Frontier Fest Blog 2023
Over the weekend, Carsten and I got to try out all the food this year’s version of Frontier Festival has to offer! If you haven’t heard of Frontier Festival, it is an annual event that features a variety of different foods to sample, specialty cocktails, and dozens of beers, seltzers, and ciders to try. Along with the food and drink, Frontier Festival features a plenty of live entertainment, shopping, and games for the little ones, all within the bounds of Cedar Point’s Frontier Town. The park changes the theme of the food items every couple years. The last two years were themed to cherry. This year the park decided to change things up and do a corn themed event. The best part of the event however is that Cedar Point partners with “Prayers From Maria” to put on the event. “Prayers From Maria” is an organization that works to bring awareness to, and hopefully one day cure childhood cancer. You can read more about the organization here.
How about we go through each food item. Carsten and I got to try everything and overall, the food offerings this year are excellent! We started with more “real” food and then moved into the desserts. Let’s jump in with the first thing we tried, the corn on the cob served with your choice of butter. You can choose from herb, garlic, or chipotle butter. Or, if you’re wanting to try all three, you can ask to have all types of butter served in a cup on the side instead of just picking one type of butter. Simply put, this corn is absolutely fantastic! The corn itself is sweet and juicy and all three butters taste fabulous, though I think chipotle was our winner. We both gave the corn on the cob a score of a 9.
Next up is the chorizo jalapeño flat bread. This was definitely the favorite of the day and I have actually already bought another tasting card to make sure I can get this again a few more times before the end of the event. On the flatbread you have cheese, corn, jalapeños chorizo, and a sweet and spicy BBQ sauce. All these together give an amazing taste. I gave it a high score of a 10 and Carsten gave it a 9.5. Seriously this and the corn on the cob are worth it alone.
Moving on we have corn fritters topped with sour cream and chives. This was another huge hit. Think corn bread with some different seasonings and of course topped off with the aforementioned sour cream and chives. These little fritters are really, really tasty and leave a great taste in your mouth. You also get three with just one tasting ticket. I gave these a score of a 9, and Carsten a 6.5
Next, we have jalapeño creamed corn empanadas. For one ticket you get two of these decently sized empanadas that are also topped with a salsa. These weren’t the best thing we tasted but that doesn’t mean they weren’t tasty. The salsa topping added a nice flavor. I rated this a 5 and Carsten gave it a 6.
Before getting into the next item, I should mention that I am not a huge fan of quesadillas to begin with, so you can imagine that the elote sweet corn quesadilla was not high on my priority list. The quesadilla was pretty tasty and cooked beautifully on a grill right in front of the booth they are served at, however I personally couldn’t enjoy it simply because I am not a quesadilla fan. If you like quesadillas and cheese, then this should be a hit. I gave this a score of a 4.5, and Carsten gave a score of a 7.5.
What I am a huge fan of is pierogis, so I was very excited for the red bliss potato pierogis which are also grilled right in front of you. The pierogis are filled with redskin potato, cheese, and maybe a hint of bacon. They were very tasty on their own plus they were served with a corn topping. I gave these a score of 6.5 and Carsten gave an 8. The only thing keeping these lower for me is the lack of sour cream served with them.
The final bit of “real” food was walking tacos served at Miss Keats. On this day it was served over Doritos and while this was tasty, it really wasn’t much different than what you can already get from Miss Keats on the dining plan, with less toppings available. If it told me anything it is that I have to eat at Miss Keats this year. I gave a score of 3 due to the lack of toppings available, and Carsten gave a score of a 7.5.
Now on to the dessert and sweet stuff. I must also preface all of this saying I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so my scores for the upcoming items are a bit low. That being said, if you do have a sweet tooth, this stuff should all taste great to you. First up was the infamous corn ice cream with caramel corn and butterscotch topping. The only word I can use to describe this is “weird” because that is exactly what it is. Vanilla ice cream with full pieces of corn in it. Weird. However, it didn’t taste bad, and the caramel corn added a nice touch. I gave it a 6 and Carsten scored it a 9.
Next was the popcorn slab which was basically caramel corn, cheddar popcorn, and regular popcorn all melted together. This was actually pretty tasty, but extremely sweet. Interesting idea though and I wouldn’t be opposed to trying again in the future. Carsten gave a score of an 8.5 and I gave it a 5.5.
Next up was kettle corn. Not a whole lot to say here as it was just standard kettle corn like it is served on Frontier Trail during Halloweekends. The best part was that you get a large bag for only one tasting ticket. Tasty as always and we both scored it a 7.
Moving on we come to the sweet corn cheesecake square. Quite simply it was cheesecake with pieces of corn in it. The cheesecake on its own was pretty good. The corn gave it a strange dynamic but not necessarily a bad one. Carsten gave it a score of an 8.75 and me a 7.
Last but not least was funnel cake fries with caramel corn drizzle. This is definitely something that someone who is not a sweet tooth should avoid as it is probably the sweetest thing on the whole menu. That being said, the fries and drizzle tasted good, but only for a little bit before it got to be a bit too sweet for me. I rated this one a 5, and Carsten a 7.5.
All in all, we both really enjoyed this event, and will both be purchasing more tasting cards so we can try our favorites over and over again. Each food item costs one ticket, as does an 8oz beer sample. Tickets can be bought online or at the event. You can get 6 tastes for $39.99 or 10 tastes for $59.99. For the amount of food you get with each sample that is a great price and can easily feed the whole family lunch or dinner. The event runs now through June 18th so get to Cedar Point and get corny!
I hope you enjoyed reading and look forward to more blogs in the future!
Evan
Special thanks to Cedar Point for inviting us! Visit our Facebook page for more videos and pictures!
