battered Potatoes topped with beef brisket, smothered in nacho cheese and drizzled with hot honey.
Twenty-two dollars. Twenty. Two. Dollars. TWENTY… TWO… DOLLARS?! What are we even doing here, folks? What rung of late-capitalism hell have we entered where freaking crispy-fried spuds topped with a few thimbles worth of gummy, smoky, too-sweet beef bits requires a small mortgage to afford? I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to write a letter to the prime minister of Australia to let him (or her, too mad to research) know that this stand is dragging his (or her) country’s name through the mud. I’m sure there are other injustices occurring in the world today (again, too mad to research), but right now, in this moment? I’m choking with rage over the spiteful pricing Australian Battered Potatoes pulled here. TWENTY-TWO DOLLARS!!!
Verdict: Skip
Babe’s Lemonade and Megalodon
Price: $9 each at dodopop
Dodopop serves dirty sodas in six flavors: megalodon (Dr Pepper® – diet available, raspberry syrup and coconut cream); golden yeti (orange pop, vanilla syrup and vanilla cream); liger (lemonade, Starry™ and cherry syrup); big red dog (Pepsi – diet available, cherry, vanilla syrup and vanilla cream); sasquatch (root beer, vanilla syrup and vanilla cream); and babe's lemonade (sparkling lemonade, blue raspberry syrup and raspberry popping pearls).
*Sighs deeply* We knew we’d have to confront the dirty soda trend eventually, and I went in ready to tear it a critical new one. You’d better believe I had “MORE LIKE DOO DOO POOP” locked and loaded. And then… um. I kind of liked it? I mean, I really liked it. We ordered Babe’s Lemonade first at the recommendation of the kind young person manning the tablet, and it was sweet, but not overly so, and really refreshing. We went back for something more true to the dirty soda ethos—the Megalodon, with Dr. Pepper, raspberry, and coconut cream—and really liked that, too. As a person who will drink 1,000 beers or eat a bag of Nerds Gummy Clusters but never dream of touching a full-sugar can of Coke, dirty soda gets what’s missing. If you’re going to drink a soda, it should be so sweet that it feels sinful.
Verdict: Scarf!
Hmong Corndog
Price: $16 at Union Hmong Kitchen
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.
Because we’re paid to keep track of such things, let me regale you with the Joseph Campbellian hero’s journey of Hmong Union Kitchen at the fair. Chef Yia Vang dazzled during his 2022 debut, built on that success the following year, and then, to our horror, delivered a dud with 2024’s Grilled Purple Sticky Rice. We lauded Vang for his comeback last year, the delectable Shrimp & Pork Toast On-A-Stick, and the idea of a Hmong Corndog created in collaboration with Kramarczuk's has had us drooling ever since its July reveal. We’re pleased to report the tender, juicy, expertly fried, flavorfully complex, and genuinely spicy treat represents yet another UHK win—with a small structural caveat. The sweet, cakey batter kept falling off our sausages, much to the dismay of an International Bazaar shopkeep whose stand we sullied with dough scraps. We’re confident they’ll course correct before Labor Day. Oh, yeah! That citrus Kua Txob sauce, man. Mr. Yang, we’re calling on you to bottle the tremendous green stuff and sell it.
Verdict: Scarf!
Jamaican Jerk Chicken Loaded Fries
Price: $15 at Midtown Global Market's Irie Jamaican Express
Battered french fries topped with Jamaican jerk chicken, melted cheese and green onions. Drizzled with ranch and jerk sauce. (Aug. 27 to Sept. 1 only)
The Somali street fries from Midtown Global Market's Oasis Grill were one of the best things we ate at the fair last year, so we had high hopes that Irie’s jerk chicken loaded fries would live up to the stand’s loaded-fry pedigree. Alas, there’s only room for one loaded fair fry at the top, and this year’s just ain’t it. While the fries themselves were crispy and well-seasoned, the toppings were a total letdown. The ranch and jerk sauce tasted fine, but the jerk was a little far on the Minnesota side of the spice scale. The chicken itself was the most disappointing part. Ours was cold, unseasoned, and looked to be the same chicken you’d find at a salad bar. It was so bland even the obviously canned nacho cheese sauce couldn’t save it. Overall, these fries just tasted like a Sysco special, and your fair experience is better off without them.
