State fairs have long held a reputation for deep-frying everything—even gum, Pepsi and entire sticks of butter—and putting them on a stick, but this year, one of the nation's biggest fairs is branching out into more worldly fare. Be still your crispy batter-loving heart; there's still plenty of deep-fried, skewered dishes. It's just that at the Minnesota State Fair, the focus is less on shock value, and more on presenting classic flavors with a whole new texture or presentation.
"Last year, we did deep-fried pig tail, and while it attracted a lot of attention—people were really curious about it—it wasn't on people's radar to actually eat," says Thomas Kim, chef and owner of The Rabbit Hole, a Minneapolis-based Korean restaurant that sells food at the International Bazaar section of the fair through Aug. 30 (another restaurant will fill his space for the second week of the fair's 12-day run).
This year, he chose a popular Asian street food, taiyaki, cheffing up the flavors while trying to give them a mass appeal to its largely American audience. Since the waffle cone looks like a fish, they called it Carpe Diem, to riff on "carp." A strawberry balsamic compote was used in place of the more traditional red bean and walnut paste, which they paired with vanilla bean ice cream, strawberries and crushed graham crackers.
He's not the only one mixing things up. At Blue Moon Dine-In Theater, owners Steph and Mike Olson debuted a savory twist on monkey bread—doing a cheesy, salty French Onion soup variety—and brought back its popular SnoRibbons, a popular Taiwanese dessert that involves shaving ice into thin ribbons, which gives it a frosty, cotton candy-like texture. Though the dessert itself may not look like anything most Midwesterners have seen before (the Olsons say they've only seen similar treats in California and New York, which is what inspired them to introduce it at the Minnesota State Fair three years ago), the flavor is a lot like mint chocolate chip.
At Minnesota Wine Country, donuts and deep-fried cheese go upscale-ish, being reimagined as candied bacon sliders and wine-fried brie cubes, respectively. Other popular meals, like the Minnesota staple, Hot Dish—a tater tot and meatball casserole—has been skewered and deep-fried, along with nachos supreme (with the ingredients mashed up into deep-fried balls, then coated in sour cream and guacamole), grilled cheese and Scotch eggs.
To get the scoop on all of the fair foods our editors couldn't get enough of, check out the video above. And if that's not enough for you, don't miss our top 15 list of the craziest dishes we tried. (Trust us—we tried them all, and we have the muffin tops and skyrocketing cholesterol to prove it.)
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