2024! The year that was different than all others at the State Fair because it was the year we got stories, myths, meanings and legends!
Like: What does deep fried ranch mean? Everyone’s been talking about it all summer: how do you deep fry ranch dressing? Can it really be as slimy and runny as it looks in the picture? It sounds so… crazy. Is it real? Is it possible? Let us dare?
Also: Near the Miracle of Birth Center, there were huge Spanish paella pans the size of kiddie pools. No, really. We are 4,500 miles from the paella capital of Valencia, Spain. Is it possible, does it really exist, do we dare? Should we eat Spanish food… right next to the stroller rental shop?
What is the State Fair anyway? One thing it always is: a land of totally wholesome, totally crazy moments that people talk about all winter and then forever.
I mean, why else would we make an annual ritual out of applauding portraits made out of 1,000 glued-on lentils and beans? Why else would we host an entire event centered around dressing someone’s llama in overalls? Why else would we wear pink paper pig ears and put pink paper pig ears on our toddler, take a selfie of the two of you in front of a 650-pound boar and text it to our old roommate? Why else would we lay our baby on a blanket in the shade next to a bucket of cookies so big they look like peanuts and then take that photo to show our Great Aunt Gladys for Christmas and then recreate the whole picture when our kid is 24? Why else do we do all of this except for the stories that arise from harmless stunts?
Stories are good. They help us build connections and make boring nights interesting.
And as I watched the crowd this year, I couldn’t help but think that this was the year of stunt foods, of story foods. Overall, I would say that there wasn’t a new dish that I tried this year that was so delicious from a culinary perspective that I thought: come on, everyone, you have to try this! However, I did try a lot of new dishes that I can recommend, especially because they make a good story.
5. Which award-winning restaurant critic picks three ties for fifth place? Add that to your story possibilities. Do you know what 2024 was? It was the year that this restaurant critic I know had his breakthrough… But honestly? I liked them all equally, for different reasons:
Hot Cheeto Korean Corn Dog at Chan’s
Korean corn dogs have been all over Minneapolis for a few years now, most notably in Dinkytown and at the counter deep inside St. Paul’s Dragon Star Foods. But they seem different when you see them at the State Fair, the land of Pronto Pups and corn dogs. What they are at new vendor Chan’s: A piece of mozzarella cheese and a hot dog, together on a skewer, breaded, deep-fried, rolled in Hot Cheeto dust. It’s objectively hilarious, and also messy. Get a teenager, have them hold the piece up, take a picture of them covered in Cheeto dust, and talk for the rest of your life about the craziest corn dog of your life.
Deep-fried ranch dressing at LuLu’s Public House
The bad news: It’s basically a wonton with cream cheese and ranch seasoning, and a very tasty Cry Baby Craig’s-inspired hot honey dipping sauce. The good news: If you take it straight out of the fryer, it’s a little mushy when you whip it up, which makes for a good picture, and once you order it, you can spend the rest of your life telling people you ate deep-fried ranch dressing. When people ask you how it was, my advice is: Refuse to talk about it. Say things like: If I told you about this, I’d have to kill you. Something like that. That way we can keep the secret! 2024, the year of fried ranch. Ha!
Bacon pie at Blue Barn
This is an absolutely perfect State Fair idea. Take good bacon that’s already been cooked, spread some pancake batter on the outside, fry it, and you have bacon with a few millimeters of pancake batter on the outside, served with a little dollop of peanut butter whipped cream and some grape jelly.
Say at every brunch for the rest of your life: You know, one time at the State Fair we had bacon that was somehow covered in pancake batter. If you’re snowed in, try to recreate it. Do that for the rest of your life.
4. Marco’s Garden in Brim
This one’s for you gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, healthy eaters and summer tomato lovers. Brim’s new dish this year is gluten-free panini bread, pressed and warmed, served with your choice of (vegetarian) ricotta and honey or (vegan) tofu, a scoop of tart, barely sweet rhubarb jam that adds a slightly tart-sweet note to the mix, like tomato sauce on pizza, and then a big handful of Svihel Farms summer tomatoes, perfectly dressed with olive oil.
