DALLAS – The State Fair of Texas announced its winners for the 14th annual Big Tex Choice Awards on Sunday.
For 2018, the competition for Best Taste was separated into two categories -- "Sweet and Savory"along with a category for "Most Creative".
Recommended Videos
Here are the winners for 2018:
Savory
Winner: Fernie’s Hoppin’ John Cake with Jackpot Sauce by Winter Family Concessions
Taking home the title for Best Taste – Savory, this entry is a unique take on a traditional New Year’s Eve “good luck” dish.
The classic ingredients of creamy, nutty black-eyed peas, fluffy white rice, spicy smoke sausage, green onions, and a secret blend of special spices are mixed with bread crumbs and eggbeaters to form a Texas-sized cake. Then, the cake is deep fried and topped with a zingy black-eyed pea relish, garnished with pickled okra, and served with a side of Jackpot sauce.
Sweet
Winner: Arroz con Leche (Sweet Crispy Rice) by the Garza Family
The winner for Best Taste – Sweet, Arroz con Leche is a delectable cinnamon spiced rice ball formed, battered, and coated in crispy puffed rice cereal. The ball is then deep fried to golden perfection.
Most Creative
Winner: Cotton Candy Taco by Justin & Rudy Martinez
This year’s winner for Most Creative starts with a graham cracker waffle cone batter that is then squeezed into a crunchy taco shell shape.
The taco is then coated with a marshmallow glaze and stuffed with chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and organic cane sugar cotton candy. It is topped off with chocolate cookie crumbles and two chocolate cream-covered biscuit sticks with marshmallows.
The contest kicked off in mid-July with an impressive 49 entries represented by 30 concessionaires.
The final 10 this year were Arroz con Leche (Sweet Crispy Rice) by the Garza Family, Cotton Candy Taco by Justin & Rudy Martinez, Texas Fried Hill Country by Justin & Rudy Martinez, Deep Fried Shepherd’s Pie by Clint Probst, Deep Fried Skillet Potato Melt in a Boat by Tom Grace, Fernie’s Hoppin’ John Cake with Jackpot Sauce by Winter Family Concessions, Fernie’s Orange You Glad We Fried It?! by Winter Family Concessions, State Fair Fun-L Cake Ice Cream by Tom Landis, Sweet Bakin’ Bacon by Ed & Eddie Campbell, and Texas Twang-kie by Chris & Sherry Howard.
The State Fair of Texas runs Friday, Sept. 28 through Sunday, Oct. 21. You can visit BigTex.com for more information.