Fair adds cocktail to contest categories
Last year’s Mild and Wild Bloody Mary competition was such a hit at the State Fair that contest planners brought it back — this year as the All Wisconsin Bloody Mary contest.
The winning cocktail last year, by Bob Smith of Oak Creek, featured garnishes of pickles, meat sticks, shrimp and green olives.
And now this cheery nod to happy hour has a companion category in 2016: the Oh the Mighty Old Fashioned Redefined.
“Now is your chance to redefine the traditional old fashioned,” the contest instructions state. Brandy must be used (isn’t that a state law?), but otherwise it’s up to entrants to give the Wisconsin supper club favorite a “fresh spin.”
Sponsoring this new contest is the south side supper club The Packing House, which is bestowing a $150 restaurant gift card as first prize. Forest Floor Foods in Eden, as sponsor of the Bloody Mary contest, will pay $200 to the winner.
Most prizes in the 175 or so food classes at this year’s fair are considerably smaller, but the competition is always rich with fun.
About 98% of those categories are new, said Jill Albanese, the fair’s competitive exhibits coordinator, and most follow this year’s theme: FAIR Redefined. (That’s “F” for flowers, “A” for arts, “I” for images and “R” for recipes, Albanese said.)
For the culinary contest, that means lots of things on a stick, bacon everything and plenty of categories with the open-ended phrase “fair-inspired.” Examples?
Apple fritters, hush puppies, s’mores, Snickers-inspired treat, pigs-in-a-blanket, peanut butter balls, bacon-wrapped fruit (and veggie, cheese and meat).