State Fairs are often an afterthought. A relic of times past when most of us lived in rural areas and guessing the weight of a pumpkin was the best entertainment of the month. They offer variations on the same rides, foods and entertainment that you find at your local Memorial Day Carnival or County Fair and, I mean, how many people even go to those? But the Minnesota State Fair is so far from an afterthought that it seems to be on the minds of Minnesotans for the 50 weeks of the year in which it is not in operation. Plans are made, new foods are devised and longed after; then, just like that, it’s over again. This year, however, the Unvegan paid a visit to see how it would all stack up.

Swedish Meatball Smorgas – The Blue Barn

It’s not all about gluttony. Sometimes it’s just about doing something no one ever thought of. Like putting Swedish meatballs on a roll, pouring white gravy all over them and then topping them with lingonberry jam and dill pickles. I was smart enough to order without the pickles and it paid off in pure sweet, salty and savory deliciousness.

Mangonada Shave Ice – Minnesnowii Shave Ice

You wouldn’t think Minnesotans would be fans of shave ice since they live among it for so much of the year. Yet, the Mangonada is real and it is fascinating. Packed with mango syrup, drizzles of chamoy sauce, popping boba (for some inexplicably genius reason), spicy tajin powder and a tamarind straw (for some inexplicably strange reason). The straw was useless, but the rest of this was somehow light, refreshing, hearty and spicy at once. And with all that, it just somehow worked.

Giant Juicy Turkey Sandwich – Turkey To Go

Being a first timer, I couldn’t just go with new stuff. And, frankly, I wasn’t too excited about getting a turkey sandwich. But, my buddy told me it was well worth it and, well, it sure was. I added bacon and a sweet glaze to mine and it was unbelievably juicy for what’s generally the driest fowl of all. As I drove past many a wild turkey in the Northwoods, all I could think about was how juicy they could be in sandwich form.

Blu – Grain Belt

I love blueberries and I love beer. It makes sense that I would like a blueberry beer, right? Wrong. It seems to be that the special beers at the Minnesota State Fair are pretty much all sweet, but this took that sweetness way beyond balance and into juice territory. Good thing I had all kinds of savory and salty foods to counter that sweetness (and don’t worry, I still drank the whole damn thing).

Gizmo – Carl’s

The Gizmo is another classic, and yet it is churned out by pretty much the most nondescript cart in the whole fair. Sometimes you just know you’re good and it’s hard to go bad when you are an Italian roll filled with ground beef, Italian sausage, red sauce and a layer of melted mozzarella cheese to seal all of the goodness in.

Sweet Greek Cheese Puffs – Dino’s Gyros

Ricotta and Feta. Flaky phyllo dough. Powdered sugar. More than a drizzle of honey. I am a many who loves his sweet and salty combos and these Sweet Greek Cheese Puffs did more than satisfy that craving. It may have gotten a but too sweet toward the end when the honey congregated in the corner with the remaining puff, but these were a treat.

Zesty PB&J Sausage – Gass Station Grill

It doesn’t sound right. Nope, not at all. But if you’ve been paying attention to burger places lately, mixing peanut butter, jelly and some sort of spiciness is all the rage. It’s only natural that it made its way into a tube steak. While each bite may have been somewhat inconsistent, there is no doubt that this works. If they can get that peanut buttery and jelly-y goodness more evenly distributed, this sausage could take over the world.

Turducken Sausage – Giggles’ Campfire Grill

Not all sausages are created equal. Or is it something about the size of the sausage versus what you do with it? Regardless, the Turducken sausage didn’t just lose the battle of the sausages, it barely seemed to fight. It was too tightly packed, the grind seemed off and really all I could taste was the turkey, with maybe a touch of chicken. Perhaps in years past this may have flown, but in the world of the Zesty PB&J sausage you have to be oh so much better than this.

Passion Fruit Pilsner – Bent Paddle Brewing

Duluth is a cool city. And it sent a pretty cool beer down to the state fair. It’s not a sour per se, but does it’s best to harness the tartness of passion fruit and churns out a pretty unique pilsner that is not too sweet and not too sour. It’s not just right either, but it’s good enough to make the drinking enjoyable.

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Belly – The Hangar

You don’t go to the state fair looking to eat a balanced meal. But nowhere is that lack of balance more exemplified than in this pork on pork action on a stick. It was so unbelievably juicy, smokey and salty forcing the use of dozens of napkins lest your face runneth with juices that would later congeal into something resembling a wax museum. While this may be perfection in meat form, the critic in me did wish there was some sort of a sweet and acidic dipping sauce like apple cider vinaigrette or a cherry reduction to accompany this meaty concoction. Despite that, the universe seemed to pause in recognition of the beauty of each bite of this masterpiece.

