Minnesota State Fair: Hotdish on a Stick

I skipped the pickle treats at the state fair.  Instead I opted for Ole and Lena's Hotdish on a stick.  Mmmm, mmm good, especially with the cream of mushroom soup dipping sauce.  What could be more Upper-Midwestern than that?

Comments

[cheryl]

What's a "hotdish?" ... A hotdog?

I love regionalism in food - finding all the area-specific things that people eat.

I wonder what people would find peculiar in/to Kansas. Every here thing seems pretty normal - but maybe that's just because I'm used to it.

[Jeff]

Hotdish is a Minnesota staple. You need a can of mushroom soup--and mix whatever you want in a casserole dish--tater tots are good.

Here is the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish

[Joe]

The lumps in the photo are covering alternating bits of ground beef and onions. There may have been peas in there as well. Minnesotans and Wisconsinites take their tater tot hotdish very seriously.

[cheryl]

So, Joe, did the hotdish-on-a-stick taste good?

What was wrapped around the thing... what was holding it together - a cornbread batter?

[Joe]

I liked it. I didn't have high expectations, but it was much less greasy, hardly greasy at all, than I feared.

I believe it was a cornbread batter.

[judy Petrie]

Boy, mom only made plain tator tots. I feel like I missed out on something. I think I will have to make tator tot hotdish some day this winter and surprise my friends.

[Alan Headbloom]

Thinking like the son of an engineer, I am guessing that you'd have to freeze an elongated lump of hotdish onto a stick, then dip it in the batter.

Hotdish-on-a-stick, better living through culinary process engineering!