This Year's Crazy New Minnesota State Fair Foods Include Turducken

Minnesotans love their state fair — and with good reason. From the crop art contest to the butter sculptures, there's something for everyone, and from every corner of the state. But nothing tops the food — famously bizarre, often deep-fried, and usually on a stick. The new foods list was just released for 2018, and it's as delightfully odd as always.

There are 27 official new foods and five new food vendors at this year's fair, for a total of 500 foods available at 300 vendors across the fairgrounds.

Tops on the "I-can-buy-this-at-a-fair?" list is turducken – yes, that Frankenstein's monster of a Thanksgiving food that stuffs a deboned chicken into a deboned duck into a deboned turkey. The fair's version is not quite the three-level monstrosity you may have seen elsewhere, but it has the same ingredients. Giggles' Campfire Grill is selling a turducken sausage sandwich, blending turkey, duck and chicken into a sausage and serving it on a fennel bun with a side of relish.

That's not the only wacky new sausage offered. Kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but the new zesty PB&J sausage sandwich sold by Gass Station Grill at the fair is more adult. It blends peanut butter, cherry jelly, and a hint of cayenne pepper and cilantro into a quarter-pound sausage.

For those hot summer days, fairgoers can cool down (and also heat up) with a Mangonada shave ice. It's mango-flavored shave ice drizzled with Mexican chamoy sauce, dusted with Tajin chili powder, topped with popping mango boba pearls and served with a tamarind candy straw. It's sold at Minnesnowii Shave Ice.

A banana split is one thing, but how about a barbecue split? No ice cream here: This split serves side-by-side scoops of pulled pork, mac and cheese, and coleslaw, with a pickle spear on the side. Get it at the Fair's Midtown Global Market Mama D's location.

Other new foods coming to this year's Minnesota State Fair include Firecracker Shrimp Stuffed Avocado, General Tso Chicken Tacos, Honey Cream Soda Floats, and Nordic Waffles, fresh-made waffle wraps in seven varieties. Just don't go on the Tilt-a-Whirl after you indulge.

This year's Minnesota State Fair runs August 23 through Labor Day (September 3) at the fairgrounds in Falcon Heights. While these products are pretty crazy, they have nothing on the craziest fair foods of all time.