Best state fair foods

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Arizona State Fair foods, ranked: What to eat and what to skip

This article contains affiliate links. Give Me The Mike received compensation for posting some of the websites below. From alligator to milkshakes to deep-fried Twinkies, there are hundreds of foods available at the Minnesota State Fair. And I have just as many guides to help you navigate your way around: a list of foods for first-timers , and another rattling off underrated foods.

It does change each year, and your feedback makes an impact. And gosh, those cookies are way overrated. This list was compiled before the State Fair, and thus, does not include foods new to the Fair this year. A new list will be published before the end of the State Fair. Click here for reviews of official and unofficial new foods. They did not bring that item back for the State Fair.

I get it with onions, but you can opt out of those if you want. The bun is buttery and perfect. Every year, I have multiple people contact me on Twitter after they tried this burger because they wanted to thank me for the recommendation.

This cheeseburger needs to be in your life. One order comes with three generous portions that are skewered on-a-stick and topped with powdered sugar. In , the Fair added a new vendor serving deep-fried cookie dough.

I asked Twin Cities Live fans what they feel are the most underrated foods at the Minnesota State Fair, and the Australian Potatoes came in number one.

I can see why. You will not be able to eat an order of these on your own. Fairs are known for mixing strange ingredients into one cohesive dish, just like they did with cotton candy ice cream. They taste like Oreos, wrapped in pancakes and covered in powdered sugar. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Best of all, you can make over a dozen in less than 15 minutes.

Check out this recipe for deep-fried Mars or Milky Way bars, as well. The inside, though, is a mix of creamy milk chocolate and rich, soft nougat. They have a generous coating of cinnamon and sugar, which adds a whole other depth of flavor and a fun texture to them. It has two soft, round chocolate cookies with a rich, creamy filling.

Depending on where you live, elephant ears may not be as common at your local fair. Is there anything better on a cold fall morning than a hot, crispy apple fritter covered in a sticky glaze?

These have the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness, and the delicious cinnamon sugar topping exemplifies fall as nothing else could.

You still get that slight sweetness from the corn, but the bacon adds a salty crunch, and the jalapeno peppers bring additional heat to the already tasty dish. The paprika and pepper give these snacks their robust flavor, and that added bit of dill helps ensure the sourness of the dill pickles still comes through after frying them.

All that is piled onto a crispy slice of French bread and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food. The crispy outer shell is full of flavor, while the inside remains gooey and cheesy, just like mac and cheese should be. He never lets me leave a fair without picking him up a caramel apple. Corn fritters combine the sweetness of corn with all kinds of good things — butter, parmesan cheese, onions, and more. Biting into the crispy, garlic batter and getting to the juicy, slightly sour green tomato beneath is a true treasure.

If you enjoy crispy tortillas, gooey cheese, juicy ground beef, and all the toppings you could imagine, then nachos are the fair food for you.

This recipe is pretty fantastic as written, but one of the best things about nachos is the ability to customize them to your tastes. Anyone can make waffle fries, but loaded waffle fries are a county fair exclusive at least in my experience! They have plenty of flavor from the garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, and beer. And the beer batter makes them thin and crispy. The Florida State Fair , as we mentioned earlier, takes place in the winter, so 's fair wrapped up in February.

Still, the best new fair foods tend to come back for an encore the following year, and by the year after that, they become a well-established tradition. So what future Florida State Fair staples were introduced in ? They, too, had a fancied-up cinnamon roll, theirs topped with cinnamon apple pie filling and caramel sauce. Our favorite of Florida's new offerings, however, was something that at first glance might seem to be a similar mashup. The funnel cake taco actually came down pretty definitively on the side of savory rather than sweet.

It was made from a taco shell dipped in funnel cake batter flavored with Buffalo sauce, then deep-fried as per best state fair practice. The taco was then filled with buffalo chicken dip, lettuce, cheese, ranch dressing blue cheese would have been better; just saying , and crumbled Doritos, with not a single crumbled cookie or frosting drizzle in sight.

That's what we're talking about! When Chicago's WGN asked a fair spokesperson about 's must-try new concession items, they responded: "Oh my goodness, we have so many great new foods that are coming. Whether you are looking for a healthy alternative or the deep-fried goodness, we have you covered here at the Illinois State Fair. The fair's website informs us that 's new vendors will be selling such items as curry, jerk chicken, pizza, street corn, street tacos, fruit slushies, horseshoe sandwiches a Springfield-area specialty , and something called apple pie fries no description provided.

While it was hard to come up with a winner based on such scanty information, we made our choice based on aesthetics alone: A vendor with the enigmatic name of 1DK. LLC is selling something called a rainbow grilled cheese. Its Facebook page shows that the sandwich is, as advertised, a full spectrum of colors, and looks to be a far tastier way to eat the rainbow than a handful of Skittles.

Others are a little more off the wall: pickle pizza, an ice cream parfait with boba balls and gummy bears, and that Midwestern favorite, a giant Bloody Mary topped with sliders, pickles, bacon, and everything else that fits on a swizzle stick. Our absolute favorite is a hilarious take on charcuterie, a popular food fad that has perhaps been growing a bit stale of late.

There's nothing pretentious about the Indiana State Fair's take on this trend, though: cotton candy, salt water taffy, popcorn plain and caramel , tiny funnel cakes, and miniature corn dogs, all attractively plated on the finest serviettes en papier. As the fair is still going on as we write this, a winner has yet to be chosen in the fan-favorite food competition, but State Fair Charcuterie would get our vote for sure.

The Iowa State Fair knows a thing or two about promoting its main attraction: It has 53 new foods this year and has helpfully provided a brochure with a map marking the locations where each can be found. Ten of these foods also competed in a new foods contest. The finalist will be chosen by fan votes once the fair begins. While "donut sandwich" may sound like a Gordon Ramsay insult , this last-named item is our pick for Iowa State Fair must-try.

What's more, the fried chicken's crunchy crumb crust made of Frosted Flakes cereal sounds like something worth trying at home. Well, we suppose all's fair in love and fair food. The Kansas State Fair boasts plus food vendors and it freely admits to being all about deep-fried everything on a stick as well as "legendary favorites and items that are just plain wacky. Of the three new items it does mention, just one is deep-fried —- the cheesecake bites — although the website doesn't disclose whether or not skewers are involved.

We begrudgingly award a tie finish to the other two items, although we're not anxious to try either one. The first is the Krispy Kreme hot dog, wrapped in bacon and served on a jelly donut not one from the more regionally-appropriate LaMar's , for shame.

These really aren't new, as it appears the fair also offered Krispy Kreme dogs in The second winner is a burger encased in a honey bun —- as an upgrade, you can even get it with chocolate-covered bacon.

Nice, but we think we'll save our appetites for the fair's tried-and-true favorites like apple dumplings or beefy bacon-wrapped Moink Balls "moink" is a combination of "moo" and "oink". The Kentucky State Fair has yet to start really touting all the new foods for the coming year — or their selection is limited. The donut burger, at least, does have a Kentucky-centric spin in that it's paired with bourbon-glazed ham Kentucky is the state where bourbon barrels outnumber people , while carnival food aficionados may prefer the burger topped with funnel cake fries.