Deep Fried Butter, Chicken Fried Bacon, other Texas State Fair Attractions, plus Oprah

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Thread started 09/02/09 4:12pm

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Deep Fried Butter, Chicken Fried Bacon, other Texas State Fair Attractions, plus Oprah

State Fair of Texas reveals winning fried foods drooling sigh

Nothing says State Fair like fried cooking, and nothing says Texas like chicken fried steak. Glen Kusak’s chicken fried bacon combined both, winning him the best taste award Monday at the fourth annual Big Tex Choice Awards.

Mr. Kusak has been a fair vendor the past 12 years, but this was his first year entering the annual State Fair of Texas food contest. The event features some of the new creations that will be available at this year's fair, which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 19.

“Everything in Texas is chicken fried and bacon makes everything better so we thought we’d put the two together,” said Mr. Kusak, owner of Yoakum Packing, who drives about 250 miles every year from south Texas to sell his smoked meat at the fair.

A fried banana split, a mash of gooey banana and honey peanut butter balls surrounded by chunky fried dough and then smeared in caramel, chocolate and powdered sugar — and ice cream factors in there somewhere — won the most creative prize.

“We were looking for something sweet this year,” said Julio Torres, who entered fried guacamole bites into the competition last year for Weiss Enterprises. “One day we discovered that peanut butter and banana tastes good together and we thought, why not fry a banana split?”

Chefs, all food vendors at the fair, dished out samples of deep fried s’mores and fried chocolate truffles as the judges tasted the top eight entries, narrowed down from 45 submissions.

“All my chef friends are jealous,” said Blythe Beck, the executive chef for Hector’s on Henderson and one of four judges, between bites of a quartered fried-grilled cheese sandwich. “They asked, ‘How do you get to do this?’ I said, ‘I’m the mother of fried foods.”

The other judges admitted equal delight.

“I’m the biggest eater in the company so it made sense for me to come,” said Ken Murphy, who represents Mattress Firm, one of the largest sponsors at the fair. “It’s like a wine tasting but there’s not so much spitting out.”

Calorie-conscious cooking hasn’t hit the State Fair yet, so all finalist entries were fried even though the rules did not require it. About 200 vendors will serve items from the simple corny dog to fried snowballs during the fair’s run.

Cathy Barber, food editor for The Dallas Morning News and a contest judge, weighed the entries’ merits partly on the ease at which fairgoers could consume them while walking. (The after effects of lard-heavy products and whirl-a-while rides were not taken into consideration.)

Vendors spend months concocting the right entry — not too heavy on the dough, not too light on the oil — for this Texas-style gourmet cook-off.

Few know this better than Abel Gonzales Jr., who has won for the past three years for his fried coke, fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fried cookie dough. But he lost his coveted position as reigning champion.

Mr. Gonzales’ entry, a waffle cone filled with deep-fried pineapple and topped with a banana-flavored whipping cream frozen in liquid nitrogen, literally emitted smoke but not enough to claim a prize.

Randy Lane, a local psychiatrist and fast-food aficionado whose decision to judge was based more on his passion for batter than anything else, scooted his chair backwards as the winners were announced.

“They didn’t used to have fried food like this, all jazzed up,” said Mr. Lane, who has been attending the fair since childhood. “Outstanding.”

FRIED FINALISTS Eight finalists were selected out of 45 entries to the Big Tex Choice Awards, all of which will be for sale at this year's fair:

Best taste

Chicken-Fried Bacon; vendor: Glen Kusak, Yoakum Packing

Most creative

Fried Banana Split; vendor: Shirley Weiss, Auto Grill

Other finalists

• Fernie's All-American Fried Grilled Cheese Sandwich; vendor: Christi Erpillo, Dock Restaurant

• Texas Fried Jelly Bellys; vendor: Justin Martinez, Granny's Funnel Cake

• Deep Fried S'mores; vendor: Tami Stiffler

• Fire & Ice (fried pineapple creation); vendor: Abel Gonzales Jr.

• Fried Chocolate Truffles; vendor: Nick Bert Jr.

• Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Waffle Balls; vendor: Mark Zable, Belgium Wafflestand
[Edited 10/2/09 15:45pm]
[Edited 10/10/09 11:37am]

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