Texas State Fair’s Best New Food

The State Fair of Texas held the 2017 Big Tex Choice Awards and crowned the winning foods from a smorgasbord of fried creations.

If you read our rundown of the 10 glorious finalists, you know that competitors went above and beyond this year. They fearlessly fried things that were never meant to be fried and made it rain powdered sugar.

The final foods included wine-flavored popcorn, beef french fries, a tamale donut and something called “Fat Smooth.”

A panel of six judges, including Maple & Motor’s Jack Perkins, presided over the competition, while the audience had the opportunity to try all 10 over-the-top finalists for themselves.

Which dishes were the (state) fairest of them all? Surprisingly, the judges awarded only two foods out of the bunch.

The Funnel Cake Queso Bacon Burger cleaned up at the competition, taking home the award for Best Taste – Savory, as well as the award for Most Creative.

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as it was the only carnival food on the list which managed to combine funnel cake, queso, bacon, beef and powdered sugar.

They fearlessly fried things that were never meant to be fried and made it rain powdered sugar.

As I noted before, this is the State Fair of Texas and too much is never enough.

One can only imagine the lengths that next year’s competitors will have to go to top the crazy burger. 

The other big winner on Sunday was the Gulf Coast Fish Bowl, which took home the award for Best Taste – Sweet. The spiked tropical punch is presented playfully, in a fishbowl with Nerds candy and Swedish Fish. Apparently the blue drink really was “specially formulated,” seeing as it beat out desserts including Fried Froot Loops to take the top prize.

However, all 10 of the Big Tex Choice Awards Finalists will be on offer at the State Fair, which opens September 29. So if you were intrigued by the Fried Texas Sheet Cake, the Deep Fried Chicken Noodle Soup, or the Surfin’ Turfin’ Tator Boat, you’re still in luck.