The houses stand one after another along a street on the Big E fairground and each one showcases what some consider to be the cultural highlights of each state. Each of the houses is a smaller-scale replica of the given state's original state house.
The best thing about the Avenue of the States is the different foods available within each house. Everything was relatively cheap; when you hear people talking about the Big E being expensive, they don't mean that the individual foods are costly. The Big E becomes an expensive because there is no possibly way to resist a lot of the foods they have. Sam and I made a point of at least tasting something from each of the state houses. Only in the Connecticut house did we not pay for something.
And now, on to the states!
New Hampshire
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We started with the New Hampshire house. Inside, the first food we saw was a homemade fudge stand. The stand had a lot of different varieties, from standard chocolate to pumpkin. Because we couldn't settle on just one but didn't want to spend so much money on fudge (it was roughly $9 per pound), we decided to ask the girl behind the counter for her thoughts on the best fudge they had and buy half a pound of it. Her suggestion? Pumpkin fudge. She handed us two samples, and it was delicious -- much better than I anticipated, because honestly, how can you not be initially skeptical about pumpkin flavored fudge when the standard is chocolate? At first, I just wanted to buy out their entire stock of chocolate-with-nuts fudge. I looked at the "pumpkin" label on the glass and thought to myself, "I bet that's gross." I was seriously wrong. If you visit the New Hampshire house and decide to buy some of this fudge, do yourself a favor and at least sample the pumpkin fudge. You will not regret it.
(New Hampshire also sold a lot of other nifty little things, such as fanny packs with cats embroidered on them.)
Connecticut
Connecticut was the one state house in which we didn't buy anything. Aside from the positively divine maple syrup and maple cream samples we had, the house didn't have much to offer. The samples, however, made the visit to the Connecticut house totally worth our time. The man running the table told us that his wife had made the syrup and the cream, both of which were almost miraculously good. The only thing that held us back from buying any of it was the fact that both Sam and I live in a dorm and would have little to no use for homemade maple products, regardless of how tasty they are.
Vermont
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Vermont and food? Personally, I think of cheese, so the Vermont house was awesome to walk through. We didn't buy any cheese, but I did sample a piece of Green Mountain Boys cheese, a type only sold at the Big E during its few weeks in operation every year. It tasted like cheddar, but with something extra and not quite identifiable.
One of my absolute favorite things about the fall season is hot cider, so it was an exciting moment when, after sampling a bite of Green Mountain Boys cheese, we rounded the corner in the Vermont house and saw a stand selling hot cider and fresh cider doughnuts. Getting into the line for the stand, you pass by a window featuring fresh doughnuts on display. Through this window you can watch two men making the doughnuts -- mixing the dough, molding it into circles. We stepped up to the stand and ordered. I had a cup of hot spiced cider while Sam had a cup of cold cider and a hot doughnut. (Now would be an opportune time to state that Sam always insisted that I take the "inaugural bite" of each thing we ordered, which was adorable, and made the Big E experience that much better.)
Maine
The state of Maine is renowned for its lobster, but especially for its lobster rolls. Lobstering is a major part of the fishing industry in the state, and as a result the people there tend to know what they're doing when it comes to cooking with the crustacean. Walking into the Maine house, Sam excitedly said, "Lobster rolls!"
I would not call myself a lobster aficionado by any means, although I am very much a seafood snob because I come from northeastern Massachusetts. (Fish chowder and most clam foods are my forte, to be perfectly honest.) The taste of lobster has just never blown my skirt up. I've only ever eaten it a handful of times in my nearly 21 years of existence. My mother lives for it, though, so I had to have a bite of Sam's lobster roll if only to brag to her about it later.
The thing was delicious. The lobster was noticeably fresh, and the amount of mayonnaise wasn't overwhelming like I normally expect it to be (honestly, every time you see a lobster roll or any other roll involving seafood with mayonnaise, it looks like the fish is frowning in mayo, right?). I took the inaugural bite and Sam enjoyed the rest.
The line for the Maine Baked Potatoes starts outside and weaves through a queue line, amusement park style. During the Big E's busy weekends, people fill that line and extend around the Maine building's exterior. We came on a Tuesday, though, and didn't have any wait at all. My excitement and anticipation grew after looking at the choices of toppings: butter, sour cream, cheese, chives, and bacon bits.
I opted for sour cream, cheese, and bacon bits. I only had one qualm with the potato: the cheese was liquid cheese, the type you'd get on a hot dog at a baseball game. As a result, the taste wasn't as good as it could be. The bacon bits weren't fresh-off-the-griddle bacon bits, so they didn't look like bacon, but they tasted exactly the same. It's understandable that the stand would resort to such ingredients because they have to feed thousands and thousands of people some days. Had I been making the potato myself in my own kitchen, I would have had the time and the resources to grate my own cheese and grill my own bacon. Just saying.
Massachusetts
Since we're from Massachusetts, I wasn't expecting our state house to have anything that I'd be interested in eating. The Massachusetts house had lobster rolls, but since we'd already eaten one just minutes before, we opted to skip it (though they were cheaper there). That wasn't the only thing in our state house, though. There were also various fresh berries and milk. The berries were juicy and clearly must have been picked in the last 24 hours, and the milk was unlike any milk I've ever tasted (in a good way). It was creamy and, like the berries, lobster, doughnuts and everything else we'd tasted already, extremely fresh.
The Massachusetts house also offered Finnish pancakes and had a display of wines from a local brewer. Unfortunately for me, I'm not of the legal drinking age just yet (only six and a half more weeks!), so I couldn't try any.
Rhode Island
In doing my research of the Big E the day before going, I made a list of all the foods I knew I should try. At the top of that list was the chowder in the Rhode Island house. It was difficult to maintain patience as we wandered through all of the other houses on the Avenue of the States, especially after noticing that we'd be visiting Rhode Island last.
There are two seafood stands inside the Rhode Island house. I chose to visit the Kenyon's stand and to order a bowl of shrimp and corn chowder. I also made the tough decision to skip the bread bowl because I was so stuffed from all the other state houses. This chowder was so close to perfection that I thought I could die. The only problem I had with it was the amount of pepper in it, but that's strictly personal because I have an oddly low tolerance for anything remotely spicy. Aside from that, it was an amazing dish. The broth was creamy, the vegetable-to-shrimp ratio was spot on, and I couldn't see my face in it -- the grease factor was at a minimum.
The Big E will be a daily happening in West Springfield until October 3. If you're going strictly for the food, be sure to check out these standout foods from the Avenue of the States and enjoy a bite of each part of New England.
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