Verdict: Skip
When Pigs Fly
Price: $14 at Sausage Sister & Me
Flight of pork sausages wrapped in puff pastry and served on-a-stick. Varieties include: Chorizo Sausage with chimichurri; Texas Two-Step Sausage with sweet pepper coleslaw; Oktoberfest Sausage with melted cheddar and chili crunch; and Porketta Italian Sausage with pickle aioli.
It seems 2026 is the year of the sausage at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, with multiple new foods and vendors showcasing well… casings. That’s a little sausage humor for you. Anyway, the best sausage we had all day—yes, even better than the Hmong Corndog—was the When Pigs Fly sausage flight. The four decently-sized sausage pastries were all fantastic and felt like a steal at $14. While the sausages themselves were the star of the show, the accoutrements on each were an excellent supporting cast, particularly the chimichurri and the pickle aioli. This one is an easy scarf, and it just might be the best pig(s) in a blanket you’ll ever have.
Verdict: Scarf!
Peri-Peri Bowl
Price: $14 at Afro Deli & Grill
Fried peri-peri hot chicken, seasoned with African Bird's Eye chili peppers, garlic, lemon and herbs. Combined with mini beef sambusas and fried sweet plantains, all topped with peri-peri sauce and choice of: basbaas (spicy Somali green chili pepper sauce) or spicy red chili sauce.
Generally speaking, peri-peri chicken kicks ass, and Afro Deli’s peri-peri bowl kicks equal amounts of ass. But fair warning, this thing isn’t for the faint of heart. If Minnesota spicy is too spicy for you, you’ll probably want to skip this one, or it will kick your ass in a way you want your ass not to be kicked. If you’re a fan of real burn-your-face-off spice, then scarf like you’ve never scarfed before. At $14, the peri-peri bowl is a solid value considering how much food you get; it could easily serve as a full meal if you only want to make one stop at the fair (though why would you ever want to do that?). The mini beef sambusas are a great addition, and the plantain is ideal for cooling off between spicy bites.
Verdict: Scarf!
Sligo Slider Bites On-A-Stick
Price: $13 at O'Gara's at the Fair
Handmade dumplings stuffed with a cheeseburger blend made of beef, cheddar, pickle and onion. Skewered on-a-stick and deep-fried. Served with homemade Thousand Island dressing.
Each year, we have the highest of hopes that O’Gara’s will somehow prove our predictions wrong and finally make something worth eating. Well, in a surprise to no one, they remain undefeated as the reliably worst place to eat at the fair. To put it lightly, these things suck. How much do they suck? Here are some of the words used to describe them while we choked down just enough to get a proper taste: “skunky,” “gunk,” “skunky gunk,” and “stinky little cheeseburger.” But beyond the abysmal flavor, texture, and even smell, the thing that pissed me off the most about these things is that dumplings are already handheld. There’s absolutely no need for these little bullshit balls to be on a stick like some culinary RAS syndrome. Don’t bother using your PIN number at an ATM machine to waste your money on these deep-fried redundancies.
Verdict: Skip
Chinese Sausage & Cheese Poppers
Price: $10 at Saturday Dumpling Co.
Saturday Dumpling Co. serves Chinese Sausage & Cheese Poppers (fried dumplings with savory & sweet Chinese sausage and provolone cheese); Ube Cheesecake Wontons (deep-fried filled wontons, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and sprinkled with crushed Biscoff® cookies – vegetarian); and Salted Mango Yuzuade (mango puree, yuzu juice, salt, simple syrup – vegan).
We’re big fans of Saturday Dumpling Co. around here so we were pumped to hear that they were taking over the former Harry Singh’s stall in the Food Building for their first year at the fair. Unfortunately, the sausage and cheese poppers didn’t quite live up to what we’ve come to expect from SDC. While they had great flavor, there just wasn’t enough of it, and they were a bit too bready. That said, while writing this, a friend texted me from the fair to say, “Ube wonton slapped my cock off,” and that “they were the best new thing I remember having in forever,” so maybe just order that from Saturday Dumpling Co. instead.
