Renaissance Festival War Stories: The Lost Scrolls - Food Edition

Nothing tastes like the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Running seven weekends from mid-August to the end of September and sometimes into October, summertime ends with the flavors of the renaissance. While many Minnesotans are getting their end-of-summer fill at the State Fair, I am filling my stomach and my soul at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

After attending the festival for seventeen seasons, these have become some of my favorite go-to summer foods at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

Honorary Mention:

The Feast of Fantasy. This six course meal of appetizer, soup, salad, two entrees, dessert, and bottomless wine or beer. The menu is top notch, changes every year.

I've had the pleasure of attending the feast three times as a patron. Two and a half hours of food, entertainment, laughs, music, and good friends. The show is usually $60 or more depending on what feast you attend, but it is absolutely worth it for the quality, good times, and memories.

Pickles

People complain that they're now two dollars instead of one, but that's just fine with me. The current two dollar pickles are big and are available in regular and spicy. On a hot, hot day, nothing tastes as good as a cold pickle. It's renaissance Gatorade - salty, filling, delicious. If you ask the pickle vendors nicely, they will give you pickle brine and ice. The vendors also sell fun buttons for one dollar each. These vendors are vendors, but they are also hard working entertainers. They may not be a part of cast, but they are doing their part to make sure you have a good time. It's a two dollar snack show, and 100% worth it.

Pickles are located all over the MNRF festival grounds.

Thai-Noodle Salad

This is one of those items that is a favorite among the Riddle Masters. One person orders it, chances are, at least one more of us will be ordering it before the end of the day. A bed of spinach greens, noodles, cubed chicken, nuts, green onions, topped with a spicy peanut sauce. I have a pretty mild palate when it comes to spicy food, but this dish makes me sweat in the best way. It is NOT a regular menu item, it is a secret menu item. The beauty of this item, is while everyone else is waiting in long lines for turkey legs and burgers, the wait at the wrap & salad booth is rarely more than four people deep; making this lunch option quickly available, delicious, and rarely sold out.

The salad and wrap booth of Cartwheel Cove near the exit of The Mermaid Cove is the exclusive purveyor of this item.

Cheese Curds

Many vendors have come and gone over the years, including multiple cheese curd vendors. One that has stayed over the years: Sir Elsworth Cheese Curds. Serving, exclusively, battered - NOT crumbed, fried cheese curds with marinara. Cheese curds coming from Elsworth creamery in Wisconsin, these regional cheese curds, some big some small, crunch and melt in the most delightful way. Get the large size with marinara, absolutely worth it.

Cheese curds are available in the row of food booths near the Crown Stage near the Queens Gate entrance.

Chocolate Gelato

After working and playing a long, hot day at the renaissance festival, there is nothing that tastes as good as a chocolate milkshake. Since I don't always have the ability to go and get one, there is a quality bit of heaven available right on site. I am a firm believer in paying for quality over quantity. I love ice cream and gelato. This small cup of gelato is only about a three-to-four ounce scoop, for four or five dollars (my memory is failing me), but when it is a hot day, and have spent the day making people smile and laugh, the feeling of that cold, silky, not-too-sweet milky goodness hitting my tongue is priceless. For a few seasons, I have become familiar with the mother and daughter who have frequently operated the booth. These kind ladies are who truly keep me coming back. I could go get soft-serve or a frozen slice of cheesecake elsewhere, but these fabulous ladies and their delicious gelato are quality embodied.

Gelato is available in the same row of booths known as Cartwheel Cove; same area as the Salad/Wrap booth near the exit of the Mermaid Cove.

Summer may have just begun, but I cannot wait for it to wind down so I can have these flavors again.