Day 7: Taste buds, Let's Tango

         Without a doubt, one of the central attractions of the Minnesota State Fair is all the artery clogging goodness. Six days in and all I had eaten were the Chicago Dogs, some cookies and a glass of milk. Time to give those taste buds a workout.

          I prepared for the day by packing a small lunch. As I was munching on my carrot sticks and plum during my break, a thin woman sat down next to me on the bench.

           "Wow, that's a lot of self-control to only eat a plum at the fair!" she commented.

          If only she knew what I was going to be consuming in the next few hours...

Elf was pretty into the beer...

          My partner in crime was my father. We met up after my shift and got down to business. A Chicago Dog--of course--and a cold beer were our first conquests. 

           One of the most important strategic components for eating at the fair is to absolutely forget that there exists a thing such as "daily caloric intake." The other, is to take lots of breaks. On break number one, I met up with a friend whose personal mission was currently to find an elusive wine slushy. She had heard about the slushy from a friend, but nobody we asked had any idea what we were talking about. Finally, we found it, at the wine bar in the back of the French Creperie. Verdict: One sip is tasty and the presentation is beautiful in a deep scarlet, but too sweet for me.

Break number two. Watching the dog show!

          Every day, people walk past Chicago Dogs carrying boats of steaming cheese curds. I have been jonesing for one every day of the fair. After meeting back up with my dad, the cheese curd stand was our next objective. Here's the thing about cheese curds: they look better than they are. Eating them is somewhat akin to putting cement blocks in your stomach. We had about three each and realized there was no way we were going to finish the rest. I called in reinforcements. Fortunately, another friend, an avid cheese curd eater, was also at the fair. He helped us with the cheese curds, and also gave us a hand with the corn fritters and fried green tomatoes we bought next. 

Sunflower honey ice-cream

          I had spent most of my shift at work daydreaming about the various foods I was going to eat this evening and asking my coworkers for advice on what to try. My cashier told me that her favorite sweet food at the fair was the honey and sunflower ice-cream. As I consider ice-cream to be its own food group, and dearly love honey, I was all over this idea. It did not disappoint, sweet enough to taste bad for you, but not over powering, and with a hint of sunflower that gave it a distinct twist of earthiness. 

         A small order of fries later, and I was craving something healthy. I ran up to the Horticulture Building to buy an apple. Unfortunately, they are closing. A young employee stood in the doorway.

          "Please," I pleaded with him, "Could you just grab me an apple?"

          He looked around uncomfortably, "I'm not supposed to."

          I must have this apple, "It's for writing research!"

          "I'm not supposed to," he just repeated.

As usual, Sweet Martha piles on the cookies waaay over the top!

          I sighed, "No worries man, I understand." 

          What choice did we have? We decided to try the new fried apple pie instead. And then later, after taking a break to listen to Nick Sterling, we hit up Sweet Martha's Cookies on our way home. These types of things happen when you try to eat healthy at the state fair!