We ate a lot yesterday. The fair was fun, especially since we were able to meet up with a few great friends to, well, eat with. Below are photos of most of what we ate, as well as pricing and locations if you’re planning to make the trek yourself. $11 will get you an adult ticket (ages 13–64) at the gate. This is about the only place credit cards are accepted, so bring plenty of cash for the treats to be had inside.

After a shared $5 tray of Cheese Curds in the Food Building (sorry, no photo), Summit’s Beer on a Stick was our #2 item to try. Three 7 oz. cups sampling Extra Pale Ale, Oktoberfest, and Red Ale for $7.50, not bad. Get in line for your Beer on Stick at the International Bazaar on Underwood St. and Judson Ave.

Next it was the French Meadow to hunt down the Reuben Pretzel we’d read about in the Star Tribune. After asking around about the “old Schumacher space,” we found the French Meadow on the corner of Carnes Ave. and Underwood St. With a two $5 bills in hand, we ordered two; this was not meant for sharing.

Pictured above is the exterior of the Reuben Pretzel. Notice the sauerkraut on top.

And the inside, just in case you were curious.

Naturally, this was followed immediately by a trip to the Deep Fried Candy Bars stand. With a choice between deep fried Oreos, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Deep Fried Milky Ways, and Deep Fried Snickers all at $3.50, we went with the Snickers.

Covered in thick breading and plenty of powdered sugar, this was exactly how you might imagine it. I never need to eat this again. If you’d like to have your once-in-a-lifetime taste, keep walking down Carnes Ave. from the French Meadow.

Walking north toward the Eco Experience, we thought we would see what we would see along the way. A stand we spotted just north of Randall Ave. on Underwood St. led us somewhat off the path to our destination.

With ticket in hand, we waited patiently for what would be next.

For $7.75, Texas Tater Twisters was offering sausage (on a stick) surrounded by a fried potato spiral, aka the Taterdog. We could have gone with the potato twister alone, but Tom sprung for the combo and I wasn’t about to protest. A side of ranch, please!

A few bites in, the spiral came began to unravel.

At this point, we parted with the group and went looking for one of the items on my not-to-be-missed list: Stanly’s Sugarbush Maple Soda, $4. Sample the soda near the Eco Experience at the Countryside Market (located at the end of Cosgrove St.). Already there, and having eaten a number of things that might be described as awful, we decided to opt for a rare, healthy item along side the soda: a Caprese Salad on a Stick, $6. This $10 combination is well worth a try.

Not to be caught ending on a too-healthy note, we finished our visit with a tray of Tornado Potato Chips for $5.50 from Sonny’s in the Food Building. Served with a side of chipotle ranch and fresh from the frier, they demanded to be accompanied by a second helping of Summit on a Stick (refills for $6.50 if you save your stick).

After a couple of loops around the Food Building trying to locate fried green tomatoes for sale, we gave up a little disappointed. I’m sure it was right under my nose, but with the weather turning noticeably chilly and already full stomachs, we said goodnight to the fair.

Thanks again to our fellow-tasters at the Heavy Table. Their list helped us navigate the sprawling Minnesota State Fair for the first time. As we headed home, the folks at 89.3 the Current were doing a tasting of their own on the radio. Among the pickles and the cheese curds, they reminded us of what we’d missed: Peach Glazed Pig Cheeks from Famous Daves. Next time? We’ll have to take that up next year.

The Heavy Table has a great post today which combines all of the secrets from yesterday’s live tweets (follow @heavytable to keep in the loop) with photos to help your imagination along. For those of you who can’t make it, this post will give you a picture of the best-of eats on day one of the fair. If you’re like us, and you’ve LIVED IN MINNEAPOLIS FOR A YEAR AND A HALF WITHOUT GOING TO THE MN STATE FAIR, this post will convince you that you are CRAZY and that you should GO TODAY. Incidentally, we’ll be heading to St. Paul this evening, tomorrow evening, or both, and we’ll definitely keep this list of suggestions in mind (along with the google map, thanks guys!).

From what our friends at The Heavy Table shared, it’s the beverages I’m most excited about. I’m currently craving the $1 Cider Freeze, the trio of Summit beers on a stick ($7.50), and Stanly’s Sugarbush Maple soda ($4). The last of these looks to be the most promising. As The Heavy Table puts it, Stanly’s is

A local alternative to soda… not just “as good as a Coke” good, but “far, far better than a Coke” good. It’s got an almost creamy flavor, a maple kick, and a refreshing hit of carbonation.

Based on the prices shared here, it looks like we’ll need to carry plenty of $5s and $1s with us in preparation for this 4,000+ calorie snack-feast.

Image: Becca Dilley, The Heavy Table

When Surly Hell was released last week, I prepared myself for what would be my one opportunity to try it (it sold out very quickly) by reading up on the style.  ’Hell’ is German for ‘light’ or ‘pale’, and according to my sage for all things beer, Garrett Oliver, the Helles style was developed as the Bavarian answer to the popularity of Bohemian pilsner. Traditional Bavarian lager was dark and with deeper flavor, Hellesbier was pale, golden and crisp. I found Surly Hell to fit the bill for this style exactly. While it was not a particularly unique beer, it was an excellent one — refreshing and actually quite fun to drink. It’s a shame the production was so limited.