Fried Cheese Curds – Everywhere

Some day I’d like to pull an Andrew Zimmern and try every cheese curd purveyor at the fair. Until that day, I am a satisfied man as long as the place knows to stick with the white variety of cheddar, to fry them just right amount of time to maintain the squeakiness and to only lightly batter them lest the batter overpower the cheese. It’s not the tallest order, but it’s not the easiest one to fulfill either. Plus, when you’re coming from Arizona all cheese curds are good cheese curds.

Whelp. That’s a wrap. The pilgrimage is complete. Now if only I can figure out a way to make this an annual thing…or at least get to Iowa somehow…

The Sicilian Butcher is hardly the first restaurant to make a variety of meatballs its centerpiece. Yet, it most likely is the best-decorated of any such restaurants. It treats meatballs much as a build your own burger treats…well…burgers. You pick a meat, you pick a sauce and you pick what the Sicilian Butcher calls a bottom. You can order the meatballs bottomless, but this is highly misleading as they come without a base as opposed to being unlimited. After much consideration, I opted for a bottom.

And I also opted for Tony’s “Dry Aged” Steak Balls, which consist of aged ribeye, roasted garlic, pecorino and parmigiano cheese, onions and herb crumbs. I was told that these meatballs were truly dry and would be best suited for a creamy sauce. So, I went with a pamigiano cream sauce assuming it would complement that same parmigiano in the balls. Then, I got even creamier with creamy polenta as my bottom.

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t too creamy. In fact, the sauce and the bottom were easily the best parts of this creamy spectacle of Italian cooking. The meatballs themselves, however, fell flat. And it wasn’t just the dry-ness. After eating just one, I had enough of the flavor and after eating all three I was left craving one of the meatballs that one of my companions was eating instead.

I did crush some delicious blueberry cheesecake to wash it all down (you know, because I needed more creaminess) and must say that it was mighty delicious.

Sauce, polenta and cheesecake are wonderful things, but when your thing is meatballs you gotta knock them out of the park. The Sicilian Butcher delivered a ground rule double at best and hoped the rest of the dish would make up for it.

Ah, the fabled Rose Bowl. Host of UCLA football games, THE Rose Bowl, a monthly flea market and now the annual Masters of Taste. As a blogger extraordinaire, I was invited to cover the event, which took place on May 7th and I found it a much easier way to set foot on the Rose Bowl field than winning the Big Ten Championship (and some might say it was much harder than winning the Pac-12 Championship, huzzah!). Food and drink vendors appeared from all over LA to help bring in money for Union Station Homeless Services. It’s a good cause, and surely the now two-year old event is doing a much better job of drawing in money than the annual gala did before it. But enough, let’s talk food.

Belly Bombz – Spicy Garlic Parmesan Wing

If I had more time, I would have eaten all of their wings. As it was, all I could do was try out the Spicy Garlic Parmesan wing, which is Korean-inspired like the other wings they offered. It certainly inspired my belly to want more.

Nerano – La Polpetta

This is described as a “grass-fed meatball slider” but I will still refuse to call such a thing a slider. Yet, this meatball mini sandwich was delicious enough to make up for the misnomer. The cheese was all melty-like, the meatball was juicy and you can’t ask for much more.

The Raymond – Raclette

The Raymond decided to test the theory that everything is better with melted cheese. Uh, dude, yes. But while it seems obvious that their chorizo taco and Moroccan sausage would be better with melted cheese, the Fire Chicken (fried, topped with gochujang, and rice cakes) was just the right kind of experiment and proved well worth it.

Milk and Honey – Wellness Bowl

I know this isn’t what you expect, but I seriously love fruit and this Wellness Bowl was packed with it. The base was pureed dragonfruit (or pitaya if you’re being fancy) and the toppings were sliced fruit, a chunk of honeycomb, maybe chia seeds and some ridiculous edible flowers. No joke, this was incredibly refreshing with all the gluttony going on.

Cafe Dulce – Bacon Donut Hole

That’s more like it, right?

And that’s a wrap (at least of the food I thought worthy of highlighting)! Despite a brief period of torrential downpour and game delay due to lightning, the event was undoubtedly delicious and, more importantly, brought it more than 500k for Union Station. Good food and a good cause? Don’t mind if I do.

A short time ago, Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern opened up a location in Santa Monica. On it’s own, this can be seen as a good thing, but an even better thing is that I was invited out to check the place out and give it a review. I happily accepted and set off for the place where the land meets the sea (well almost, Jimmy’s is a few blocks inland).

