I feel like everyone could use a little food inspiration in their everyday life from time to time. How can you know that Protein A goes with Spices X, Y, and Z if you’ve never encountered the combination? How could you guess that Preparation B can completely change the texture, appearance, and possible applications of Ingredient C? In my latest quest for food inspiration, I embarked on a mini Fair Food Odyssey to the Minnesota State Fair. It was a really fun trip and definitely gave me a lot of ideas. Read on to see some of the cool things I tried.
The Challenge of “Recreating” Foods that You’ve Never Tried
Before I dive into my trip to the Minnesota State Fair, I should probably fill you in on the challenge I was trying to solve.
There are a large number of really interesting foods that I had either never encountered or never wanted to try in my life before keto and dietary restrictions. So now I see these really interesting foods and want to make a version of them that I can eat. What we’ve found is that while whatever I come up with is often quite tasty, naming it after the original form that inspired me can set a wrong expectation for someone eating my creation. Basically, I often wind up creating what I think it should taste like rather than a new version of the original that meets certain dietary constraints.
My Quest to Find Interesting Fair Food to “Recreate”
The latest category of food that I’ve been dying to recreate is carnival / fair food. If you’ve ever eaten either, you know that low carb and sugar-free is not really a thing in those types of foods. However, this time rather than starting from what something sounds like and my imagination, I decided to do some empirical research.
Why the Minnesota State Fair?
My search results led me to cool new foods for this year’s Minnesota State Fair. I looked at the dates. It was running through the following week. Fate.
I hopped on a plane and went to the Minnesota State Fair with the sole purpose of trying as many of the really interesting fair foods as I could manage over the course of two days.
Developing an Approach and Prioritization of Foods
If you are unfamiliar with the Minnesota State Fair, it’s pretty big and there is a ton of food. Of course, there’s the normal, expected standards like corn dogs, elephant ears, funnel cakes, and so on. But I wasn’t there for that. There was also a whole world of more interesting fare. How to choose? Unfortunately, I can only eat so much, so a prioritization system was needed. Fortunately, I am exactly that kind of nerd and have the spreadsheet to prove it.
Figure 1. List of all foods of interest from the online menus with categories and prioritization.
Categorizing the Food of Interest
Needing to focus the short time that I was going to have at the fair, I had to make a plan. First, I had to do data collection to get a picture of what my options were. I couldn’t afford to just wander around and see what appealed as my first wave effort. So I combed through all of the menus for the fair which were helpfully posted on their website, and pulled out everything that sounded interesting. Then I classified each menu item into what I’ll loosely call a “Course Category”–appetizers / snacks, mains, desserts, drinks, and sides.
Prioritizing the Food of Interest
Okay, data collection done. From there I divided my list into: (1) things that I already knew what they tasted like and how I would / could put them together and (2) foods that I didn’t really know what to expect or didn’t know how they would taste. The first group I labeled as “Get a Picture”. The second group I labeled as “Eat”.
As you can imagine, the “Eat” list was still really long, so I made a 5 tier prioritization system, making sure I had some “1”s and “2”s from each “Course Category”.
Figure 2. Fair Food Prioritization Process
I know that this sounds a bit absurd so far. For your entertainment, I should also reiterate that I had the idea for this trip less than 2 days before I got on a plane. (Fortunately, I love to travel and doing so at the drop of a hat doesn’t phase me. Thank you, years in consulting.)
Rating the Foods / Drinks That I Tried
Absurdity aside, I also knew that I needed to have concrete information to work with coming out of this trip. So I put together a little rating system to evaluate everything I tried on a 1 to 10 scale across the following categories:
- Appearance
- Flavor
- Texture
- Cohesion of Dish
- Overall Enjoyment
Plus I made more qualitative notes as I went.
Figure 3. An overview of each category evaluated as part of the rating.
Figure 4. Rating Scale for evaluating Fair Food.