Verdict: Shrug
Strawberry Ube Sundae Tart
Price: $10 at Sara’s Tipsy Pies
Swirled strawberry and ube marshmallow cream mixed with chocolate chips, chilled and scooped into a fudge-filled gluten-friendly shortbread crust. Topped with whipped cream, strawberry sauce and edible glitter sprinkles. (Gluten-friendly)
Coco Chanel could’ve had a field day at the fair, wielding her old maxim about “taking one thing off” like a cudgel up and down Dan Patch Avenue. So many of these new foods are just doing too much! Exhibit A is the Strawberry Ube Sundae Tart. Ube is the top-billed star, but despite the swirl serving as a perfect intro for newbies to the vibrant purple yam’s sweet and mellow flavor, you’ve gotta dig through layers of marshmallow cream, a nostalgia-thick strawberry goo, basic-ass chocolate chips, sprinkled dots of edible gold glitter, and a dense fudgy chilled tart base to get at it. Each component is fine on its own, but they end up competing with each other in a messy melee. It’s a fine sweet treat that could’ve been so much more… if only it had done less.
Verdict: Shrug
Bucket of Chicharrones
Price: $12 at San Felipe Tacos
Freshly deep-fried chicharrones (pork rinds) sprinkled with chili pepper and lime seasoning. Served with a trio of dipping sauces: hot sauce, creamy chipotle sauce and chamoy.
SKIN is IN for 2026, baby! Each trough of “piggy puffs,” as a stranger in line described them, arrives crisped to order, impeccably seasoned with Tajín, and piled high into a bucket for convenient and savory on-the-go snacking. We love living in a world where deep-fried pork skin shape-shifts into a delight that’s crunchy as can be and fluffier than a cloud. A classic trio of dipping sauces is available for those who insist on gilding their lilies. Just one note for improvement: We’d also like to eat the bucket, please. Ideally next year you could make that from chicharrones too? Thanks in advance, wow.
Verdict: Scarf!
Cracklin' Corn Ribs
Price: $15 at Blue Barn
Corn cob quarters dipped in tempura batter, then fried. Brushed with seasoned butter and topped with bacon ranch, green onion and candied jalapeños. Served on a bed of pork rinds.
Goddamn, Blue Barn, these babies rip! The quartered corn cobs were grilled to smoky perfection before getting dunked-and-fried in a whisper-lite tempura batter. They come served atop a bed of crispy and toothsome pork rinds (see again: YEAR OF SKIN) and drizzled in a restrained and balanced pair of rich (butter) and tangy (ranch) sauces. The candied jalapeños do more than the average garnish: Ours packed proper heat! Also we learned the hard way that unless you’re fibermaxxing the move is to nibble the corn off the cob instead of eating the whole thing…or maybe you already knew that, in which case don’t judge us, OK?
Verdict: Scarf!
It’s Just Plain Fucking French Fries
Price: $9 to $20 at Solem's French Fries
Solem's French Fries serves fresh-cut french fries in four sizes with a dedicated sauce bar offering a variety of self-serve spices and dipping sauces. Plus, fresh-squeezed, frozen lemonades, fountain sodas and bottled water. Fries are gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan.
This is a scam!! The only thing Solem's French Fries sells is plain, humble french fries in various sized containers. Prices start at NINE U.S. DOLLARS for the smallest cup (pictured), which holds approximately one (1) potato. In exchange, Solem’s offers 10 pump-your-own sauces, Cajun seasoning from Restaurant Depot, and ketchup that isn’t even Heinz. And these boring-ass spuds are being peddled from behind one long counter shared with Solem’s marquee truck, which has been selling buckets of cheese curds on Machinery Hill for years. All sodas literally come from the cheese curd truck! Need a sweet treat? Try Solem’s mini donut outfit, located just behind the suburb of Solem’s savory franchises. Inquiring mouths need to know WHO on the State Fair board is getting paid to label french fries a “new food” and Solem’s a “new vendor!” GTFOH.
Verdict: Skip
Longanisa Cheese Curd Lumpia
Price: $14 at Lumpia City
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.
We arrived at the (long but fast!) line for lumpia with high hopes based on last year’s debut performance by the folks at Lumpia City. This year’s creation again showcased a knack for achieving consistently perfect crunchy bites, but their savory longanisa and cheese filling wasn’t the hit it could have been. With generous curds and a prominent, porky sausage flavor, we agreed that the only thing missing was… seasoning. The side of sweet chili sauce goes a long way toward helping the cause, but just doesn’t quite make up for the dish’s unsalted insides. Still want to give their lumpia a shot? Maybe one of the 2025 stunners that returned to the menu for a victory lap is a more solid move.
