New vendors are changing the Minnesota State Fair's food scene
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Indigenous Food Labs' wild rice bowls and Kosharina's Koshari bowl on the right. Photos: Courtesy of Minnesota State Fair.
The State Fair's yearslong diversification of food vendors is continuing in 2024.
The big picture: This year's slate of new purveyors includes flavors from as far away as Korea and as close to home as the kitchen of acclaimed Minneapolis-based Indigenous chef Sean Sherman.
Why it matters: Gluttonous fried food remains the dominant taste of the Great Minnesota Get-Together, but there's a growing appetite for new and less heart-attack-inducing options.
State of play: Chocolate chip cookies, cheese curds, french fries, and pronto pups each do more than $1 million in sales over the 12 days of the fair.
Yes, but: Food stands owned by diverse entrepreneurs are rising in the charts. Que Viet sold $615,000 worth of egg rolls in 2022, ranking 11th on the list of highest-grossing vendors.
- Union Hmong Kitchen, Afro Deli, and Baba's Hummus have also had big hits in recent years, placing near the top of critics' new food lists.
What's new: There are 33 new foods and six new vendors joining the fair in August.
- Kosharina Egyptian Cuisine will serve the popular Koshari dish consisting of rice, pasta, chickpeas, lentils, tomato sauce, and garlicky vinegar.
- El Burrito Mercado, the beloved St. Paul restaurant, will be selling deep-fried Quesabirria Taquitos.
- Chan's Eatery will offer a Korean twist on the State Fair staple corn dog. It's a hot dog with mozzarella cheese battered in panko. They can be coated in fried potatoes or hot Cheetos with spicy mayo.
- Midtown Global Market's Indigenous Food Lab will have wild rice bowls with nixtamal topped with either bison meatballs or sweet potato dumplings. You can even add crickets.
- There's also the new Paella Depot and Loon Lake Iced Tea.
The bottom line: Everybody has their favorite longtime fair vendor, but you're missing out if you skip the new stuff.
Go deeper: Check out Audrey's coverage of the new foods on the Axios Twin Cities Instagram.