Fourteen incredible bites on a stick all under $5 (cheaper than most food at the Fair actually), we had to try all of them! Each table was given a serving dish with holes in it for the sticks to stand in. Servers circled the restaurant with the different dishes throughout the evening. (Please excuse the bad, low light cell phone pics.)
Matt flashed the broken finger sign behind our first three dishes, tomatoes & melon, chicken liver bon bons and spicy scallop handrolls. (In case you are wondering, he caught his finger in the door of the car.) That was followed by a mini gyro (good, but maybe the weakest of the dishes of the night).
The next two dishes were amazing! Caesar Salad on a stick was a fried piece of brioche with melted cheese in the middle topped with a chicken drumette and a pickled anchovy. The richness paired with the pickling was perfect. Then it was the Carrot Corndog, a sous vide carrot coated in classic corndog breading with sweet peppers and a sriracha sauce. If we hadn't been told it was a carrot, we would have sworn it was a hot dog, the texture was perfect!
The servers called the next dish the most unusual, a foie gras lollypop edged with pop rocks. A fun pairing of rich and sweet with the special pop. The egg in gelee had a great texture and flavor especially for fans of head cheese like me. That baby corn done elote with a cheese, salty sauce was so good we ordered another round.
The chili and cornbread was a surprise. How they got real saucy chili into a fried square of cornbread crust I'll never know. Then came what Matt called the star of the whole meal, the BBQ Octopus. The Asian glaze with sesame seeds coated super tender octopus. We were told the octopus was sous vided for 12 hours before it went on the grill. If we weren't so full, we would have had another round of this.
A mini oyster po-boy was done very classically with perfectly fried, cornbread crusted oysters. The mix of textured in this one was great. Our last dish was a classic steak tartar topped with grated egg and rolled in cucumber (one of our favorites for their regular menu).
Everything ended with an ice cream sandwich on a stick, banana walnut ice cream between two chocolate cookies topped with a chocolate covered banana slice and a little peanut butter powder. I love frozen chocolate covered bananas and this sandwich tasted like just like a perfectly ripe banana dipped in dark chocolate.
Matt and I had such a great time trying all the different dishes and enjoying our "fair food" without the crowds and heat. (Ok, we'll probably still go to the fair before it ends Labor Day.) If you are in the Twin Cities area we highly recommend you get your yearly dose of food on a stick at Haute Dish.
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