Verdict: Shrug
Brandy Old Fashioned Cookie Dough
Price: $12 ($13 if paying with a credit card) at Kora & Mila's Cookie Dough
Edible cookie dough infused with nonalcoholic brandy flavor and combined with orange zest, cinnamon, dark chocolate chips and tart dried cherries. Served on-a-stick, hand dipped in brandy-flavored bittersweet chocolate, and rolled in Biscoff cookie crumbs. (Vegetarian)
Brandy old fashioned is a classic, Wisconsonite-guzzled cocktail. Raw cookie dough from a tube is top-tier drunk food. Is this a match made in heaven? No, it is not. What we’ve got here is a very confusing confection with a lot of competing flavors. The hard coating tastes like those chocolate orange balls they sell at Christmas. The cinnamon-spiced dough, studded with chunks of dried cherries, has an odd, stale fruitcake flavor. The Biscoff cookie crumbs are too scant to make an impact. It’s just all too much.
Verdict: Skip
Elote Tots
Price: $9–$18 at Tot Boss
Deep-fried tater tots tossed in Tajín and topped with an elote-style sauce made with roasted corn, diced peppers, cheddar cheese, crema and cream cheese. Finished with cotija cheese and more Tajín. (Vegetarian)
There were two lines at Tot Boss on Thursday, and both stretched down the street. It’s hard to mess up a tot; the bag in your freezer right now is probably just as tasty as the apps you order at a dive bar. That said, tots are also hard to elevate, and these were just fine. The cheese tastes like it came from a nacho pump, and has a bit of a jalapeño tang. The tots are hot and salty, the corn is barely noticeable, and the Tajín is in attendance.
Verdict: Shrug
Strawberries & Blueberry Creme Parfait
Price: $14 (cash only) at Strawberries 'N Creme
Fresh whole strawberries layered with blueberry non-dairy whipped topping and garnished with gluten-free waffle chips. (Gluten-friendly, vegan)
For years, the folks at Strawberries 'N Creme have been sticking fresh strawberries in a cup, topping it with a Cool Whip-like topping, and calling it a day. This year, they tinkered with the original recipe, adding a bit of blueberry flavoring and color to the dairy-free stuff. It’s nice, with a surprising bit of tartness, and there’s a generous amount of strawberries here. Whether or not you think adding blueberry to whipped cream, slapping that in between—what, seven strawberries?—and calling it a day is worth the, uh, not exactly reasonable price is up to you. It's a timid new food entry, barely tweaked from the stand's trademark dish.
Verdict: Shrug
Strawberry and Grape Tanghulu
Price: $14 for the mixed fruit variety; $12 single fruit at Lemochi Japanese Confections
Lemochi Japanese Confections serves Tanghulu (fruit skewered and coated in a hard candy shell) in four varieties: strawberry, green grape, Mandarin orange, and dual-mix with strawberries and grapes. All Tanghulu is gluten-free.
And speaking of pricey fruits… Originally a sweet treat from China, tanghulu is a simple confection where fresh fruit is skewered on a stick, covered in melted sugar, and dunked into an ice bath. The resulting hard, glossy shell makes the fruits look like jewels, and there’s a satisfying crunch when your teeth break through that exterior. It tastes great, too, because you really can’t go wrong with fruit encased in sugar. However, this thing is pure profit on a stick. The cracking sensation of teeth on glassy sugar feels neat. Paying $2 per sugar-coated grape does not.
Verdict: Shrug
Dill with it, Cookie!
Price: $5 at Urban Glow Mocktails
White chocolate chips, finely chopped dill pickles and fresh dill baked into a cookie. Finished with a sprinkle of sugar and Maldon sea salt. Created by Holman's Table. (Vegetarian)
Break this cookie in half and you’ll see generous chunks of pickle throughout. That’s not the scary part—the scary part is, you won’t taste even a hint of pickled goodness. You might get a whisper of dill on the back end, but the dominant flavor here is white chocolate. It’s actually a decent cookie: soft, warm, and not overly sweet. But if you come to Urban Glow looking for a briny freak show you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
Verdict: Skip
Korean BBQ Bao Buns
Price: $9 at Rooted & Wild by Snack House
Vegan Chunk plant-based shredded "meat" tossed in hot Korean barbecue sauce. Topped with pineapple slaw and served on folded, steamed bao buns. (Vegan)
The world may be getting worse in countless appreciable ways, but meat substitutes seem to improve constantly. Are food engineers the last scientists innovating worth a damn? Maybe! But impressive is one thing, delicious another. If you’re a vegan looking for a “meaty” treat, or you’re keen to hoodwink a carnivorous companion, Rooted & Wild is a good option. Any new food that’s priced in the single digits is worth a second look. But the bun (bao was everywhere this year) was a bit dry, the tasty slaw was stingy with the advertised pineapple, and the BBQ was good, not great.