The meal began with some of the sexiest meatballs the world has every seen. They are called Buffalo BBQ Beef Meatballs, which meant that they were a combination of sweet and spicy, plus they were nice and juicy. They were served with a honey garlic ranch and despite the fact that the thin-sliced peppers on top came as a surprise, I enjoyed the hell out of these. We also got the Spicy Ahi Poke, which was good for raw fish and I’m sure those who like poke would have liked this, but it just isn’t my thing and I don’t see a future where it is.

Next came the Whiskey Shrimp, which was apparently cooked with Bourbon (so maybe bourbon shrimp would have been a better name), shallots, Cajun spices and dijon. The shrimp itself tasted pretty fresh (and I should have hoped so considering our proximity to the ocean), but the sauce was really the best part of the appetizer, as I probably could have dipped asparagus in there and made it taste good. Once again there were some unfortunate random tomatoes on top, but I slapped these aside.

When it came to the main course, I probably would have normally ordered a burger, but the waitress highly recommended the fried chicken. Like an obedient unvegan I listened. I can safely say the recommendation was not a mistake (although I still long to know what that burger might have tasted like). The fried chicken was definitely geared more toward the Santa Monica crowd then, say, a Louisiana crowd as it consisted of thin-sliced chicken breast instead of something dark and/or bony. Nonetheless, it was super juicy and the batter was flavorful, if not quite at my preferred level of crispiness.

We finished things off with the Bananageddon, which seems an appropriate name to end all things forever. This monster was a combination of bananas, pastry cream (which is apparently a thing), pecan blondie crumbles, butter pecan ice cream, candied pecans, whipped cream, caramel and white chocolate. It was all at once overwhelming and manageable. And by manageable I mean this would have been enough for an entire meal, but alas i had already basically eaten my weight in food.

I can safely say that I didn’t leave Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern hungry, but more importantly I left fulfilled. Overall, the menu vibe is like a Southern Upscale bar and it suited me just perfectly. Hopefully it will suit Santa Monica just as well.

I will be the first to admit that I had a West Side bias when I made the move to Pasadena. I figured I would spend a whole lot of time on that side of town for meals out, but over and over again Pasadena has impressed me. Perhaps most impressive of all is the pizza scene, with The Luggage Room and Pizza of Venice already tackled by yours truly, I finally set my sights on Pie Life Pizza.

The place is literally a window to place an order with a pizza oven in the back. Outside there are a few picnic-esque seats in an area only slightly wider than a hallway, which is shared by a coffee spot to one side and, strangely enough, a crossfit spot on the other. They offer pizza by the slice, but we wanted to get a couple of full pies. And, since one of those pies was topped with veggies I won’t even cover it here except to say that it went over well with the others.

As for me, I went all in on the “Meaty” pizza. This was topped with pepperoni, sausage and meatballs. I liked that the meats were limited to three so as to enjoy the distinct flavors better. The result was an immense New York-style pizza with huge slices and a perfect dispersement of meats (plus those delicious little pepperonis that you only find at places like this). I dug in and was immediately impressed. It was packed with flavor, and each bite tasted like it had been meticulously planned by the guys in the back to ensure I would find happiness in it.

Now, if you’re in New York and thinking places like this are a dime a dozen you may be right. On the other hand, I was eating with a New Yorker who said, “the pizza was much better than it needed to be.” If that’s not a glowing recommendation, I don’t know what is.

After a long evening of drinking in New York City, the only reasonable thing to do is grab at least one slice of pizza. Such is what I did in the East Village when I essentially stumbled into Baker’s Pizza. As fate would have it, I ran into my drunk friend on his way out (he had left the bar five minutes before), which convinced me that I was in the right place. Just like all pizza by the slice places in New York, there was a display case showcasing the available pies and my eyes wandered to the one topped with meatballs and ricotta.

It took a few minutes to heat up in the oven and then it was good to go. The crust was super thin, with a bit of a crunch to it, and the tomato sauce was slightly sweet and also thin. This allowed the taste of the meatballs, ricotta and the sprinkles of parmesan to stand out. After all, a lot of good pizza is simply a conduit for toppings. Was the pizza amazing? For a drunk, of course. For a discerning New Yorker? I can’t really say. But I can say that it got the job done and tasted delicious while it was doing that job.

Morocco is rich in movie history and the center of that history is Ouarzazate. So naturally there is a museum called Musee du Cinema because that’s apparently the way you say movie museum in French. And just like all other museums, this one has a cafe nearby for hungry travelers.

After glancing at the menu, I decided to get the Kefta Kebab and Fries. Unlike other kefta, this didn’t come in some sort of a tajine, but really was cooked like a kebab and then dropped on the plate. In fact, it’s hard to even call it a meatball because they came out rolled like logs. In addition to the fries, it came with some rice, a couple of olives and some tomato slices. I ignored those last two and concentrated on the real food.

