{"id":369,"date":"2011-08-22T09:40:49","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T13:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=369"},"modified":"2011-09-05T21:48:55","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T01:48:55","slug":"minnesota-state-fair-day-the-great-minnesota-get-together-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota State Fair Day – “The Great Minnesota Get-Together [in New York].”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past few days have been an amazing food and beer fueled\u00c2\u00a0whirlwind. \u00c2\u00a0So much awesomeness and so little time to write. \u00c2\u00a0I’m going to focus on the Minnesota State Fair Day (MNSFD) and try not to\u00c2\u00a0stray into other topics that deserve their own post including Beer Table<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(a good\u00c2\u00a0restaurant\u00c2\u00a0with great beer), Fonda <\/a>(the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten), an insane Latvian bar in the Lower East Side (LSE), and Bento Burger<\/a> (a Japanese styled burger place). \u00c2\u00a0Yeah, like said, it’s been busy, but pretty awesome. \u00c2\u00a0And, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s been great to leave the comfort of Brooklyn and find some adventures in the city.<\/p>\n

MNSFD – “The Great Minnesota Get-Together [in New York].”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2011 MNSFD, held on Saturday August 20, was a great success. \u00c2\u00a0Over 120\u00c2\u00a0Minnesotans\u00c2\u00a0and Minnesota-lovers took to the streets of Manhattan to recreate the Minnesota State Fair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before I go on, since people not from Minnesota seem to get confused, I should explain the Fair. \u00c2\u00a0If you’re Minnesotan, just skip this paragraph, you’ve been going to the Fair at least once a year since before you could walk. \u00c2\u00a0 First and foremost, there is the food. \u00c2\u00a0On these 12 days leading-up and including labor day, you can find corn dogs, fried cheese on a stick, fried cheese curds, pork chop on a stick, corn on the cob, Sweet Martha’s Cookies<\/a>, deep fried candy bars, deep fried\u00c2\u00a0pickles, mini doughnuts…. you get the idea: if you can deep fry it and\/or put it on a stick \u00c2\u00a0you can find it at the fair. \u00c2\u00a0(Eating food of a stick is kind of a big part of the experience.) \u00c2\u00a0And while, for many of us, the Fair is about walking from food stand to food stand there are actually are things to see and do. \u00c2\u00a0The animal barns showcase every barnyard animal imaginable. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Scattered throughout the Fairgrounds are various stages with a range of music playing. \u00c2\u00a0There are the arts and crafts buildings\u00c2\u00a0displaying Minnesota made\u00c2\u00a0seed art, jams, quilts, and paintings. \u00c2\u00a0The Midway has all the games-you-can-never win and brightly lit death trap looking rides you could hope for. \u00c2\u00a0And, of course, there are the\u00c2\u00a0horticultural\u00c2\u00a0displays showcasing some really big fruits and\u00c2\u00a0vegetables\u00c2\u00a0born out Minnesota’s fertile\u00c2\u00a0soil–many a blue\u00c2\u00a0ribbon is handed out.<\/p>\n

Okay, back to MNSFD. \u00c2\u00a0In 2008, a few Minnesota ex-pats put on their fanny packs and set out into the city to recreate the food of the Fair. \u00c2\u00a0Each year since, the project has grown and evolved. \u00c2\u00a0This year’s set-up took a pub crawl meets choose your adventure book approach, with 5 main bars and various optional\u00c2\u00a0side-trips\u00c2\u00a0including corn dogs, funnel cakes, and corn on the cob. \u00c2\u00a0(See map and details below.)<\/p>\n

For the first time,\u00c2\u00a0tickets\u00c2\u00a0were sold for the event with the funds purchasing 40 lbs of Sweet Martha’s Cookie dough and real cheese curds from the same dairy the actual Fair draws on. \u00c2\u00a0The City Tavern<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0served-up the famous chocolate chip cookies with an endless supply of cold milk. \u00c2\u00a0While it might never be the same as grabbing a bucket of Sweet Martha’s and getting a glass of unlimited milk from the Dairy Barn it was a\u00c2\u00a0delicious\u00c2\u00a0approximation. \u00c2\u00a0Woody McHale<\/a>‘s opened their hearts, deep fries, and beer kegs to the group. \u00c2\u00a0In addition to deep frying the cheese curds, Woody’s had Leinenkugel <\/a>(a\u00c2\u00a0Wisconsin\u00c2\u00a0beer) on tap\u00c2\u00a0and gave each ticket holder a glass on the house. \u00c2\u00a0While\u00c2\u00a0delicious, my one source of sadness was that I couldn’t enjoy my cheese curds with a cold Summit beer<\/a>–I’m waiting with baited breath for the day this great Minnesota brewery starts distributing in New York. \u00c2\u00a0On the route, the planned culinary detours warmed my Minnesotan soul (while raising my\u00c2\u00a0cholesterol\u00c2\u00a0and increasing my waistline).<\/p>\n

But more than the food, it was a blast to meet an endless stream of fellow MN-ex pats. \u00c2\u00a0Some who have lived in New York for years, others for only a few weeks. \u00c2\u00a0I’m looking forward to seeing some of these faces again at the next MN happy hour here in the Big Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally a\u00c2\u00a0shout-out\u00c2\u00a0to the event organizers<\/a> who pulled it all together: \u00c2\u00a0Laura Carter,\u00c2\u00a0Nina Panda,\u00c2\u00a0Jen Wise,\u00c2\u00a0Kieley Taylor,\u00c2\u00a0Sam Willems, and\u00c2\u00a0Shannon Robinson. Thanks guys for making this another awesome State Fair Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past few days have been an amazing food and beer fueled\u00c2\u00a0whirlwind. \u00c2\u00a0So much awesomeness and so little time to write. \u00c2\u00a0I’m going to focus on the Minnesota State Fair Day (MNSFD) and try not to\u00c2\u00a0stray into other topics that deserve their own post including Beer Table\u00c2\u00a0(a good\u00c2\u00a0restaurant\u00c2\u00a0with great beer), Fonda (the best Mexican food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,7,57],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-beer","tag-cheese-curds","tag-deep-fry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}