The State Fair of Texas is the country’s largest and embodies everything Texas: long horns for sale, cowboys spinning lassos on top of trucks and, of course, lots of deep fried food. In recent years, the competition to deep fry the most outrageous thing has heated up with “food” items such as butter, bubblegum and even beer unable to escape the vats of boiling oil. So what should you get if you only have a day at the fair like we did? While no one’s body can handle the punishment of trying everything that has been thrown in the deep fryer here, below are my thoughts on what we did manage to ingest:
Corny Dog 
The state fair favorite and rightly so. A meaty hot dog, covered in fried cornbread. The absolute must try at the fair.
Mexican Fire Cracker 
Similar to a deep fried cheese, chicken and jalapeno tamale. While it’s mostly gooey cheese, it has a nice kick and was definitely a favorite of the savory foods.
Fried Jambalaya Ball The 2012 winner for best taste was very tasty indeed. The spicy fried rice would have been great without deep frying and for good measure it’s surrounded by an onion ring. The only complaint is it’s probably the smallest thing you can buy in the state of Texas.
Fried Mac N Cheese Sliders 
Probably the biggest disappointment of the fair. How can you go wrong with a mini-burger topped with fried mac n cheese? The patty was dry and mac n cheese was bland. It didn’t help they were out of ketchup and the surrounding vendors refused to share (I thought people were supposed to be friendly down there!)
Fried Cookie Dough 
I realized when I ate this that one my favorite parts of eating cookie dough is the gooey but firm texture. And as you’ can imagine,the deep fryer practically liquefies the dough. Still tasty, but slightly disappointing.
Fried S’mores The chocolate overpowered the marshmallow and I’m not sure there even were graham crackers. If you want big balls of fried sweet chocolate then this is your deal, but it tasted little like s’mores to me.
State Fair of Texas
24 Days beginning the last Friday of September
Fair Park
Dallas, TX
