Midwest
7 intriguing new foods at the 2024 Minnesota State Fair, including 'Grilled Purple Sticky Rice'
The Minnesota State Fair is known for its unique food offerings and the 2024 fair looks to be no exception.
Earlier this week, the Minnesota State Fair announced the 33 new food items that will be available this year when the fair opens on Aug. 22 (it runs until Labor Day, Sept. 2).
“We are so excited to announce our new foods for 2024. We work hard to present a diverse array of new foods each year and are excited to introduce several new vendors,” Maria Hayden, a spokesperson for the Minnesota State Fair, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
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Some of the chefs who designed dishes for the fair are James Beard Award winners and semifinalists, she said.
“In addition, there are a lot of fun new foods that we think people will be talking about, such as Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing, Dill Pickle Tots, Chile Mango Whip and, to wash it all down, Cotton Candy Iced Tea,” she said.
The Minnesota State Fair announced that 33 new foods will be coming to the fair this year, including Grilled Purple Stick Rice and Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing. (Minnesota State Fair)
Minnesota State Fair foods to know about
Here are 7 items that are available this year.
1. Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing
Described by the Minnesota State Fair as “ranch dressing filling made with ranch seasoning, buttermilk and cream cheese in a panko shell, deep-fried and dusted with ranch powder,” this vegetarian treat comes with “a side of hot honey sauce crafted with Cry Baby Craig’s hot sauce.”
Deep-Fried Ranch Dressing is served with a side of hot honey sauce. (Minnesota State Fair)
It will be available at LuLu’s Public House.
“People in Minnesota love their ranch dressing,” Charlie Burrows, co-owner of Lulu’s, told Fox News Digital in an email, noting that “diners will ask for a side of ranch with almost everything.”
A deep-fried ranch offering has been in the works for more than a year-and-a-half, Burrows said.
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“We began by brainstorming popular flavors and figuring out ways we could deep-fry it,” he said.
Despite the unusual nature of the dish, Burrows said he thinks people will love it.
“I’m really excited about Deep-Fried Ranch. We think it’s a great product. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t think it tasted great,” he said.
2. Walking Shepherd’s Pie
A unique take on the hearty sit-down pub staple, this dish takes what’s normally a messy meal and compacts it into a handheld pastry.
The dish is “two handmade hot pastries filled with braised ground beef, mashed potatoes and a blend of onions, carrots and peas tossed in herb gravy,” according to the Minnesota State Fair.
The Walking Shepherd’s Pie features a handmade pastry shell. (Minnesota State Fair)
The Walking Shepherd’s Pie will be sold at O’Gara’s at the Fair.
3. Savory Éclairs in Two Varieties
For another twist on traditional pastry, there is no chocolate or pastry cream to be found on the savory éclairs offered at the Minnesota State Fair this year.
Instead, the choux pastry éclair shell will be available as lobster or bánh mì.
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The Lobster Éclair is inspired by a New England-style lobster roll, according to the Minnesota State Fair.
The pastry will be stuffed with “lobster meat, celery, mayo, Cholula hot sauce, limes, chives and salt & pepper” and will be garnished with dried corn and micro cilantro, its description said.
The Savory Éclairs in Two Varieties offering takes the traditional fillings of a New England-style lobster roll and a bánh mì sandwich and serves them in a choux pastry shell. (Minnesota State Fair)
Conversely, the bánh mì éclair will contain “pork confit, chicken liver pâté, pickled carrot & daikon, cucumber and sriracha mayo” and will be garnished with micro cilantro.
The bánh mì is a sandwich that originated in Vietnam. It is traditionally served on a baguette.
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The éclairs will be sold at Scenic 61 by New Scenic Café, according to the Minnesota State Fair.
4. Grilled Purple Sticky Rice
Move over, corn dogs. A new food on a stick is coming to the Minnesota State Fair this year.
