How to eat like a Minnesotan

Are you one of the millions of annual visitors to the Twin Cities? If so, you might be wondering what exactly is Minnesota food and how can you eat like a Minnesotan?

With so many choices, like hotdish, lefse, wild rice, Jucy Lucy's (cheesy surprise inside our burgers), craft beer, tater tots, Jell-O salad, SPAM^®, Swedish meatballs and fusion foods everywhere you look...where do you start?

Well, your Healthy Set Go team searched the web and found three excellent resources to get you started:

This Mpls/St. Paul Magazine's food blog by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl and Stephanie March hits the mark if you want an authentic Minnesota food experience.

Two other great resources are Minnesota's Most Iconic Dishes, from the #FoodNetwork, and a blog list from Spoon University that includes many new as well as iconic Minnesota eats. A warning though: some closures have happened, so check before you set out.

To experience a mix of many cultures in one spot, we recommend visiting Allina Health's backyard. Our corporate headquarters shares space in the Midtown Exchange Building (the former Sears Roebuck store) with the Midtown Global Market. It's a short Metro Transit bus ride (Route #5) from downtown Minneapolis. Wander the aisles and kiosks and fill your shopping baskets and bellies with falafel from Holy Land, pho at Pham's Rice Bowl, tamales from La Loma Tamales or a camel burger from Safari Express.

Wherever you end up, we hope you enjoy your visit and come back again. Maybe during the Minnesota State Fair for even more ways to eat like a Minnesotan—with foods on a stick this time!