Heavy Table's 2011 Minnesota State Fair Tips

Heavy Table: 2011: Sweet corn ice cream is pleasantly sweet. Go for the wild blueberry sauce & the butter bacon -- the latter lacks salinity, but the former is just tart enough to offset the ice cream's sweetness. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: Get the Asian Fusion Carnitas Taco at San Felipe Tacos. The “Asian” side of this taco, a mild wasabi kick and sesame oil finish, is softly spoken but a fine accent to the carnitas that dominate. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: The Minnesota Honey Producers' honey lemondade is tops: with the floral depth and mild, pure warmth of real honey, this lemonade was a perfect blend of tart and sweet, and a thirst annihilator. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: With a cinnamon-sugared crust and tender, spiced, not over-sweet apple filling, the Minneapple Pie is the good twin to the sinister sibling that is a McDonald’s apple pie. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: In hot weather, not much equals the creamy, well-balanced, chocolate meets coffee meets popsicle that is mocha on a stick. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: The Sour Lemon Soda is bitter, it’s sweet, balanced, and astoundingly refreshing and clean-tasting -- it calls to mind the classic summer-taming power of Schweppes Bitter Lemon. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: A Washington State Sweet Dream Peach is the antidote to all that is fried and meaty. The peach sounds dull, but, as its name suggests, eats like a dream -- juicy, wholesome, and fresh. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: Try the Deep-Fried Cookie Dough at Sonny's: The “fried” portion of the treat is little more than a containment vessel for the warm, nearly liquid cookie filling, but that’s OK -- it's tasty. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: Get the spicy beef stick. We were universally impressed with the subtlety, tastiness, and persistence of the spice flavor in this easy-to-tote meat treat. Read more.

Heavy Table: 2011: A nice maple sweetness and tender consistency make the breakfast lollypop a good choice. McGriddle fans, line up! Read more.

Heavy Table: The pancakes were fluffy and relatively light, but still had some nice browning and buttery flavor with sausages that were tender, well-spiced, and flavorful. Downright tasty, really. Read more.