Let’s be honest: Most people come for the beer. After 7 p.m., Oktoberfest at the Puyallup Fair becomes a 21-and-over event. Even in mid-afternoon, the liquid ambrosia flowed freely.

That’s what attracted Mike Budd. He just got off work in Sumner and made a beeline for the fairgrounds.

“Hey, I like beer,” he said. “And this is a pretty cool place to have a few.”

Indeed it was. German music filled the room, prompting several people to dance. A woman swayed on a swing attached to the rafters. And food booths served up sizzling sausages.

“There’s something about an Oktoberfest celebration,” Tacoma’s Keith Henderson, “that makes me just want to come and have a good time.”

Really, is there any doubt what drew these two to Scandinavian Days at the Puyallup Fair?

One’s name is Skjaldvor Guo. The other is from Sigrid Straatveit. They’re both from Olympia.

“We’re Scandinavian, so we just had to come!” Guo said.

The two, both from Finnish and Norwegian heritage, spent about three hours at the celebration. Inside the hall at the fairgrounds, hundreds of people lined up for Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce. They roamed through booths that offered T-shirts, hats, arts and crafts and clocks for sale. Exhibits described the Scandinavian history of the region.

Jamie Shilley brought her 11-month-old daughter, Violet, to the celebration. The 33-year-old Tacoma woman is part of a mothers’ group that organizes day trips.

She was waiting for the Viking meal – a plate crammed with meatballs, potatoes and vegetables. She also spent some time at Oktoberfest, just across the street.

“I’m really looking forward to the food,” she said. “And I’ve already looked at some of the booths. There’s just a lot of neat stuff here.”

OK, I’ll admit I’ve never been to the Nordic countries. A trip to Amsterdam – a mere 387 miles from Copenhagen – is as close as I’ve received. But I got the feel of Scandinavia: Words were written with with plenty of Js and Vs and Os with lines through them, and bunch of similarly designed but differently colored flags surrounded me. (Didn’t see any guys sporting a golden helmet with horns, though.)

And if this is how they eat in northern Europe, then they’ve got it good.

I started with the Swedish meatball plate with lingonberry preserves ($5). Some folks put sauce on meatballs that’s so thick it’s like glue, but this stuff was just right.

I finished with some Scandinavian pancakes ($4) – two crepe-style pancakes filled with strawberry preserves and whipped cream and topped with powdered sugar. As Southern belles like to exclaim, “Good Lawd.” This was pure deliciousness on a plate (even if they could’ve used a bit more strawberry).

And because they’re just called Scandinavian pancakes, you can use your imagination about what country they’re from. I pretended I was eating Icelandic dessert.

Zelma Zalit has been driving from Federal Way the past eight years to attend the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma.

“I’m here for the cheeses, the pastries, all of it,” the retiree said. “It’s just all so good.”

She also enjoys the celebration of other cultures, she said as she ate a gyro and listened to Greek music.

“It’s the ambiance of a different culture,” she said. “That’s what keeps e coming back.”

Meanwhile, patrolling the booths of the tent like a seasoned beat cop was none other than Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.

“The gyros were very good, the souvlakis was wonderfully marinated and had just the right amount of oregano, and the calamari was excellent,” he said. “And that doesn’t begin to talk about the pastries.”

Give him credit: Dude knows his Greek food.

There are two places to grab a bite at Tacoma’s Greek Festival: Inside the church itself, where you can purchase by the plate, or outside under a large tent, where the food comes a la carte.

I opted for outside.

First stop was the table selling gyros ($5). I got mine without tomatoes (just don’t like them that much). The meat was tender but not overly greasy. The sauce was tangy but not salty. And the whole thing was gone in about three minutes.

The Greek fries were tasty and a good deal for $3. They’re Greek instead of French fries because, as the guy serving them told me, “they’ve got Greek seasoning on ‘em.” Oregano? I dunno; I ain’t the food critic. But one topping I did recognize was feta cheese. I never thought it would go well with French, err, Greek fries, but I was pleasantly surprised.

And I finished things off with baklava ($2). My biggest complaint about the stuff is that usually it falls apart into about a thousand crumbs after the first bite. This stuff, though, kept together but still managed to be flaky. I was tempted to purchase an entire tray of 12 pieces for $12, but my editors wouldn’t be to happy if I tried to expense my gym membership.

I found it.

The place to go at the fair.

Forget the fried food and funnel cakes. The rodeo and music artists are afterthoughts now. When you make it out to the fairgrounds look for a small, out of the way place with a black roof and no line. On the roof they advertise the “fresh strawberry mega shake.”

Emphasis on mega.

But let me warn you, the price is steep. The mega shake costs $7. But for fair prices, it’s worth it. After ordering (apparently the sign on the roof is the menu) I watch the kind woman behind the counter slowly ladle real strawberries from a bucket into a real blender and fill it with real soft serve. It got so thick that she repeatedly had to intervene with a spatula during the blending and make sure it was all mixed up.

