Start saving your appetite now! You’ll need it at the State Fair of Texas, which just announced its diet-busting Big Tex Choice Award winners for 2024.
The State Fair has held the competition each year since 2005, with concessionaires frying up increasingly creative—and sometimes unbelievable—offerings for a chance to become a finalist in the competition. Earlier this month, we showed you all 10 finalists for 2024.
And now the results are in. Here’s what will be tempting you this year from Friday, September 27, through Sunday, October 20. Photos and descriptions are all courtesy of the State Fair of Texas.
2024 Big Tex Choice Awards ‘Savory’ Winner
[Photo: State Fair of Texas]
Dominican Fritura Dog
by Justin Martinez
This savory dish brings an explosion of flavor that starts with fritura cheese and Dominican salami. Taking classic Fair food up a notch, this dish is then double deep fried with their famous corn dog batter! Split open and topped with garlic plantain chips, top-secret Dominican sauce, and cilantro, the Dominican Fritura Dog will bring you the best of salty and sweet with an explosion of Dominican flavor. “Hopefully, we’re opening another avenue for people at the State Fair to try something they don’t normally try,” creator Justin Martinez said. “That’s what the State Fair is about.” Martinez said. (The State Fair noted that the dog pairs well with Karbach’s Hopadillo Juicy IPA.)
2024 Big Tex Choice Awards ‘Sweet’ Winner
Rousso’s Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick by Isaac Rousso [Photo: State Fair of Texas]
Rousso’s Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick
by Isaac Rousso
This masterful combination of sweet and savory flavors comes to life with the Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick—a thick, 12-inch piece of bacon cooked to perfection with a cotton candy glaze on top. The bacon is spun inside a cotton candy machine and torched to caramelize the center and lock in that sweet flavor. (The State Fair noted that this stick-pierced wonder pairs well with Karbach’s Love Street.)
2024 Big Tex Choice Awards ‘Most Creative’ Winner
Texas Sugar Rush Pickles by Heather Perkins won “Most Creative” at the 2024 Big Tex Choice Awards. [Photo: State Fair of Texas]
Texas Sugar Rush Pickles
by Heather Perkins
These cotton-candy-flavored pickle slices are coated in three cereal varieties—Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, and Cap’n Crunch—and then layered in cotton candy, cotton candy sugar crystals, and powdered sugar before being drizzled with strawberry sundae syrup. As if that wasn’t enough, these dressed-up pickles are served with a helping of vanilla ice cream, adding a perfectly cool touch to this crazy concoction! (The State Fair noted that this pairs well with a Karbach’s Ranch Water Hard Seltzer.)
For more about this year’s State Fair of Texas at Fair Park in Dallas—including how to order discount tickets—go here.
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The 2024 State Fair of Texas runs September 27 to October 20 in Dallas' Fair Park. This year's big question: What will we be eating? Here are the Big Tex Choice Awards finalists—from Texas Rush Sugar Pickles to Hot Chick-in Pancake Poppers to Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick. (Yum.)
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