This review has a different spin to it. I'm reviewing the fair food that was available at Hy-Vee's parking lot a few Saturdays ago.
My original thought was to get dinner here on Friday night. However, thanks to a lot of driving from Eagan to Elma, IA, and a shopping excursion in southern Rochester, I returned to Rochester the following day to check out the good fair eats.
I am a Hy-Vee shopper. I didn't go to this store when I used to live in Rochester, as I lived in the north end. This store is close to where the first Panera Bread in the city was established before it moved to a new location closer to Trader Joe's.
I found out about the food fair through a Facebook food truck post. I flagged it. It had me at corn dogs. I also had never had fried cheese curds, so I wanted to give them a try, too.
There's plenty of parking in this lot. I was coming from highway 52, so it was straightforward passing by Apache Mall to get here. I parked fairly close to the brightly displayed signs and stalls, and walked over.
It was a windy day. I looked at all three sections of food before I ended up at the one closest to the street. It had corn dogs.
Signage was interesting. Although corn dogs and cheese curds seem to be repeated everywhere, corn dogs were at the stand closest to the street and the cheese curds were closer to Hy-Vee. The middle section had donuts and lemonade. I passed on them because I didn't have room to fit them into my tummy. Next time.
I had a woman with a raspy voice take my corn dog order. I actually said hot dog by accident and was immediately corrected. Beware. You could accidentally offend folks here without trying. I apologized. Then again, when I think of a foot-long corn dog, it's a hot dog with cornmeal batter around it that's deep-fried to death. So, I wasn't completely wrong, but folks here take their corn dogs seriously.
I paid with a credit card. All was great. I then stood there for ten minutes as orders were being placed and made. I got my corn dog and it looked yummy. I thanked the woman and went over to the condiments.
With the wind, be careful trying to put garlic powder on your corn dog. My process was to put ketchup on it first, followed by the garlic powder, so that it could adhere to the ketchup. In theory, it made sense. With the wind, it had other plans. Some of the powder stuck. The rest of it blew away from me and created a mini garlic powder dust storm. I was so glad that I was facing the right direction. Otherwise, I would have looked like a ghost holding a corn dog.
I then headed to the cheese curd section. I didn't want to get a bucket of fried cheese curds. What if I hated them? Instead, I got a single order.
Garlic cheese curds (see a garlic pattern here?) was all I wanted. I paid with a credit card again and wait patiently for them. They smelled so good being deep-fried. I was so happy to get them handed to me in a small paper container. I got a napkin and pizza sauce. I thanked him and carefully headed to my car with my goodies.
The corn dog hit the spot. It was technically lunch for me. The batter was crispy on the outside and the right amount of moisture inside. The hot dog was yummy. It wasn't salted to death. It was perfect. I liked the garlic powder with the ketchup. I will need to put garlic powder on all my corn dogs going forward. Brilliant!
The garlic cheese curds were amazing. The benefit of being in Minnesota is that the cheese curd state of Wisconsin is next door. Cheese curd access is strong. The garlic flavour made these fried cheese curds so scrumptious. The thin, cripsy batter was delightful to eat. I dipped each one in the pizza sauce. Heavenly!
How come I never had fried cheese curds before? It was my first time having them and it definitely won't be my last.
If you do see fair food at Hy-Vee, take advantage of it. I'm glad that I did. It was worth hitting my old stomping ground of Rochester again to get my fix.
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