It is absolutely massive. It is delicious. And somehow I drank the whole thing.

I need a nap.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

They advertise that their Snowball is “better than a Blizzard.”

It’s tough to argue.

The stand inside the stadium titled "Soft Ice Cream - Root Beer Float" (I couldn't find its actual name written anywhere) sells its answer to Dairy Queen’s iconic treat. For $4.50, they mix a cup full of ice cream with crumbled candy. I opted for Butterfinger.

It tasted very similar to the DQ product, but the candy bar seemed like it was crumbled up even more finely. That all of the ice cream taste like Butterfinger. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

It was noticibly smoother and not nearly as thick as a Blizzard. I’m the last guy to crack on a Blizzard, but this seemed like an upgrade. And a great way to cool down and finish off a day of gorging on food.

Next stop: the gym. I knew I should have brought some ipecac with me.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

Brian and I have been telling you where is good to eat. Well, allow me a second to let me tell you where not go buy a drink.

The Sausage Shack.

The price seemed reasonable (by fair standards): $3.25 for a 24-ounce Diet Coke. The kid with my cup fills it about halfway with ice and begins to pour the drink. He’s about three-fourths of the way finished when the woman at the register stops him and snaps at him. “You’re not doing it right,” she said. “You gotta fill it all the way with ice.”

She puts even more ice cubes in my drink, making my 24-ounce cup able to hold about 2 or 3 drops.

That ain’t customer service, and I sure ain’t gonna eat at the Sausage Shack ever again.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

I’ve always had a fascination with Russia and Soviet history. I am embarrassed to admit, I even know the words to the English version of “He Must Be Like Putin.”

So I was obviously excited when I saw the Kaleenka Piroshky booth at the fair. After the fried abomination I just ate, I thought a nice, traditional pastry would hit the spot.

The nice people working the booth were speaking some language I didn’t understand, so I figured it would be traditional. I forked over the $10.50 for a vegetable piroshky and a strawberry lemonade. Upon first glance, I wasn’t that excited. It was fried (I thought they were baked, but hey, it is the fair). And it came wrapped in napkins.

To my surprise, it was pretty good. Through the thick bread were hashbrown-like potatoes, peas and sunflower seeds.

I enjoyed myself for the couple minutes while I was eating. It took me away from the teenagers with no shirts on and the screaming kids in strollers.

But now I am going to be humming Dschinghis Khan’s "Moskau" for the rest of the day.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

It was greasy. It was big. It had cheese.

The Cheesequake Burger was basically the perfect lunch.

Scott Oberstaller, a designer on our sports desk, once told me that the Earthquake Burger (and its American cheese-topped cousin, the Cheesequake) was larger than my head. That’s a big statement. I have a size 8 hatband, meaning Barry Bonds looks like a pinhead compared to me.

But bigger than my head the burger was not. Tasty it was. If you’re expecting restaurant-style lean ground sirloin, you’ll be upset. But if you know that thin, fatty meat favored by a lot of fair vendors, then realize it’s on par with that. It’s also no frills: the bun, the patty and some onions. Condiments are on a cart next to the red, white and blue stand.

But it’s its size that makes the Cheesequake ($9.95) stick out. It’s the size of a small plate. And it made me want to stretch out on one of the brown picnic tables next to the stand for a nap.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

I didn’t want to try anything that conventional.

So I walked up to the catch-all stand – fried veggies and korn fritters along with shaved ice. I saw “cheese sticks” and I thought a bit. Obviously, it wouldn’t be like a normal mozzarella stick because it would be called a mozzarella stick, and that wouldn’t be fair enough. I thought maybe cheddar, or American, which would likely make me hurl.

I took the plunge, and obviously they were mozzarella sticks. I think. It tasted like cheap pieces of string cheese dropped in a deep fryer for about a half an hour and topped with some phantom seasoning that I couldn’t taste.

Hey it was edible, and other than the streak of hot grease, not bad. Though it did cost $6.25.

Though I am unclear about why the woman at the booth told me to get ketchup.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.

My neighbor raves about Krusty Pups, so I made the corndog stand my first stop after Brian and I arrived at the fair. There are a few places to get the treats, including a funky ‘50sish silver building.

My pup cost $4. For an extra $6, I could add fries and a drink. (I passed.)

The first bite revealed something I suspected before I bought it: the corn dog was more corn (batter) than dog. That that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m of the belief that a good crab cake has more cake than crab, and ditto for a corndog – especially when most hot dogs can be safely described as “slaughterhouse leavings.”

I didn’t mind that deep-fried batter outdid the dog. The batter was crunchy (krusty?) on the outside and sweet on the inside. The dog was unremarkable – think what’s served at a company barbecue – but the overall taste worked. It’s fair food, after all.

Diner note: This is a live report from the Puyallup Fair. TNT Reporters Scott Fontaine and Brian Everstine eat their way around the fair today.