You know the routine: you pass through the admission gate at your favorite summer festival with your sights already set on that one particular food stand. You've waited for this tasty treat all year, and you aren't going to wait a moment longer. The most famous example of this summer food phenomenon is probably the Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff - hundreds of thousands are sold to sweet-toothed patrons every summer. Don't fill up in one place, though. With a season's worth of great events ahead, there are plenty of signature dishes and drinks to save room for.
Strawberry Festival
While an abundance of strawberry food items are available every summer at Cedarburg's Strawberry Festival, the main "food" of choice actually is a delicious beverage, quenching the thirst of festival-goers on a hot summer's day. Their beverage of choice is Cedar Creek Settlement's "Strawberry Slush," a mixture of ice, fresh strawberries and a secret ingredient, offering the perfect mixture for a tasty, unique drink. At times, grown-ups might choose to add some Strawberry Blush Wine to their slush to give it a more adult flavor. But no matter what the age, everyone at the festival walks around, proudly, with a red mustache.
Port Fish Day
Catch a bite of the traditional Wisconsin Fish Fry at Port Fish Day in Port Washington. For 41 years, this festival hooks people in for fish and chips, especially since it is the known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Fish Fry," which lures about 50,000 people each year. If your stomach is feeling especially ready to reel in some fish, try your best at the "Smoked Fish Eating Contest." After a 12-hour day, the event serves about 10,000 pounds of fish and 13,000 pounds of cottage fries.
Rendezvous
What makes the food at this Prairie du Chien festival so unique is not just what they serve, but how they serve it. Fry bread, a staple in Native American cuisine, is the most popular dish at this festival, especially since the way it is prepared is incredibly authentic. The cooks are dressed in authentic garb and assemble the bread to your liking in an old fashioned way. The cooks stretch out the dough, pad it down, dip it into grease and throw it on the campfire. The fry bread at this festival can be served with sugar and cinnamon, fruit filling, plain or used to make tacos.
Oktoberfest
What can be better than ice cream? Try beer and ice cream, two of Wisconsin's finest food traditions. This fabulous fusion is found once a year at no other time than Oktoberfest in Chippewa Falls. The entrée of choice is Olson's HOMAID Oktoberfest Ice Cream, which blends Olson's Ice Cream (flavored with pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon) and Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest beer. They add about 48 ounces of beer to every five gallons of ice cream. Here, you can really grab a "cold one" and mean it with a nice "cup" of Oktoberfest Ice Cream.
Bastille Days
Indulge yourself in Milwaukee's Bastille Days for some of the finest French cuisine around, including éclairs, crepes and champagne. Make sure you grab a fresh beignet, which are made by the Alliance Française de Milwaukee. Basically, a beignet is fried dough, like a doughnut or pastry, with a sprinkling of powdered sugar or cinnamon, and they are just plain delicious. The beignets are simply magnifique, and a French food item that may be hard to come by at any other place than Bastille Days. C'est si bon!
Hmong Summer FestivalTruly experience the Hmong
culture and their delicious cuisine by ordering a papaya salad, which
is the most popular food at this Sheboygan summer festival. The papaya
salad is made right in front of you, and the salad is a mixture of a
number of ingredients including papayas, lime, tomatoes, fish sauce and
crab sauce among many other things. This blend is extremely flavorful
and a bit spicy, but it will perk up your palate.