The Grilled Purple Sticky Rice fish consists of purple sticky rice that is put on a stick and grilled on an open flame until crunchy, the Minnesota State Fair said.
The rice is then topped with either shredded Hmong beef jerky or a vegetarian option of pickled mushrooms.
Foods on a stick are an integral part of fair cuisine. This year, visitors to the Minnesota State Fair can try Grilled Purple Sticky Rice. (Minnesota State Fair)
The dish is then garnished with herbs and a chili aioli, according to the fair.
This unique offering will be sold at the Union Hmong Kitchen. It is a creation of James Beard Award semifinalist Yia Vang, who was inspired by his mom’s cooking, he told Fox News Digital in an email.
“Growing up, we would eat toasted/grilled sticky rice. It was an incredibly easy snack my mom would make for us,” Vang said.
The snack will be “crunchy, toasty and full of deep rich flavor,” he said, and is meant to be eaten “almost like” one would eat an ice pop.
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“Instead, it’s a delicious crunchy grilled sticky rice with mom’s hot sauce and dad’s Hmong beef jerky,” he said.
About 90,000 people in Minnesota are of Hmong descent, an ethnic group originally from Southeast Asia, according to the St. Paul Hmong Cultural Center. The Twin Cities have the largest urban Hmong population in the world, the Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported.
5. Swedish ‘Sota Sliders
With a little more than 7% of the state reporting its Swedish ancestry, Minnesota has the highest number of Swedish Americans as well as the highest percentage of Swedish Americans for any U.S. state, according to the Census Bureau.
The Swedish ‘Sota Sliders, available at Hamline Church Dining Hall, combine the American burger slider with nods to Swedish foods.
The Swedish ‘Sota Sliders are inspired by some of Sweden’s traditional food items. (Minnesota State Fair)
The patty is a cranberry-wild rice meatball and is served with dill Havarti cheese and a relish of beets, red onions, red peppers, lingonberries and cranberries, according to the Minnesota State Fair.
Lingonberries are native to Sweden and are often served with Swedish meatballs, Food.com said.
6. Swedish Ice Cream Sundae
For dessert, the Salem Lutheran Church Dining Hall is debuting the Swedish Ice Cream Sundae this year.
The sundae features “vanilla ice cream covered in lingonberry jam, sprinkled with Swedish ginger cookie crumble and garnished with a ginger cookie heart.”
The Swedish Ice Cream Sundae contains lingonberries and ginger cookies. (Minnesota State Fair)
7. Patata Frita Focacciawich
Another interesting dessert item with a mouthful of a name to match, the Patata Frita Focacciawich combines savory flavors with sweet treats.
The name refers to the Spanish word for potato chips.
It features a special “‘Patata Frita’ kettle chip-flavored ice cream” that was created by the Minnesota Dairy Lab, according to the Minnesota State Fair.
This treat melds potato chips, ice cream and focaccia all in one dish. (Minnesota State Fair)
The potato chip-flavored ice cream is then sandwiched by focaccia bread and topped with honey butter, more kettle chips and herbs, the description said.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
This unusual ice cream sandwich will be sold at the West End Creamery.
Other new items this year
These food items will also be offered, according to the fair, among others.
- 3 Piggy Pals on a Stick
- Ba’bacon Sour Cream + Onion
- Blazing Greek Bites
- Buffalo Cheese Curd & Chicken Tacos
- Chile Mango Whip
- Cookie Butter Crunch Mini Donuts
- Cotton Candy Iced Tea
- Crab Boil Wings
- Deep-Fried Halloumi Cheese
- Fried Bee-Nana Pie
- Ham and Pickle Roll Up on a Potato Skin
- Lady’s Slipper Marble Sundae
- Marco’s Garden
- Mocha Madness Shave Ice
- Nixtamal & Wild Rice Bowl with Wóžapi & Bison Meatballs or Sweet Potato Dumplings
- PB Bacon Cakes
- Raging Ball
- Shroomy “Calamari”
- Strawberries and Cream Waffle Stick
- Strawberry Lemonade Donut
- Sweet Corn Cola Float
- Sweet Heat Bacon Crunch
- Turkey Kristo
- Wrangler Waffle Burger
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It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.
Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.
Dr Matt von Konrat, head of botanical collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, was drawn into the case in 2009 when he received a phone call from the FBI. “They asked if I knew about moss and brought the evidence to the museum,” he said.
An investigation by local police had found human remains buried under inches of earth at the cemetery, a site of enormous historical importance. Several prominent African Americans are buried at the cemetery, including Emmett Till, whose murder in 1955 became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, and the blues singer Dinah Washington.
Alongside the re-buried remains, forensic specialists spotted various plants, including a piece of moss about the size of a fingertip. Hoping that it would help them crack the case, the FBI asked von Konrat to work out where the moss came from and how long it had been there.
After examining the moss under a microscope and comparing it with dried specimens in the museum’s collection, the scientists identified it as common pocket moss, or Fissidens taxifolius. A survey at the cemetery found that the species did not grow where the corpses were discovered, but was abundant in a lightly shaded area beneath some trees where police suspected the bodies had been dug up. The moss had evidently been moved with the bodies.
But when was the crime committed? The answer lay in a quirk of moss biology. “This is the cool thing about moss,” von Konrat said. “When we’re dead, we’re dead, but with mosses, it’s bizarre. Even when we might think they’re dead, they can still have an active metabolism.” The metabolism drops slowly over time as cells gradually die off.
One way to measure moss metabolism is to bathe it in light and see how much is absorbed by the chlorophyll used to make food through photosynthesis, and how much light is re-emitted. The scientists ran tests on the moss found with the bodies, on a fresh clump from the cemetery, and other specimens from the museum’s collection.
“We concluded that the moss had been buried for less than 12 months and that was important because the accused’s whole line of defence was that the crime took place before their employment. They were arguing that it happened years and years earlier,” said von Konrat. Details are published in Forensic Sciences Research.
Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent who worked on the case and a co-author of the study, said the plant material from the cemetery was “key” to securing the convictions when the case went to trial.
Von Konrat, who is a fan of the BBC forensic science drama Silent Witness, never expected to be working on a criminal case, but now wants to highlight how important mosses might be for forensic investigations. “I had no idea we’d be using our science, our collections, in this manner,” he said. “It underscores how important natural history collections are. We never know how we might apply them in the future.”
Indiana basketball sharpshooter Lamar Wilkerson is known for his generosity.
Upon joining the Hoosiers, he gave a tidy sum of his NIL earnings to his previous program, Sam Houston State.
“I was blessed to be able go from that, from not having a lot, to being here, having a lot more than I even knew what to do with,” Wilkerson said at the time. “I just thought, I can give them this.”
He upped the ante on IU’s Senior Night, giving his mother a Cadillac after the Hoosiers throttled Minnesota.
You could imagine her reaction.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
5 key issues the Iowa Legislature faces in the 2026 session
Eminent domain, property taxes and DOGE cuts are all on the table for legislators this session.
Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.
House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.
Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.
“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”
Here’s what to know about the bill.
What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?
Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.
That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.
All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.
Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.
Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.
And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.
If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.
Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.
“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”
Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.
“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”
Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says
A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.
- FY 2027: $33 million
- FY 2028: $66 million
- FY 2029: $99 million
- FY 2030: $132 million
- FY 2031: $164.9 million
The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.
“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”
The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.
As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.
The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.
But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.
“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”
Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”
“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”
Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law
The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”
Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.
Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.
It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.
“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”
Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”
“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.
Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”
And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”
“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”
House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.
That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.
Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings
Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.
The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:
- The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
- The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
- The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
- The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
- The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
- The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
- The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket
The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.
The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.
And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
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