Fairly Unbalanced

We owe The Sandwich Stop a mea culpa. In our New Foods Preview article published earlier this week, we listed this sandwich as an “Uffda,” one of the items we were not enthused about trying once the Fair began. We derided it, perhaps unfairly, stating that “fairgoers aren’t looking for what they can make easily at home, or what they can order from their neighborhood restaurant.” While this remains to be true, thankfully this is no ordinary sandwich.

Let’s start with the bread, in this instance a warm flatbread, pressed down and warmed on a grill briefly as the sandwich is made-to-order. This means we had a bit of a wait before receiving our sandwich after ordering, but it was well worth it for the freshest ingredients and the soft and nurturing texture of the bread. Inside that flatbread, they layer on ham, salami, fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese; each component was very fresh and very good. The salami and the basil especially stood out to us as being high quality, and the entire blend led to a very complex flavor profile. The ingredients were also appropriately applied so that each bite got a little bit of everything, which is ideal for a sandwich like this one.

The absolute best part of this sandwich though is the creamy balsamic vinaigrette dressing that completely drenches this sandwich. It has been applied heavily across the sandwich, which leads to the one downside to eating this item: it is very messy, and nearly impossible to eat while on the go. With that said, grab a bunch of napkins and dig in, because this dressing makes the risk of spillage well worth taking. The dressing is so rich, so flavorful and compliments the rest of the sandwich so very well. The Sandwich Stop has created a hit with this exemplary dressing, one that completely lifts their product out of the realms of just an ordinary sandwich.

At a $9 price point, it is one of the more expensive options at the Fair, but not inappropriately priced for what you get in return. It is served cut in half, making it easy to share with a friend, which may be a good option as a whole sandwich would be quite filling; if you want to try other things during your time at the Fair, get someone to split this with you. The appearance is still rather basic, and the concept is not very novel, but while this might not be the most exciting thing to get at the Fair, it will be one of the very best tasting.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 5
• Appearance: 3
• Novelty: 0
• Value: 4

Overall Score: 12 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)

One of the founding anchors of the West End Market when it was created to replace the dated Heritage Square portion of the Fairgrounds, LuLu’s Public House has spent five years inventing and re-inventing their menu, with a lot more successes than failures. Sadly, this year’s newest food item is a perplexing choice that both does not match the rest of their offerings nor is it worthwhile for deviation. These cheesecakes are served warm, too warm in fact; they do not retain their form whatsoever due to their temperature, resulting in a gooey blob barely contained by a thin layer of crust. Warm dessert items, while not unheard of at the Fair, are an unusual choice to serve in the dog days of summer, and was rather unpleasant to eat when we tried it out.

Your choices of topping are bountiful: chocolate, strawberry, salted caramel, or plain. We went with the salted caramel at the recommendation of the staff member who we ordered from, who said it was the best of the four options. The caramel did help along the flavor of this tart, and the saltiness was not forgotten, with large rocks of salt throughout the topping. At $6 for a rather small tart, this one has very few redeeming qualities. Here’s hoping LuLu’s goes back to the drawing board for next year and returns to form.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 3
• Appearance: 2
• Novelty: 1
• Value: 0

Overall Score: 6 out of 20 (Better Luck Next Year)

The Midtown Global Market stand inside the International Bazaar has a unique format for a Fair food vendor, rotating management of their space among two restaurateurs during the Fair’s twelve days. For the first half of the 2019 Fair, Hot Indian Foods offers a limited menu that includes these brilliant fried chicken sliders. They are only available through Tuesday, August 27th, so hurry over to their booth if you are keen to try them!

Don’t be fooled by the clever wordplay in the name of this dish, these sliders have very little in common with their fast food namesake. The chicken here is not a greasy gutbomb but instead a lightly crispy, flavorful affair. The tikka sauce is well-applied to these sliders so as to not overflow the sandwich (we’ve all spilled enough on our shirts during the Fair to appreciate this), and is appropriately spiced without being spicy, even for notoriously timid Minnesotans. The “zinger slaw” that sits atop the chicken adds some crunch and counters the tikka, but does little else. The same can be said for the standard-issue bun involved, which is nothing more than a vessel for the rest of the sandwich. At $12 for two small sliders, the pricing is way out of whack, and may leave you longing for a budget bucket of chicken from the Colonel.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 4
• Appearance: 3
• Novelty: 4
• Value: 0

Overall Score: 11 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)