Fairly Unbalanced

Warner Coliseum is home to four concessionaires associated with each other, and has produced some of the Fairgrounds’ biggest culinary crimes in recent years: the confounding Concha Bacon Burger and the disastrous Deep-Fried Ice Cream to name a couple. Thankfully, the lone new food inside the Fair’s agricultural showcase this year bucks this trend and was a delightful experience, one we could see actually returning back to in the future.

The concept is straightforward and likely to appeal to the masses: a hand pie stuffed with bananas, local honey, and Biscoff cookie butter meets the deep-fryer, as so many Fair foods do.

Handmade pie filled with Minnesota honey, fresh banana and Biscoff® cookie butter; battered and deep-fried. If you like the ingredients at play here, you’re bound to enjoy your time with this dessert, particularly if you pony up the additional $2 to add ice cream, which we found to be a great addition; it softened up the pie and played well with all the flavors contained within. We did find the edges of the pie to be overcooked and more difficult to portion off, with the middle remaining soft and relenting well to the fork. Throughout the pie, the frying grease did it’s best to ruin the experience, with the pie having that telltale Fair food greasiness that will likely wreak havoc on many Fairgoers’ digestive systems. With that said, we enjoyed the sizeable pieces of banana freshening things up as best they could, and the honey and cookie butter sweetened things up considerably and combined into a delicious cacophony for the very best bites.

This pie is large and hefty, and for only $6 (or $8 with ice cream) we’re ready to crown it the best value of the new Fair foods by far, and one of the best deals on the Fairgrounds as a whole. Yes, it may ruin your appetite for the remainder of your time at the Fair, but your sweet tooth will be satiated and your wallet will remain in tact, which sounds like a win to us.

Ratings (0-5):

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

Overall Score: 14 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)

It’s been a fast start for Union Hmong Kitchen at the Fair in their first three years, almost immediately finding often very long lines waiting to try out their food from their prominent stage-side location inside the International Bazaar. It’s been encouraging to see Fairgoers take to Hmong food quickly, though their quality should take all the credit: with food this good, it should be popular.

A block of deep violet rice is grilled over flames until crisp and then topped by a garden’s worth of fresh herbs and vegetables as well as finely shredded Hmong beef jerky, and finished off with the restauranteur’s ubiquitous chili aioli to add some spice. We enjoyed the crunchy texture, a far different experience than soft, fluffy rice that allowed it to be picked up and bitten into and adds uniqueness to this rice dish. The chili aioli brings a familiar spice level from other times we’ve tried Union Hmong Kitchen products, either on the Fairgrounds or from their other ventures, which has always brought flavor alongside the heat. The shredded jerky was the star of the show here though, a very fine beef dust that permeates throughout but adds a pleasant umami saltiness that was addicting. The vegetables help to balance this dish out but get lost among the myriad of other flavors, and fall off of the rice block too easily for it to be considered a cohesive unit.

At $10 for a small boat of rice, we thought it was a touch on the pricey side, and while we enjoyed the dish it also was far from our favorite on the day. Still, we consider this to be another success in a string of signature Hmong menu items this vendor has offered up, and we’re excited to see where chef Yia Vang takes his Fair fare next.

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 3
• Appearance: 4
• Novelty: 3
• Value: 1

Overall Score: 11 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)

El Burrito Mercado has been a St. Paul mainstay for over 40 years, serving some of Minnesota’s best Mexican food and goods, and now they are debuting at the Minnesota State Fair as a new food vendor. Technically, they have been present in the Fairgrounds’ International Bazaar in previous years, selling merchandise only, but their exemplary Mexican food is a natural fit for the Fair’s own global marketplace.

Unfortunately, whereas their restaurant is known for some of the city’s best food, we were disappointed upon trying their marquee food item on offer at the Fair, the Quesabirria Taquitos. These taquitos were pedestrian at best, unremarkable fare that was the least memorable item we tasted on the day. While they were beefy, the red sauce and cheese the beef was marinated in fell flat and didn’t stand out. It was difficult for any flavor to cut through the prevalent salsa verde which dominated, poured on heavy and yet adding little.

At a whopping $16 for three diminutive taquitos, this was a complete miss of a first introduction to El Burrito Mercado as a Fair food vendor. Forgettable and overpriced is a poor combo, and we’re hoping they can right the ship and have their Fair offerings better match what their restaurant is known for in future years.

Ratings (0-5):

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

Overall Score: 4 out of 20 (Fried-Out Flop)

A relic from a bygone Fair era, the Fairgrounds have two remaining church dining halls: the older and more prominent Hamline Church Dining Hall, and the one run by Salem Lutheran Church located just outside of the Eco Experience building on Machinery Hill, known for their Swedish Egg Coffee, brewed with a whole egg cracked into the coffee grounds. Whereas Hamline has been adding new food items with regularity over the last few years to expand their offerings and change things up after decades of familiarity, Salem Lutheran has just introduced their first new menu item in recent memory, a cute ice cream dish with vanilla ice cream topped by lingonberry jam and ginger cookie crumbles, garnished by a ginger cookie heart.

While the vanilla ice cream was unremarkable, it was competent and refreshing in the middle of a hot day after walking up Machinery Hill and exactly what we needed at that time. More noteworthy was the lingonberry jam, applied liberally and adding a strong tartness to the sundae that provided some culinary intrigue. The ginger cookies, in both crumbled and heart form, were a sensible addition, counteracting the tart of the lingonberry and providing a crunchy texture for the ice cream and jam to adhere to. Nothing here surprised us, but all of it was well-balanced and well-executed, so where it lacks in novelty it gained in doing exactly as advertised.

At only $8, we found this to be one of the more affordable desserts on the Fairgrounds, a good value to be had and more appealing than many of the other over-the-top treats found upon Machinery Hill. We hope this portends more to come from Salem Lutheran in future years, as we maintain that more vendors looking to innovate with new foods is always a welcomed addition to the Fair!

Ratings (0-5):

• Taste: 4
• Appearance: 4
• Novelty: 1
• Value: 4

Overall Score: 13 out of 20 (Fairly Fresh)