ULTIMATE FRIED FOOD CHALLENGE at Texas STATE FAIR!

Well, there you have it. In 1886, the Texas State Fair started and since then, Elvis Presley has performed here, Harry Houdini has performed here, and of course, Big Tex showed up. Although, I think he used to be a giant Santa. And since its inception, some of the most outrageous fair foods have been created on these grounds, including fried butter, the corny dog. I'm going to let Big Tex finish the cotton candy taco, the armadillo, and today, I'm going to go eat all of it. Big Tex, when they were about to debut him, the day before, someone stole his shirt and probably put it on Godzilla or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man or something. So they had to create a 90-foot shirt overnight for Big Tex. First item of the day. This might not be a typical breakfast thing, but why not? We're in Texas. We're at the State Fair. We're doing it. Miss Fernie was known as the Queen of Funnel Cake. Sadly, she passed away, but her legacy lives on with her family. And this year, they created the Toffee Coffee Crunch Cake. That's what we're going to have right now. I've said this a lot of times before, not a lot of benefits about being a grown-up. Having fried cake for breakfast, definitely one of them. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the Fried Toffee Coffee Crunch Cake. In all its splendor. This thing just came out of the deep fryer. Oh. As soon as my fork touched the cake, it broke through a thin, crunchy layer spreading on the outside. Inside, what looks like moist, delicious cake. Of course, there's little pieces of toffee surrounding it and a big piece of toffee on top along with whipped cream, of course. All deep fried. This was a 2001 State Fair finalist and I could definitely see why. This is the epitome of good State Fair food. I mean, it is loud. It's got such a loud crunch. Beautifully sweet toffee all around this luscious, I'm going to emphasize, lusciously moist. Inside the crunchy crust is something that is so buttery and soft and delightful and angelic. It's not a light food item by any means, but it's definitely one of those food items that you don't want to put down once you start. This is what I call kicking my State Fair food day off with a crunch. A loud crunch. It's so crazy. As soon as I walk into this food hall, I don't know if you guys can see, it's just smoke when you walk into this food hall. And as soon as I walked in here, I knew at least 70% of the food here has got to be fried. This is so gnarly. Looking at some of the signs for people that won most creative or best fried dishes. Check this out. Fried Coke. Fried butter, of course. Fried Frito Pie. Fried banana split. Fried bubblegum. There's fried beer. Fried Thanksgiving dinner. In Texas, Texas basically proved that anything you see in life can be fried. And I want to try a lot of it. We got the deep fried seafood gumbo ball. So what it is, is a mesh of andouille sausage. We got stewed jerk chicken. We got gulf coast shrimp. We got two types of crab. We got blue crab and lump crab inside. And we have our homemade wood. We top it with our rice and a little pink coke red crumb to hold it together for them. And what we do is we put those ingredients together. All right, I saw the gumbo balls. Now, what about the alfredo ball? It's basically, we do a fried chicken alfredo. And then for a little razzle dazzle, we added some mozzarella cheese in the middle. You know, so when you open it up, you know, you have a nice filling. And then it's topped with alfredo sauce, black pepper, parmesan cheese, and Italian parsley. I'm so excited for this. I can't wait. All right. I'm about to go get my eat on. All right. Thanks, Greg. Ah, grab the seat out here because it's pretty loud in there. This is the gumbo. Woo! I didn't expect half a crab in the roux and a fried okra? Texas State Fair food fencified. Shrimp, sausage, rice. The roux is soaked throughout the entire gumbo ball, plus extra serving of roux with a crab in here. Greg is right behind me, by the way. And I'm not just going to say stuff because he's sitting behind me and he can hear me probably. Can you hear me, Greg? No? Yeah. All right. I'm just going to say whatever I want then. Look at that. Woo! Oh. Oh, that roux is good. You got to, you got to, you got to, I'm going to say it three times, suck it out of the crab. Oh, it's spicy, meaty. The essence of all that good roux is in here. Mm. Oh, wow. Must try at the Texas State Fair. I'm really not just saying this because Greg's sitting behind me. The balls are crunchy outside. Oh, that okra is so good too. Literally like a gumbo ball grenade. Explosive flavor. And if you want an even more flavor injective, dip it into the roux. And that will rule your day. This is a must try savory item here at the fair. Mm. The texture, the flavor, the softness of the rice, the meat and shrimp. Oh, wow. I'm having a day. That is some grand Louisiana flavor packed into that ball. Is this the best thing we had at the fair so far? This might be, right? Oh my goodness. And trying the alfredo ball like a pasta ball. You heard of pasta bowls? Ever heard of a pasta ball? Mm. This is so good. Pasta tastes immensely better, if you guys didn't know, if it comes out of a ball. Mm. Wow. The noodle is perfectly al dente. Much spices. So much flavor from the herbs and the cheese. It's got a sharp flavor to it as well. And some garlic bread on the side. Greg, have you been hearing what I've been saying? Have you heard what I've been saying? You heard what I've been saying? Dude, how is the pasta so sharp? Was that just from the cheese? It's not just creamy. There's some nice, like, nice sharp flavors into it. You got all sorts of seasonings in there? Man, that's delicious. You outdone yourself. Thank you. It's so good. That's what I love about the Texas State Fair. Someone walked by and was like, you gotta try the strudel. So I'm trying the strudel. I'm not a professional strudeler by any means. That's a good strudel. Mm. Fresh out of the oven. Piping hot. Gooey apples and raisins. So fluffy and flaky. That is a warm-your-soul apple strudel. I got an apple strudel and a cheese strudel. This thing, again, is so amazingly flaky. Mm. Every bite you