By Haley Herzog
TFB Communications Intern
State Fair of Texas officials announced the finalists for the 14th annual Big Texas Choice Awards.
This year’s fair theme is “Celebrating Texas Innovation” and fair concessionaires have worked year round to create a new lineup of delicious, edible innovations for the public to taste at this year’s fair.
Cotton candy, corn dogs and funnel cakes are the kind of concessions you might find at events throughout the year. But the Big Tex Choice Awards offers a variety of fair foods from savory to sweet and is one of the State Fair’s biggest traditions.
The finalists will compete for one of the three winning titles: Best Taste-Sweet, Best Taste-Savory and Most Creative.
The 2018 Big Tex Choice Awards finalists in the savory category include:
Deep Fried Shepherd’s Pie
Shredded cheddar cheese and cream is mixed into savory mashed potato pillows. Each potato ball is filled with Grandma’s shepherd’s pie filling made of ground beef, mixed vegetables and rich beef gravy.
Texas Fried Hill Country
Fried mozzarella is complemented with locally-grown basil, sandwiched between two slices of juicy green tomatoes and hand-breaded with seasoned breadcrumbs and flash fried to gooey perfection.
Texas Twang-Kie
Cornbread cake is baked to moist perfection, hollowed out and filled with a culinary masterpiece of Tex-Mex grilled chicken white bean chili. Each twang-kie is served with cornbread fries and more chili for dipping.
Deep Fried Skillet Potato Melt in a Boat
Buttery skillet potatoes are griddled golden brown, combined with diced breakfast sausage patties and packed around a mini Babybel® cheese loaf. Seasoned in flour and dipped in the fryer, the skillet potato melts are then served up in the potato skins they came from and topped with melted cheddar and crispy bacon bites.
Fernie’s Hoppin’ John Cake with Jackpot Sauce
Creamy black-eyed peas, fluffy white rice, spicy smoked sausage, aromatic green onions and a secret blend of spices are combined with breadcrumbs and eggbeaters to form a generous Texas-sized cake that is breaded and deep fried.
The finalists in the sweet category include:
Cotton Candy Taco
A graham cracker waffle cone is freshly-pressed into a crunchy taco shell shape and coated with a marshmallow glaze, then stuffed with chocolate, toasted marshmallow and organic cane sugar cotton candy. It’s topped off with chocolate cookie crumbles and two chocolate cream-covered biscuit sticks with marshmallows.
Fernie’s Orange You Glad We Fried It?!
Layers of chiffon orange cake, whipped cream and citrusy orange preserves are lightly blended to form a custard filling. The mixture is spooned into flaky puff pastry dough, folded turnover style, and sealed before being fried into little crescent-shaped pillows, dusted with powdered sugar.
Arroz Con Leche (Sweet Crispy Rice)
A cinnamon-spiced rice ball is formed, battered and coated in crispy puffed rice cereal. It is deep fried and sprinkled with powdered vanilla and complemented with a Texas-sized scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.
State Fair Fun-L Cake Ice Cream
This creamy smooth, premium ice cream has funnel cake flavor infused into it with funnel cake pieces and powdered sugar mixed throughout the dish. It is available with powdered sugar, whipped cream and strawberry sauce.
Sweet Bakin’ Bacon
A cream-filled sponge cake is wrapped in savory bacon, and then dipped in a funnel cake batter. This treat is then deep fried until golden brown and dusted with powdered sugar to finish.
Click here to see photos of the food.
The contest kicked off mid-July with 49 entries represented by 30 concessionaires.
The Big Tex Choice Awards have a unique selection process that involves “blind judging” from start to finish, which allows contestants to put their creativity to the test by coming up with enticing names and descriptions for their concoctions.
The Big Texas Choice Awards will be held Sunday, Aug. 26, at 2 p.m. in the historic Tower Bu