Ok, in my opinion the Minnesota State Fair should have the word “FOOD”added to the title…right between the “State” and the “Fair”.  Yes, the Minnesota State Food Fair. 

Mrs. Bemidjimike and myself attended the “Great Minnesota Get Together” on Labor Day for the first time in about 3 years. Growing up in St. Paul, my family went every year. I even worked at the fairgrounds in high school, so I am quite familiar with the event. I can tell you where most everything is, from the vibrating massage pillow booth in the Grandstand to the Gedney Pickle hat booth in the Creative Activities Building.

Any article about the fair needs to include food. So much has been written this year its hard to come up with something new. And it seems everything needs to be on a stick. So I was taken back walking through the food building when I saw my ”pick of the fair” food sitting on a pan and not even on a stick. Corn Dog Pizza.

How could the local media overlook this gem? Take a staple favorite like pizza and put slices of halves of corn dogs as a topping. It works together like cream and sugar. I want meat on my pizza and why not a nutrious hot dog. And when I eat my corn dog, I smother it in tomato ketchup…so why not tomato pizza sauce. I am telling you this was a find…a sleeping hidden gem. Don’t be surprised if Papa Murphy’s have it on their menu by this Sunday!

Next is my pick for ”State Fair Next Big Thing” award. This goes to a booth at the Grandstand selling canvas collapsable shopping carts. These are not the old wire/metal mesh carts that grandma use to have. They are canvas, bright colors, full of pockets and at the fair only $20. They were selling them like hotcakes and as I walked the we observed many of them being toted by young and old alike. As stated in an earlier blog, plastic shopping bags are being banned in many areas and its enviromentally “cool” to tote your cart around the mall. You heard it here first.

 

  Finally my most annoying thing at the State Fair award. This goes to the category of “modern baby strollers”.  As the father of 3 kids (including identical twins) I have pushed my share of strollers. Is it just me, or are baby strollers getting bigger, uglier, more obtrusive and more annoying or am I just getting old?  What happened to the old one seater collapsable stroller you’d keep in the trunk for events like the fair? Now they are wider, taller, higher, longer, as big as a Volkswagon Beetle, and parents come racing towards you with them using them as a plow to get through crowds. I think I actually saw one at the fair with a dashboard which included a dvd player! I think next will be headlights, turn signals, bumpers and a hard top. Maybe the State of Minnesota ought to consider licensing them for revenue!