What's a scotch egg, you ask - geez, you ask this every year. Well, here it is.
And here's what it looks like, swimming in horseradish sauce. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Next stop was the pickle dog booth!
As I have mentioned in years past, a pickle dog is a pickle spear and cream cheese wrapped by a slice of pastrami. It is delicious.
I was sure to take note of all the local news folk loading up the opening day schedule (wow, THE Chris Shaffer?) since the WCCO booth was on the way to the ag building, where I was meeting up with my in-laws
Holy crap, somebody actually BOUGHT and WEARS one of these shirts in public
At the apple booth, the frozen cider is one of the cheapest things you can buy at the fair - STILL just 75 cents - and it goes down easy
It's bigger than it looks!
I'll take some pictures of the crop art another day, but for now here's a display of vintage seed bags
The most violet violets I saw
The rundown of who gets the flower rooms what days (I almost always seem to be there on a bonsai day, that'll probably happen again this year)
The 990 pound pumpkin. (Joel: "I've seen bigger other years")
Sometimes the eggplants are so striking you must preserve them through photojournalism
The largest tomato and largest scalloped squash of the fair - I have spared you the longest green bean
The decorated pumpkins were all UGLY. I think that witch one started out as Vice President Cheney. I actually took this picture because I liked the squash airplane
The ubiquitous PRONTO PUP
I call it a corn dog, yet that batter isn't really "corn dog" material - the folks love these
Only $25 for a TK HAT
My father-in-law took the camera while I enjoyed the corn
Wow, my mouth can't get any bigger than right here
I realised later that I neglected to snap a photo of the corn booth, but if you squint you can see it to the left in this picture Pop took
New this year is a compost heap set up for all the cobs
If you poke your camera in, this is what you'll see - that's a lotta cobs (and napkins)
The "World's Greatest Fries" - they're okay
Again, I forgot to take a photo until we were halfway through
And of course, some Dr Pepper and root beer to wash it down (actually, this was my first caffeine of the day)
FUDGE PUPPIES - a Belgian waffle on a stick...
...covered with chocolate and whipped cream on top. But no sprinkles! For every sprinkle I find, I shall kill you
Here's the Nitro ice cream stand. Their gimmick is they use LIQUID NITROGEN to freeze the ice cream quickly into this really hard concoction
...which (of course) is quite delicious
This is Mr. E's Drink Time! It's the cheapest 33 ounces of pop you can get at the fair. I always get several Wild Cherry Pepsis here
Meeting up with Kim, we headed to the Creative Arts building. Pop entered a collection of vintage fishing lures and took a blue ribbon!
Not bad for a first attempt!
My mother-in-law is reflected in the window, too
And here's me
This is an ad from a 1947 magazine. The three lures in the previous photo are the same ones featured in this ad!
Kim and I head to Schumacher's for a pork chop on a stick
This thing is UNBELIEVABLE. In fact, it is so beloved, that Schumacher closed all his restaurants and only bothered doing business during the state fair. Or so I heard
The infamous SPAM CURD booth
And here's what they look like
When you scrape off the breading, you actually find it's the "Spam with Cheese" variety - I don't know if you can tell in this photo or not, but those little "holes" are actually where the cheese ends up
Kim wanted an ear - she lucked into a nice, charred specimen
And here's what it looks like with the flash!
Back to the WCCO Radio house for some free water courtesy of KINETICO (and their creepy, Jon Benet-esque mascot)
THE MOUTH TRAP - the "best" cheese curds at the fair.
Definitely the most expensive - they raised their prices! Is NOTHING sacred?
Man, they're good, though
While we were eating, we kept hearing familiar sounds from the Leinie Lodge - finally, we decided we'd better walk over and see if it really was who we thought it was...
It was.
I didn't bother trying to get a good picture, but that's the man himself. What's weird is that "Styx" is set to be part of the last day's grandstand show, so I don't know how they're gonna sound if DeYoung isn't with them - besides, THIS was a FREE show and the Def Leppard/Styx/Foreigner show is (get this) $54!!!!! DeYoung ALSO plays tomorrow night - wonder if we should go back.
Originally posted by CRZWhile we were eating, we kept hearing familiar sounds from the Leinie Lodge - finally, we decided we'd better walk over and see if it really was who we thought it was...
Man, Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band are awesome. Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx was just in this area as well. A friend of mine had tickets, but she didn't go because it rained that night.
Showing an amazing display of shortsightedness, I booked my trip to Minneapolis for the week *before* the fair, so it pains me to look at your pictures.
At least I came on a week where the weather was absolutely beautiful (crazy storm last Monday notwithstanding).
"It's the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like naked women, stockings, lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond because that is what being a [man] is." -Jack Davenport, Coupling
When I saw the logo at the top of the board yesterday I knew this was coming and it did NOT disappoint. Thanks for sharing your incredible eating marathon and the descriptions of the "unusual eats". Wish we got neat stuff like that at our State Fair (plus the Def Lep/Styx/Foreigner show cost like $65 here??).
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975), The Man Upstairs (1914)
As I have mentioned in years past, a pickle dog is a pickle spear and cream cheese wrapped by a slice of pastrami. It is delicious
My aunt makes these every year when our family gets together for Christmas...my dad and I pretty much force her to, then we fight it out to see who can eat the most of them.
According to the fair's website, some place is selling Sloppy Joes on a Stick. Zed, I demand you find one and eat one. And take pictures. I will pay for it.
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