Your story: Of course, I ate the healthiest, gluten-free, most elegant meal in the world at the State Fair. How strange that you are surprised?
3. Esquites and Quesabirria Taquitos at El Burrito Mercado
El Burrito Mercado has been a staple of the Twin Cities dining scene for generations, so it was hard to imagine how the Mexican grocer and restaurant would make sense of the fair. Well, yes. Siblings Milissa and Tomas Silva decided to sell exactly three things, and they’re all wonderful. The esquites ($8) consist of a cup of corn on the cob, the lemony herbal tea epazote, a house-made condiment, and some crema and cotija cheese—they taste like corn, pure and tart and rich and wonderful. I’ve had so many versions of esquites that were much worse, stickier, rubberier, swamped with sauce, or bland and thick, but this one is just great in every way. I also loved the quesabirria taquitos ($16), they’re rolled in an extra thin tortilla so they don’t get tough when fried, they’re filled with rich beef cooked in birria, and finally covered in a really bright tomatillo-avocado salsa. It’s a restaurant meal in a paper boat and it’s everything you could want: bright, bold, fresh, vibrant, and when you ask if it’s spicy, the whole crew behind the counter rings a cowbell and sings in unison: It is not spicy. This is objectively hilarious, especially in light of the recent flood of news about vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s so-called White Guy Tacos.
Your story: The whole country was talking about “tacos for white men,” and I saw an iconic Twin Cities restaurant compress its essence into three dishes that somehow functioned as the absolute perfect, humorous takedown. And they had a good watermelon drink, too!
2. Crab wings from Soul Bowl
2024, the year soul food really came to the State Fair! My first thought when I learned that Chef Gerard Klass of Soul Bowl, Camden Social, and CREAM Cafe was offering “Crab Boil Chicken Wings” this year was: Huh? And: What? When I saw they were $20, I thought: I don’t want to pay $20 for any food at the State Fair. But then I went to the trouble of ordering them when I was already pretty full, and I have great news: They are something new at the State Fair. You get the tray and it weighs a few pounds, it’s a half dozen big, meaty chicken wings, a pile of fried potatoes, a few pieces of corn on the cob, there’s a bunch of crab boil seasoning on the bottom of the tray, you squirt hot sauce all over the wings, and: Messy, huge, hearty, real soul food dinner. A much of food. A much Taste. It’s now my first choice if you want to grab one of those tables at Ball Park Cafe and have a few beers with your crew and want a proper dinner to top off your evening.
Your story: The State Fair is about more than butterheads and all the milk you can drink. The State Fair is also about real soul food, really real, so real you need two hands to carry it – no, really!
Paella from Paella Depot
Remember Kitchen Window, the Uptown kitchenware store and cooking school? Remember how you could buy or rent entire paella-making kits at Kitchen Window? And remember how Kitchen Window owner Doug Huemoeller closed the Twin Cities landmark in 2021? Well, it’s back, baby!
Huemoeller and his whole family can now be found right outside the Miracle of Birth Center where the baby animals are, and there they now tend to four gigantic paella pans and serve truly authentic smoky-spicy paella. The rice? Individual grains, with that great charred flavor from the crust that forms intentionally on the pan. The good, thin, smoky chorizo. Meaty, charred chicken. A nice gooey egg. The best paella in the state, out of nowhere. I mean it!
When I saw that paella was one of the new offerings at the 2024 fair, I thought: Nonsense. I have six James Beard Awards for my insights into food and restaurants. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The best paella in Minnesota is currently across from the all-you-can-drink milk stand, near the giant Turkey to Go stand.
Your story: People think a lot of things about the Minnesota State Fair, but in fact, a reviewer at a fancy restaurant claimed they had the best authentic Spanish paella in the state.
A lot of strange things happen in life. That’s what I’ve noticed. And that’s the news from the 2024 Minnesota State Fair.
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