Verdict: Shrug
Tacos de Mole
Price: $15 at El Burrito Mercado
Flour tortillas filled with shredded chicken, cheese and house-made mole sauce. Deep-fried, drizzled with more mole sauce and garnished with queso fresco.
Even if you’re one of those provincial Minneapolitans who treats St. Paul as a distant locale, and the West Side as the part of the map where there be dragons, you should get to El Burrito Mercado one of these days. The restaurant has done nothing to tarnish its reputation here: Rich mole, crunchy tortilla, savory innards, queso as fresco as advertised, all are go. But honestly, we’d rather enjoy one of these as part of a larger sit-down meal. Though pastry-like, they’re too messy to pick up, while the tortillas resist being cut with a plastic fork. Such considerations are important at the fair.
Verdict: Shrug
Strawberry Crunch Mini Donuts
Price: $15 at Solem's Mini Donuts
Strawberry donuts dusted with vanilla sugar, drizzled with vanilla icing and topped with homemade strawberry streusel crunch. Served in a bucket rimmed with vanilla icing and more streusel crunch. (Vegetarian)
If you’re a little kid, please stop reading Racket. We have sex and weed columns, and, quite frankly, we doubt your jobless butt ponied up for a subscription. But if you insist on finishing this review blurb, we can recommend the annual over-of-the-top riff on mini donuts, which this year tastes uncannily like sugary breakfast cereal. Adult readers? The Strawberry Crunch Mini Donuts are not for you; at your age, mainlining this unholy amount of sugar could send you to the morgue or, more likely, the dentist. Be a grownup—get Tom Thumb Mini Donuts, just like you do every year.
Verdict: Skip
Crack-n-Cheese® Bowl and Soul Roll
Price: $17 and $8 at Jive Turkey BBQ
Homemade macaroni and cheese, hickory-smoked turkey barbecue, deep-fried turkey cracklins and signature sauce; macaroni and cheese with collard greens deep-fried in an egg roll.
*Nikki from Obsession voice* No no no. No no no no no no no no. Deciding that the $35 shrimp-stuffed turkey leg was a budget-buster, we chose what seemed like signature offerings from this new vendor. And… If someone told you “this meat is really sweet” you’d think you’d know what you’re in for, but each of us said that before passing the bowl along and still not one of us was prepared. We don’t know what kind of crack they’re talking about here, but it sure ain’t the addictive stuff. As for the Soul Roll, it’s a neat concept—mac and cheese with collard greens—that needs a lot of work in the “something you actually want to eat” department. You’ve got nothing to worry about, Turkey to Go.
Verdict: Skip
Caramel Apple Iced Tea
Price: $9 at Loon Lake Iced Tea
Black tea brewed with natural tart apple flavor and topped with caramel-infused cold foam. Garnished with a Caramel Apple Pops® lollipop. (Gluten-friendly, Vegetarian)
It’s so much trickier to judge drinks than food. When you’re thirsty, you’re rarely asking, “What’s the absolute best drink at the fair?” (If you are, the answer is always the honey lemonade at the Ag Building.) You’re in the mood for something—sweet, carbonated, alcoholic, fruity, whatever. Well, if apple’s what you're after, this gently flavored iced tea (no sugar bomb here), with its delicate foam topping, is gonna quench ya. And the sucker clinches it. There were lots of liquid new foods, and this was among the most refreshing. One general complaint—must every fair drink be overloaded with ice? It makes draining the cup such a chore. As the saying goes, FUCK ICE.
Verdict: Shrug
Mango Sticky Rice Refresher
Price: $13 at Chan’s Eatery
Coconut milk, evaporated milk, condensed milk, mango flavoring and half and half poured over ice and topped with fresh and dried mango. Finished with a dried mango sugar rim. Inspired by the flavors of mango sticky rice. (Gluten-friendly, Vegetarian)
For all its variety of milky ingredients (coconut, condensed, evaporated) this is very much in the neighborhood of a mango lassi, in the suburbs at least, though it’s a bit less thick, a bit lighter. A tasty lassi-like refresher it is too, with lumps of fresh mango and a slab of dried mango on the side for you to gnaw on till you say man STOP. “It’s not too sweet, either,” we kept saying, as though we lived in deathly fear of drinking something too sweet. You can order with boba or without, and we’d recommend that you skip—they’re overly generous with the little fellas, to the point where they kept clogging our straw.
