The Minnesota State Fair's new foods: What we will and won't try

This year's lineup of new Minnesota State Fair foods is out, and it's heavy on the sweets, salt and cheese. But it also offers a bit of weird.

• Just take a look at the the Buffalo Chicken Doughscuit — a biscuit-style doughnut stuffed with shredded chicken and drizzled with Buffalo sauce icing and bacon bits — from the Blue Barn.

Driving the news: The state fair, as it does every year at this time, released its list of new foods Tuesday, with 27 items for 2021.

Why it matters: The state fair is back after a one-year, pandemic-driven hiatus. This feels normal.

The big picture: A small handful of new food vendors are making their debut this year.

• Scenic 61, the food truck operated by The Scenic Cafe on the North Shore, will have a stand and serve sashimi tuna tacos.
• Herbivorous Butcher, the wildly popular meatless butcher in Minneapolis, will make its debut in the Midtown Global Market with a ChoriPop — meatless Chorizo dipped in corndog batter and fried.
• Fluffy's Hand Cut Donuts will serve donuts topped with soft-serve ice cream.
• Hot Indian Foods will have a permanent booth this year, and Mpls. St. Paul Magazine critic Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl wonders if this is a step for the growing company to win the "Race To Create An Indian Chipotle."

What we want to try most:

• Audrey: The Spufull Puff by Potato Man & Sweety — Mashed sweet potatoes blended with sweetened cream cheese, wrapped in dough and fried.
• Nick: Both of Hot Indian Foods' new items, the Kerala Fried Chicken Kati Roll and the Paneer Pakora (Seasoned paneer cheese cubes fried in a gluten-free batter and served with tomato butter).
• Torey: Banh Minn Bun and Banh Minn Bowl by Sausage Sister & Me — Asian-inspired sausage, one in a baguette and the other in a bowl. Lots of toppings.

What we're not so sure about: The Blue Raspberry Blitzed, a "traditional hand pie filled with a raspberry, blueberry and apple blend infused with UV Blue Vodka and topped with cotton candy sugar."

• Sounds like gut rot.