The kefta was pretty good, but a bit on the dry side. The fries were also a bit disappointing, but at least the rice was rice. So, basically it was exactly what you would expect from a cafe next to museum. Not the worst meal, but nothing special in any way.

From the people that brought you Bar Bill in East Aurora, comes 189 Public House literally right next door (with the address of 189 Main Street). This Southern-influenced jazzy gastropub is a far cry from its neighbor, which might be ill-advised considering the perpetually long lines for tables at Bar Bill. On the other hand, it’s perfectly positioned to pick off those who don’t want to wait so long and want something a little bit different.

As for me, I ordered something far different. I went with the Giant Meatball Sandwich. This was topped with marinara and mozzarella and served on a bun with a choice of sides. Diverging from my normal path of fries, I picked corn on the cob for no reason other than the fact that I really never see corn on the cob as an option.

The corn on the cob was a good choice, however, the rest of the meal could have used a little work. For starters, a bun was a bad choice for these meatballs, as there was essentially no good way to eat them. A baguette or hoagie probably would have worked better, but instead i had to work to cut apart the balls into chunks that wouldn’t squeeze out of the bun with each bite. Secondly, the balls could have been a bit juicier. They weren’t dry, per se, but a little more moisture would have gone a long way. Nonetheless, they were quite flavorful and the marinara sauce was pretty nice as well.

While my Giant Meatball Sandwich could have used a few tweaks, it was still pretty acceptable. Nonetheless, I was left thinking a Bar Bill sequel would have been a much better use of the space than 189.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a new pizza place opened in Culver City called Wildcraft. Their schtick is the use of sourdough in their pizzas, which is cool with me, but I’m not sure if it entirely qualifies as being wild. Nonetheless, I was eager to try it out and see just how wild and crafty it would be.

We started with an appetizer of their Meatballs. Made with a blend of beef and pork, these unkosher balls were served in a “tomato gravy” and topped with grana padano cheese. The so-called gravy was really just a marinara sauce and quite good. Also good were the balls themselves, having a great texture, flavor and moisture level.

For my pizza, I decided to get a little wild and ordered one called Carnage. This pizza wasn’t symbiotic (that’s for you, Spider-Man fans) and instead came with porchetta, house pepperoni, pancetta, fennel sausage. It was a cacophony of meat, plus provolone and scamorza cheese. Carnage was in the “Red” section of the pizza menu, meaning it came with tomato sauce and communism, as opposed to the “White” section, which I assume came with a vitamin D deficiency.

The result of this mix of assorted cured pig meats, cheese, sauce and dough was quite delightful. I enjoyed the sourdough, which added an interesting twist to the pizza, and I loved that each slice had to be folded in order to be eaten because of the shear weight of meat. In addition, I appreciated the use of provolone and scamorza cheeses instead of the typical mozzarella. This helped give the pizza an additional complexity of flavor that regular mozzarella doesn’t usually offer.

The only trouble with the pizza was the price tag. Yeah, I know it was good, but $16 for my Carnage $8 for the Meatballs means Wildcraft won’t exactly be a go-to pizza place if I want to preserve my savings account. Despite this, it is certainly worth checking out and I couldn’t be happier to have an upscale pizza place like this in my neighborhood.

Out in the strange region of the Valley known as Toluca Lake is a decent selection of restaurants for working-class folk like myself. Filling the role of Italian Deli is a place called Tony’s, which is a tiny little sandwich shop that also happens to offer a couple easy-to-serve-at-sandwich-shops-but-not-actual-sandwich items like lasagna. Most of their sandwiches come with an array of unvegan horrors like lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions, but one did not. This was the way of the unvegan.

And the sandwich choice was the Meat Ball and/or Sausage. The “and/or” part of the sandwich got be excited and I ordered the large size ($7.95) with the “and.” It took some time to prepare, which is never a problem for me because I like to know that it wasn’t prepared in some anonymous sandwich assembly line. When it was finally finished, I paid up and went to work on eating.

The first thing I noticed upon opened it up was the lack of anything resembling sausage. This made me sad, but fortunately the meatballs were good enough to carry the sandwich on its own. And boy was this sandwich loaded, with some meatballs even side-by-side instead of arranged in a neat little row like Subway likes to do. Plus, the meatballs were really tasty, juicy and beefy. There was just the right amount of marinara (which was good, but nothing amazing) and mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. The roll was good, but I would have liked the crust to give me a bit of crunch before giving way to a soft inside. If you’re looking for some soft bread, this will do, but perhaps I am spoiled by Bay Cities and expect a little more.

Tony’s is definitely a good place to grab a bite if you’re in Toluca Lake and want a sandwich, but it’s not exactly a destination.