But even if I’ll never get to drink it again, Surly Hell got me interested in Helles beers. On my most recent trip to the Four Firkins, the Helles Schlenkerla Lagerbier caught my eye. When I mentioned to the clerk that I was interested in this beer after trying Hell, he told me that this would be totally different. As it turns out, the Schlenkerla Brewery in Bamberg, the brewer of the Helles in question, is famous for a different beer: smokebeer. Smokebeer is made by smoking the barley malt before brewing. While the Helles I was in the process of buying is not smoked, it’s made with the same equipment as smokebeer, so it has a lot of residual smokiness. I’m not one to be dissuaded at the cash register: smoky Helles it was.

Trying the beer, I can’t say I agree with the clerk about it being totally different from Hell. The underlying beer was quite similar: crisp and sprightly, light-bodied and refreshing. But then there was the smoke. Even though the beer was not smoked, the smoke flavor was fairly strong; a bit like the flavor you got from smelling burning alder or cedar as you smoke a trout (for example). The flavor was not so strong as to drown out everything else that was going on with the beer, but the flavor of smoke was unmistakably there.

What to eat with this golden smoky beer? Barbecue, obviously. But what if you don’t have a grill? Well, then you need to get creative. I was looking for something that would match the smoke in the beer, but, lacking the capacity to actually make smoke, I thought a deep roasting might do the trick. I cut summer squash, zucchini and eggplant from the farmers’ market into large chunks, salted them and let them sit in the colander for an hour to exude some water. I then added a coarsely chopped onion and tossed everything in oil, salt and pepper. I placed everything on a half-sheet pan in the oven for about a half an hour until the vegetables were deeply browned and starting to burn. B

Once the roasted vegetables had cooled slightly, I tossed them with cooked quinoa, big chunks of heirloom tomatoes (these tomatoes were so good off the vine that it seemed a shame to roast them; that would be a good option for improving inferior tomatoes), minced parsley and a lemon vinaigrette (lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper). I thought the zippiness of the beer would be complimented by a lemony salad. And since Helles is so light and refreshing, I had some leeway to make the salad richer, which I accomplished with 4 oz of crumbled goat cheese that immediately became melted goat cheese.

For all the thought that went into constructing the salad around the beer, this pairing was a dud. I thought the Helles aspects of the beer worked well with the pockets of fresh tomato in the salad, the acid of the lemon juice, and as relief from the rich goat cheese. But there was nothing in the salad that could do anything with the beer’s smoke. Roasted vegetables, as much as I might want them to, do not taste smoky — they taste sweet. Perhaps grilling the vegetables over charcoal would fix this problem, but for me that is not an option. After trying the beer, the choice of barbecue seemed so obvious: drinking this beer would be like adding liquid smoke to the barbecue sauce; there would be total continuity between the food and the beer. In fact it’s hard to imagine a more perfect pairing.

As for the salad, I don’t think the idea of pairing with a traditional Helles is a bad one; it was the smoke that was so off-putting. Perhaps if they make another batch of Surly Hell I’ll make this salad again to celebrate.

This was a good beer and a good salad, they just weren’t very good together. Such is the magic of pairings.

I hate to toot my own horn, but I did an awesome job going through all my produce from the farmers’ market last week.  Between pickling, trying new recipes, and actually eating all our leftovers, by the end of the week our fridge, even our vegetable drawer, was looking empty. We even had to go to the grocery store for dinner Friday night since there was nothing left to eat in the house.

With this blank canvas to fill, I think I might have overdone it this morning. It didn’t help that this week instead of my usual school-size backpack I wore my Duluth Pack — something about that giant backpack makes you want to fill it. And with the variety and quality of produce available this time of year, it’s pretty hard to resist. Especially when $3 trays are 2 for $5. But what am I going to do with all this?

The haul for this week was: 3 onions, 8# generic tomatoes, basil, cantaloupe, fennel, garlic, potatoes, salad turnips, poblanos, honey gold tomatoes, variety heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and summer squash and radishes. The cantaloupes are new for me this week but Brett and Mary of Real Bread recommended them strongly.

I made sure to return to the Honey Creek Farm stand where last week we bought edamame and sun gold and heirloom tomatoes that made some of the best caprese and Greek salads of all time. More tomatoes, for eating raw, were a must and although there were no edamame this week, there was another interesting vegetable: salad turnips. Apparently these Japanese vegetables taste like a mild radish. Although I like my radishes sharp and spicy, I couldn’t turn down a new vegetable to try.

As for those eight pounds of tomatoes, I bought those with the idea that it is time for me to finally start putting up tomato sauce for the winter. I kick myself every year for failing to do so, so this is the year. I am planning on following Hank Shaw’s instructions for making and bottling the stuff. I figure 8# should give me 3 quart sized jars, a good start.

As for the rest, well, I have no idea. But hopefully I’ll come up with something before next Saturday when it’s time to load up again.

Image, Canoe. You can shop Canoe, too.