Pat and I stumbled onto something fantastic to do this weekend: a recreation of the Minnesota State Fair at a hall in Brooklyn! http://mncultureclub.com/statefairaffair
I really thought this would be better in concept than in reality, but I was wrong in the most wonderful way. People were even lined up to get in.
We arrived just in time to see Minnesota Sen. Al Franken take the stage to judge a "food on a stick" contest, and it was hilarious. The most creative (but according to Sen. Franken, bad-tasting) entry was "Boundary Waters on a stick," a gelatinous blue and green blob that was actually quite evocative. Pat and I spotted a sample of that on the stage after the judging was over, with one bite taken out of it, and we believe it was the very sample that Sen. Franken tasted. We did not take it home as a souvenir.
The mob to taste the various foods on a stick was daunting but I secured sticks for me and Pat with balls of cheese curds and wild rice shaped like snowmen, and it was not only tasty, but brilliantly clever. What a great execution. It would be perfect for the actual Fair.
Then we witnessed the sculpting of sticks of butter (and, in some cases, lard, which was not authentic but apparently the organizers were challenged to find blocks of butter) into Minnesota-inspired shapes: a leaping fish, a tractor, the collapsed Metrodome, and Bob Dylan, for example. It was all great fun. Clearly I need to look into more events organized by the Minnesota Culture Club.
Afterward we walked into Park Slope, which I had visited without Pat when I first got to New York, so very long ago. Ha. We picked Coco Roco for dinner just on a whim, and were very happy with the food. As soon as we sat down we got a dish of delectable fried plantain chips with dipping sauces, and odd scrumptious dried corn kernels. Then he had a chicken sandwich and I had a pork sandwich. YUM. I am sure I don't need to tell you I am already salivating at the thought of the leftovers I will enjoy for lunch tomorrow.
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