All the milk you can drink for $1 ...

You can get healthy food at the fair. You can find food for every taste plus beer and wine. However the mixed drinks are absent from the menus.

One of the more popular treats is the French Fries but they really don't get going until about 10 AM. Early in the day everyone hustles to find the mini-donuts, coffee, and maybe a cinnamon roll.

Foot long hot dogs are like breakfast in a bun.  Get them with onions so you get all the food groups.

Speedy dispenses what he calls his foot longs as "Viking Boats" with "Norwegian Fries" and has been coming to the fair as a vendor for many years.  You can find him at the corner booth on the NE side of the State's Natural Resources exhibit building.

Speedy was 87 in 2006 at the Minnesota State Fair having worked and attended the fair for over 50 years. His love of the Foot Long hotdog has led him to spend hours giving out his precious "Viking boats" and "Norwegian Fries"  to hundreds of attendees. I have heard Speedy is retiring after this year at the fair...God Bless you Speedy.

What's to miss at the Fair...well... donuts of course. It is a "must have" for the State Fair addict. The only decision is whether to get Tom Thumb or Tiny Tim donuts.

Finally Espresso is showing up on some of the menus.

Famous Dave's added a beer garden area in 2006. With many restaurants in the metro area the one at the fair is probably open year around. The little red barn for the Dairy Association now provides milk for $1 for all you might want to drink.

Yum, Yum! Cheese Curds! Deep fried hunks of Wisconsin cheese. Goes well with a butter dipped ear of roast corn.

Or maybe try the Scotch eggs. A hard boiled egg wrapped with sausage before it is breaded and deep fried. Eat enough of these and your best friend will be a Cardiologist.

In 2006 the big addition was the Casserole (HOTDISH) on a stick. A mini shish-ka-bob with alternating meatballs and tater tots, battered and deep fried (of course) and sold for $4. The dipping sauce was mushroom soup. They planned to sell 40,000 of these and from the activity at the booth they should make their goal.

Edited  Sunday, 22 August 2010