Verdict: Scarf!
BBQ Pulled Pork Mac
Price: $9.50 at Roon’s Savories
Roon's Savories serves hand-rolled waffle cones flavored with parmesan, cheddar and herbs. Savory Cones are available with four choices of fillings: BBQ Pulled Pork Mac (slow-smoked pulled pork layered with macaroni and cheese), Chicken Tinga & Rice (chicken and smoky tomato-chipotle sauce layered with seasoned rice – gluten-free), Classic Chicken Salad (house-made chicken salad with fresh herbs – gluten-free) and Three Cheese Mac (three cheese macaroni and cheese – vegetarian).
“Savories” covers a lot of ground, we know, but new vendor Roon’s lasers in on one particular goodie: a cone stuffed with carbs and, typically, meat. We went with the pork, which was tangy, and the cone itself served as a lightly seasoned bowl you can eat. The mac and cheese was a mite mushy though, a problem we kept running into this year. As reasonably priced options go, it’s a cute little conversation starter. But the mac and cheesers of the fair must get their collective act together, or we won’t be so lenient in the future.
Verdict: Shrug
Surf 'N' Turf Burger
Price: $16 at Cafe Caribe
Lobster tossed in garlic-herb butter stacked on a 1/3-pound seasoned grilled beef patty topped with pepper jack cheese. Drizzled with homemade chipotle mayo, served on a toasted brioche bun with a lemon wedge.
Surf and turf indeed. These poor creatures of land and sea have been rendered into versions that should never have existed on their own, much less been smashed together between a bun. A gray, mealy, dry, flavorless burger is topped with a gloopy, gloppy blend of (supposedly) chipotle mayo and small bits of lobster, which are more reminiscent of imitation crab than actual seafood, though at least that stuff can be serviceable in a sushi roll. There’s also a mostly unmelted slice of pepperjack thrown in for whatever reason. The textures don’t meld; the flavors don’t work or simply aren’t present. One taster was reduced to regretting their lack of a seafood allergy. There is no reason to order this monstrosity.
Verdict: Skip
Walking Chopped Italian Grinder
Price: $13 at Mancini's al Fresco
Chopped Italian grinder sandwich-style blend of sliced salami, pepperoncinis, green olives, artichokes, roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella pearls, tossed in Italian dressing. Layered over a bag of Dutch Crunch® Parmesan & Garlic Kettle Chips and drizzled with Calabrian chili aioli.
If you are a horse who enjoys a good salt lick but is looking for something slightly different, this may just be your new favorite fair food. Salty salami, salty peppers, and extra salty olives are coated with too much salty dressing and served over salty kettle chips. The ingredients are all fine (or better!) on their own (except maybe the dressing), but the dish overall is just giving pure salt, with occasional respite by way of fresh, creamy mozzarella pearls. And yet… it has a hint of a dangerous, addictive quality, not unlike a charming drug dealer. Yes, it’s a salt lick. And yes, at least one taster was close to developing a habit.
Verdict: Shrug
The Fried and the Furious: Cubano Drift
Price: $18 at The Herbivorous Butcher
Deep-fried Cubano-style sandwich made with a crunchy tortilla filled with vegan Cuban pork, vegan Swiss cheese, dill pickle relish, vegan garlic mayo and mustard. Served with a side of jalapeño citrus sauce. (Vegan)
Don’t be fooled by the prettily wrapped fried tortilla: Inside lies not delight but horror. The first clue was the weight of this thing, like a brick. Then came the conundrum of how to go about eating it: To pick the whole thing up was to coat one’s hands in grease, while a plastic fork was no match for the tough tortilla. In the end, Linkin Park-like, it didn’t matter: Nothing that makes a Cuban sandwich craveable was present. The description claims mustard and pickle relish, but neither was discernable (the latter is wrong anyway; sliced pickles, please!). The vegan Swiss cheese, eventually found hiding within the depths of the “meat,” was grainy and wholly unappealing. And that “meat”: There sure was a lot of it, but no Cuban seasoning seemed to make it along for the ride. The side of jalapeño citrus sauce was bright and tasty, but there was nothing worth dipping in it. There’s gotta be a better way to do fake meat for the fair.