When you’re trying food with the objective of recreating it and / or transforming it, you need both the quantitative and qualitative information. It might be a month before you get to experimenting on a certain dish. At that point, notes and ratings become very important; because I don’t know about you, but my memory just isn’t that good.
What I Ate On My Fair Food Odyssey to the Minnesota State Fair
Okay, now that you know the setup, on to the good part–the food. I’ll give you the rundown of the things that I tried. Then, in a couple of follow-up posts, you can see the experimentation I have to go through to figure out how to recreate some of these items within the confines of dietary restrictions.
Figure 5. My Fair Food Ratings. Note: The Nitro Cold Brew and Cold Pressed Red Currant Iced Tea are not shown below. They both looked and tasted exactly as you might expect and so didn’t get a full write up.
Soulsicle – Southern Version
Description: fried chicken on-a-stick, candied yam sauce, cornbread crumble, mac-and-cheese seasoned cheddar cheese, hot sauce, green onions
Notes: This is one of my MVPs of the trip. It was awesome and definitely the best thing I had on Day 1. All the components can be tasted in spite of the breading. The breading is good, but I can see remaking it without the breading just fine. Instead of candied yam sauce, I’ll probably use pumpkin with swerve brown. Don’t skip the hot sauce on this one as it helps to balance the sweet and breading. Note to Self: I shouldn’t skip the green onions either.
Choco-Nuts Baba (Hummus Bowl with Pita Puffs)
Description: hazelnut chocolate hummus, chocolate chips, hazelnuts, shredded coconut & bananas, served with BBQ dry rub pita puffs
Notes: In the original description, these were noted as being served with powdered sugar pita puffs. Either that was a misprint or someone putting things together didn’t get the memo. Either way, I’m so glad I got it with the BBQ dry rub pita puffs instead. That was honestly the thing that made this dish so interesting. This was my #2 of Day 1.
– Surprisingly really good. The hummus tones down the chocolateness a bit.
– Presentation was appealing and well done.
– The hummus texture becomes a little more noticeable when you run out of mix-ins. The mix-ins were chocolate chips, hazelnuts, coconut flakes, and banana slices.
– It’s not like chocolate pudding even though it looks like it. Nor is it like a chocolate cream cheese dip, which is probably what I would have thought of if told to make a chocolate dessert dip.
Wine Fried Brie Bites
Description: Chunks of brie mediumly battered and deep fried. The wine is mixed in with the batter. Served sprinkled with powdered sugar and what appears to be a raspberry wine sauce or jelly.
Notes: The sauce doesn’t detract and is indeed complimentary, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The powdered sugar dusting satisfies the sweet component; however, it’s not necessary. The raspberry sauce does help to cut through the heaviness of the deep frying.
– The batter doesn’t stay crisp for long due to the moisture in the cheese. So it’s best right away for the crunchier texture.
Nitro Shandy Cold Brew
Description: Nitro cold brew coffee, lemonade, lavender syrup
Notes: Normally, this isn’t made with nitro; that was my special request. I actually liked it, but I don’t think it would be for most people. You can taste all of the flavors and even the lemonade isn’t overpowering. The lavender syrup balances out the tartness of the lemonade. The creaminess of the nitro mellows everything in a good way.
Caramel Sweet Corn Ba-sant
Description: fresh sweet corn custard and garnished with crunchy caramel corn
Notes: Very delicious. However, the caramel corn was just sitting on top so it could fall off. The sweet corn cream was (again) super subtle and often overpowered by the dough. The only time you could really taste it was when you got a big bite of cream.
– Conclusions: While sweet & fat are complementary to the sweet corn flavor, they can overpower it quickly / easily.
Holey Hamloaf Breakfast Sandwich
Description: hamloaf, tangy glaze, caramelized onions, cheese, fried egg-in-a-hole toast
Notes: Used regular white toast, which tastes good in my opinion, but a thicker bread would look better for the appearance.
– Had nicely grilled onions that were headed toward caramelized and perfectly over-medium eggs cooked “toad in the hole” style.
