bear

I was talking with a friend about fairs yesterday, and now I'm both sad I'll be missing out on the Big E (because even though I'll be in New England next week, I'm flying home the day it starts), and enthusiastically making grandiose plans with said friend to go to the Minnesota State Fair Great Minnesota Get-Together next year, despite neither of us living in the Midwest.

I didn't grow up going to fairs; they were the province of children's fiction to me. All I knew about fairs was that there would be fried foods and thrill rides of questionable safety and contests ranging from biggest pumpkin to fattest pig to who could eat a whole pie the fastest; thanks, EB White. So when Scott basically dragged half our dorm to the Eastern States Exposition my freshman year, well, I fell in love.

Every time I went, we'd spend the majority of our time eating our way through the State Houses. Comparing clam chowders between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, comparing lobster rolls between Maine and Connecticut, eating all the maple sugar candy from Vermont, blueberry everything and loaded baked potatoes from Maine, the Finnish pancakes from Massachusetts, frozen lemonade from Rhode Island to wash it all down, along with cider and cider donuts and fried dough and kettle corn and fudge everywhere. (And of course, apple pie with cheese!) I don't think I could do a full 12 hour day there anymore, but when we went back in college and postgrad, we spread all of that eating across the entire day, and that gave us time to digest enough to go on spinny rides and not barf :)

Fast forward more than a decade since the last time I managed to make it out to Western Mass during the Big E, and the algorithm keeps showing me fair food from the Minnesota State Fair, the most recent post from Molly Yeh included. Even though my phone hasn't left the state of California since May, and the last time it was in Minnesota was over five years ago when we visited the SPAM Museum on our way across the country.

I strongly suspect it's because there was a week in August where everybody was talking ALL HOTDISHES ALL THE TIME. I knew about hotdish before that; I did date a Minnesotan, after all, and then Molly Yeh brought them into the broader cultural consciousness (at least in my foodie circles). There's even the Hot Dash in March every year where there's a hotdish festival at the finish line!

So now there's been an even more mainstream Hotdish Revival, thanks Tim Walz. Even if the ones I'm finding more intriguing are, like, Samosa Chaatdish. Or Little Moga-Hot-Dishu. Or Molly's Chinese Hotdish. Or this Tater Tot Hotdish Bowl with kimchi and bossam, though of course if I were going to turn it back into a proper hotdish of course there would be rice involved. Or Hot Tot Berbere Tater Dishinator (scroll down to Keith Ellison's contribution). Though I am not yet seeing a Filipino-inspired hotdish, peeps, does this mean I have to figure one out myself? Or a Hmong Hotdish, from Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai.

Which brings me back to drooling over the New Foods List for the fair, burnishing its reputation every year, best known for how over-the-top chefs go to make the most delicious, talked-about fair food item. I'm looking at you, "smoked sausage slices wrapped in bacon, filled with cream cheese and drizzled with barbecue sauce," the kettle-chip ice cream sandwich, the sweet corn cola float. But I'm also delighted to see:

• Union Hmong Kitchen's mov nplaum ntshaav (Hmong grilled purple rice) with nqaj nyuj qhaa (traditional shredded beef) on a stick (the real spirit of fair food) from the aforementioned Yia Vang


• the native fusion manoomin and nixtamal with wóžapi and bison meatballs (you've got Ojibwe, Lakota, and Mesoamerican influences in one dish)


• the bánh mi and lobster roll éclairs (I'm wondering how well choux pastry stands up to the heft I usually associate with their respective sandwiches)

And lutefisk bao?! I will bring my empty stomach and a Game Plan next year, Minnesota!