Verdict: Skip
Dockside Poppers
Price: $12 at Summer Lakes Boat House
Seasoned cream cheese, bacon, artichoke hearts and jalapeño peppers combined, breaded and lightly fried. Served with a side of homemade tomato chili jam.
Put on your dock shoes and pop that collar, baby, we’re going to the Boat House! Not actually located on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, the new Summer Lakes Boat House sure has that vibe. There are sunny signs, abundant boat décor, and dock pilings connected by thick ropes acting as line dividers. And in addition to an official new food, this new vendor has six (!) beverages on the fair’s Specialty Sips list. But don’t let the preppies keep a good thing to themselves, as Molly Ringwald might say: The Dockside Poppers rock. Their nicely crispy breading encases a perfectly balanced blend of flavors: just a bit of spice, just the right amount of cream cheese, yummy bits of bacon and artichoke throughout. The “homemade tomato chili jam” is basically extra-sweet ketchup, but no dipping sauce is needed or wanted here.
Verdict: Scarf!
Pumpkin Bar Funnel Cake
Price: $12 at Taulelle's Jurassic Corn Dogs
Real pumpkin, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla blended with original funnel cake batter, then deep-fried. Lightly brushed with melted butter and topped with homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting. (Vegetarian)
Some people might say that it’s a little too early, or way too late, for pumpkin-spice flavors. These people are wrong, at least in the case of the Pumpkin Bar Funnel Cake. The heady scent wafting off the cake before we even tasted it boded well, and the first bite confirmed: Seasonality and trend-savviness be damned, this is delicious! The fried dough is crispy yet tender, just a little heavier than traditional funnel cake in a way that absolutely works (probably from the real pumpkin!). The flavor is gourd-forward but not overwhelming, and the cinnamon cream cheese frosting on top should be the envy of cinnamon rolls everywhere.
Verdict: Scarf!
Bao Belly
Price: $16 at RC’s BBQ
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.
“Why don’t they like to cook meat here?” This was one taster’s query as we sampled the bao belly. Once again, RC’s has nailed the flavors but failed at, you know, preparing the meat. This thick slab of pork belly ate like an unappealingly jumbo slice of bacon: too thick and chewy to bite through on one side, unrendered fat wholly intact on the other. It shouldn’t require canine incisors to enjoy a cute little sandwich. The bao itself was nice, springy and not too thick, but that plus tasty sauce and perky pickled vegetables could not save the experience.
Verdict: Skip
Sweet Peach Lemonade Sparkler
Price: $8 (cash only) at Quench’d: Lemonade/Bottled Water
Fresh-squeezed lemonade layered with peach syrup and peach sweet cream cold foam. Topped with a sprinkle of popping candy and garnished with a peach slice. (Gluten-friendly, vegetarian)
We’ll say it: Too many new beverages on what is supposedly a NEW FOODS list! Now, that said, this particular beverage has a lot going for it. The tartness of the fresh lemonade is cut by the peach syrup, balancing perfectly. The sweet cream foam is a light, fluffy cloud. The pop rocks add a bit of whimsy. This sparkler isn’t overly sweet, goes down easy, and might give you a nice little sugar boost if you feel like you’re about to hit that midday fair-food coma. But of the drinks we’ve reviewed, it’s not the one we’d go for first.
Verdict: Shrug
Pickle Pie
Price: $12 at Lulu’s Public House
Pie crust filled with a blend of chopped pickles, pickle juice and cream cheese. Topped with homemade savory whipped frosting made with ranch and Cholula Hot Sauce. Garnished with a gherkin and a sprinkle of dill. (Vegetarian)
We saved this doozy for last and, well, the gang all agreed that this was punishment in food form—comeuppance and retribution for every single snide comment that we’d made throughout the day, coalesced in the shape of a chilled personal pickle pie. Her primary flavors were of paste and pain. She was cold, thick, bland… and filled with relish? The frosting was a ranch-less sour cream dyed salmon pink from the idea of Cholula. Still having trouble imagining this one? Okay so picture the worst dip you’ve ever been served at your boyfriend’s great aunt’s Easter brunch. Got it? Now imagine eating it with a fork in the summer heat. The best part of this dish was getting to spit it out.
Verdict: Skip