– The hamloaf was like a hamburger or sausage patty. But it’s more burger than sausage because it’s not as spiced as sausage.
Hot Aztec Nectar Fudge
Description: Chocolate Fudge laced with cayenne pepper
(This was from the place that has over 80 types of fudge. I wanted to try more, but had to prioritize.)
Notes: Nice spice in the chocolate fudge. Definite kick on the finish.
Mango Rum Cheesecake Fudge
Description: A white chocolate-like fudge flavored with mango and rum
(This was from the same fudge place.)
Notes: All the sweet with the more interesting addition of the mango flavor.
Crunchy Balboa
Description: Roast beef, bacon, cheese sauce, peppers, onions, and a hashbrown patty in a deep-fried tortilla (vegan)
Notes: Changed a bit from original description. This was basically a vegan Philly cheesesteak wrapped in a giant flour tortilla (probably 2–1 tortilla for the top and one for the bottom). It contained sauteed green peppers and onions, vegan shaved “beef” (I’m guessing Beyond Meat), vegan cheese, and what was basically a hash brown with a side of seasoned vegan sour cream (which was basically like a buffalo ranch).
– The change in form factor from a regular hoagie roll and lots of onions and peppers helped to distract from any “normal” Philly Cheesesteak expectations one might have.
– The hash brown was honestly too much for me. I couldn’t finish it because it was so filling. It really was like eating a smashed tater tot wrap. In addition to making it very filling, the hash brown extravaganza also kind of muted the flavors of the rest once I got to that part of the wrap.
– The crunchiness of its shell was one of its biggest draws for me. Unfortunately, the bottom starts to get soggy pretty quickly due to the internal moisture.
Peaches and Gris Wine Slushy
Description: a peach flavored wine slushy using Pinot Gris
Notes: I mostly tasted the peach. Has a nice tart note that makes me wonder if it’s peach puree from fresh peaches. It wasn’t cloying and didn’t not burn the back of your throat with either sugar or alcohol.
Boujee Baba (Truffle & Mushroom Hummus with Pita Puffs)
Description: Truffle hummus, roasted wild mushrooms, almonds
Notes: Good flavor. I liked it, but it would have likely been too heavy on the truffle for Scar. I took a couple of texture points off due to the excess liquid from the mushrooms pooling with the truffle oil.
– Hummus texture was great.
Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Honey Dipped Bacon
Notes: The Sweet Corn Flavor was super subtle and overpowered by the honey and bacon. Could taste the sweet corn more with a bite of bacon.
A Really Big Dill Pickle Lemonade
Notes: This was basically a regular fair lemonade (full of sugar) with some pickle juice and a slice of pickle added to it. The pickle juice was a nice contrast to the sweetness. It was fine, but I probably won’t get it again.
Italian Dunker Hand Pies with Sausage, Pepperoni, Mozzarella, and Pizza Sauce & with Chicken, Mushrooms, and Garlic Alfredo Sauce
Sausage, Pepperoni, Mozzarella, and Pizza Sauce with side of Garlic Parmesan Dipping Sauce
Notes: Good but really just a mini calzone.
Chicken, Mushrooms, and Garlic Alfredo Sauce with side of Garlic Parmesan Dipping Sauce
Notes: Good but super mild on the garlic alfredo. Not bad, just muted by “Lori” standards. Scar would like it.
Conclusion of my Fair Food Odyssey to the Minnesota State Fair
I survived my Fair Food Odyssey to the Minnesota State Fair and made it safely home with a ton of food pictures, notes, and ideas.
Okay, so now that I have my first hand research in hand, what’s next?
Well . . . next is figuring out how to remake a subset of the foods that I tried and saw in a way that accounts for dietary restrictions. That means that I have quite a bit of experimentation to do before I’ll be ready to serve these creations at one of my dinner parties. Stay tuned for the next part of this adventure in which I’ll be making a total mess of my kitchen and forcing my other half to taste test many iterations of each experiment.
Until next time, I hope you take some inspiration from this adventure and enjoy!
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