Visiting the Minnesota State Fair Not Only for Deep Fried Food on a Stick
But not like the state fair. The food is probably the hottest topic at the fair, food on a stick that is. Over the years the food on a stick has become one of the hottest debates and topics of the Minnesota State Fair. For instance, deep fried candy bars on a stick, or spaghetti and meatballs on a stick. If they can figure out how to get it to stay on a stick for the amount of time it takes for you to pay for it, they will do it.
The idea is not a novel one or even new, in fact it has been around for a long time. The corn dog traces it’s origins to at least the 1940’s and of course we can all understand the humble beginnings of the kabob. A lonely ancestor hunkered down eating his wild roasted boar or whatever and figuring out if you held it on a stick, you could put it in and out of the fire easier than burning your hand. Today we don’t have to eat things skewered on a piece of pine or bamboo, but it is fun, and the ingenious things they come up with are part of that fun.
There are all kinds of things besides food on a stick at the fair, and we tried a lot, roasted alligator, Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes, kettle popcorn and of course for desert a deep fried Snickers candy bar. The candy bars are coated in a sweet breading and quickly deep fried, I think they freeze the candy bars before frying but I don’t know for sure, they are hot and really good, so was the other food we tried. The fair has both the 4-H parts and the general fair areas to it, the 4-H has a building on the grounds that hold not only the dorms for fair goers from the county 4-H clubs to stay overnight at but the fair projects are exhibited and judged there.
4-H is a community of young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills. Clubs are organized at the county level in all the states to help young gather and attain these skills to help them into becoming better adults. The county levels have awards in different areas for projects that the youth complete and show off for things they are interested in, then the highest awarded projects compete at the State Fair against the other youth from the different counties for the top awards of the state. The kids have a great time at these projects and also learn a great deal about their interests and things they enjoy doing, which could turn into a rewarding career for them. They also have fun with one another at various activities and community service projects to support their communities.
There is also a lot of other things to see and do. The state has put in a few additional things like stages and areas that have concerts, shows and other attractions along with the usual rides and game areas. The state Wildlife Department has a building and it’s outdoor pond of fish for wildlife displays and displays of the illegal game and waterfowl that have been seized during raids and arrests of violators of state laws for wildlife and hunting. There’s a great nature display and shows outdoor conservation and tanks of fish and other water critters. There is a few stages with shows such as large rock and country and western bands that play at night and on the weekends, as well as the rides and carnival games. The fair has a few additions that have become popular attractions over the years, the education and technology buildings have both schools and businesses that show what they have to offer both to students thinking of going to colleges and universities in the state but businesses and new and interesting technologies that are up and coming in the world of technology.
Unisys was demonstrating their version of the passports of the near future, a simple card that has a black squiggly area that is your picture with another next to it that is your fingerprint. Now you look at the area on the card and it looks like a kid drew on it with a black crayon, but to a computer it is a picture, and one that is not easy to copy or forge for that matter. And your finger print is entered on the card and into the computer in the same way, using a computer scanner that encodes the images onto a card in a manner that is not easy to forge or duplicate. This was just one of the new and interesting things to see at the technology building, and next door is the education building with booths from colleges, universities and technical schools from across the state and some from neighboring states hoping to entice young students to their doors.
There are the familiar to fair goers animals and barns with pigs, cows and other hoofed and clawed creatures that the fair has tried to time their births to the state fair. The fair asks some fair participants to try and have things like cows, pigs and other farm animals to be born about the time of the fair, and they do a pretty good job. The barn has cameras setup so that even if the animal starts to show signs of distress at having such a huge audience, the fair goers can still watch the event such as a calf being born without actually having so many people standing at her stall. There are other animals such as ducks and chickens that are a bit easier to time their births to the fair time as well as pigs and sheep. At another barn at the state fair is a truly unique thing, the barn is for show dogs, and they have people with full breed dogs that are show quality sitting and showing off their pets for people to see and ask questions about. The other half of this barn is an actual working veterinarians surgical suite where they perform surgeries during the fair. To show people what their pets undergo during routine surgeries such as spaying and neutering, the fair has set up a surgical suite and volunteers, both in the form of doctors and assistants as well as pet owners have volunteered to have their pets surgery performed at the suite. The suite is set up so that two sides of the room is glass walls for people to watch the surgery, and cameras catch all the action for people to watch on monitors placed throughout the building. At the time I was there, a dog was getting neutered using lasers to perform the cutting, with no blood as the laser cauterizes the wounds as it cuts.
The state fair costs $9 for parking on the fair grounds but is free to enter if you walk on the fair grounds. But that is the trick, parking in the area will cost you. The city of Minneapolis runs regular buses throughout the city so you can find places to park for free and catch a ride to the fair. For any information on the Minnesota State Fair 2005 and for upcoming fair information try here: http://www.mnstatefair.org/
Some of the things that I found to be really fun and interested me was the technology and the fine arts buildings, but there is so much to do for everyone that you can have more fun at the fair than you can squeeze into one day, so go more than that. Many go several days and have just as much fun seeing different parts of the fair and never get tired of the wide variety of food. Even on a stick.