take, it's like raining strudel. Oh, this is so good. The cheese is warm. The apple is good. Cheese is better. Oh. Oh my gosh, this is good. Rose, thank you so much for the recommend. I love it when people walk by me and just be like, yo, you need to go try this. Because 9 out of 10, as long as you don't look like someone who hates food, I'm gonna go try it. All right, after some fried food, let's go get some more fried food. Next up, I am at Vandelay Industries. This place, check it out. Not just a fried jambalaya that won the Big Tex Award, but also a fried PB&J sandwich with bananas. I mean, I think that is bananas, but let's taste it and find out. That's not what I thought a fried PB&J would look like, but that looks good. This is the Elvis Presley-inspired fried PB&J and banana. And I felt it looked kind of lonely, so I stuffed more bacon into one. I need some help here. Somebody. I can't stop eating this. This is so good. Fried peanut butter and jelly with bacon bits. Where's the banana, though? Andy, where's the banana? Banana? It is, uh, mushed into the batter. It's mushed into the batter? It's mushed into the batter. Oh, man. Okay. It's just very subtle enough for you to taste it, kind of, but not entirely. A little banana flavor. You taste the peanut butter, you taste that jelly. And when those two flavors are fried, that's what I like to call an unholy, but very delicious matrimony. It's crispy. It's gooey. It's sweet. It's bacon-y. That's a word, right? Bacon-y? Bacon-y. And this is what your fried dreams are made of. If I was Elvis, I would come back from the dead for this. Trust me. Come to this Texas State Fair. Come get that sandwich. Also, I didn't want it to be lonely. Come on. One fried food. We're not messing around here today. Fried cookie dough. Fried butter. And finally, the fried jambalaya. Don't know what to do, because I'm pretty sure the last bite I have of one of these, I'm probably just gonna drop from a heart attack, so I gotta choose my last bite carefully. Ooh, the fried jambalaya. Look at that. That's a thing of beauty. Fluffy rice inside, tons of sauce on top. Jambalaya. This is so frickin' good. Yeah! More jambalaya balls for everybody. I wish I could give this to you, so you can taste what a great fried jambalaya ball tastes like. First of all, this is burn-the-hair-off-your-tongue spicy. Mmm. I mean, it's a jambalaya. Tastes like good jambalaya, but that sauce is everything. This is delicious. I need something savory today. You guys are saying, this butter ball, I have to just pop it in my mouth. You have to commit to it. All of it. Commit to it. I can't believe I just put a ball of butter in my mouth. I mean, I know my heart is conflicted, because it's hurting and loving this at the same time. Well, that is unique. So the stretchy thing, it's not sheet. It's just flakes of butter. I didn't know flakes of butter were stretchy. This thing, when you put it in your mouth, it's just tremendous. It breaks apart. You just get this burst of butter. Could I ask you to fry another order of this up? Fry another one? Yeah. I want it, like, freshest. Yeah. I'm gonna eat more butter balls because of you. Oh, yeah. This may seem crazy. I can't believe I did it myself. I just asked for another order of the butter balls. I'm gonna try this. This is a fried cookie dough. Oh, that is outrageous. I can literally feel myself getting a cavity. I mean, it's good, but it is sweet. Fresh butter balls. After eating four of these, I realized a couple things. First of all, fried butter is delicious. Secondly, you've been eating the wrong butter ball every Thanksgiving. This is the butter ball you should be putting in your mouth. I feel like I did something completely unholy today. I don't think I should have ate this many butter balls, but I feel so good about it, you know? Andy, can you tell your uncle that he is a sinister man? Sinister man? Sinister. But I am so happy for what he's doing. I'm glad that you enjoyed everything. Fist bump to you and to him. Thank you. Thank you so much. If I had to say which food item I'm most excited about at the Texas State Fair, the answer might surprise you. Because I'm really, really, really, really, really excited about a corn dog. If you guys never heard about this place before, let me introduce you. This is Fletcher's Original Corny Dog. They started in 1942. And I'm here on a Thursday morning, where not a lot of people are at the fair yet, but typically, line stretches around the corner waiting for one of these corn dogs. And I've had my share of corn dogs in the past, but they tell me something different with this corny dog. It's a bit corny. Let's see what they mean. This is Amber. Can you tell us a little about Fletcher's? What I've said is you guys started in 1942. What is the difference between a corny dog and a corn dog? If it's a corny dog, it's Fletcher's. If it's a corn dog, it's just NEO. To say that we invented the corny dog, we've protected it for eight decades to fans out here at the State Fair in Texas. I wish my grandfather would have told me why he called it corny dog. Because when people ask, I'm like, I don't know. You don't know? Maybe he's a little corny. Maybe. We're all a little corny. You're a corny, corny guy. Yeah. I'm corny? Yeah. Let's go try this. Here we have a good corn dog with no fillers, no binds on it. This is one reason that we get returned customers. Good meat, original recipe, traditional way of just, you know, chucking a corny dog in a batter, shaking off that excess. Yeah. The corn dog I've been waiting for. This is one of the main reasons I came to the State Fair. I want to see what was so different about the corny dog. It was like I'm eating a corn dog for the first time. There's something so delightful about this corn dog that it tastes like, I don't know, like a corn dog. All the ingredients are somehow upgraded. The cornmeal outside has such a thin, crispy layer of skin. Inside, soft and subtle and sweeter than what I had in other corn dogs. The hot dog itself has a much better, beefier flavor. It's so good. Had to get a second one. Also, Amber taught me a promo. You can just eat it like this, which is fantastic already, or take the wrapper that was already on your corn dog, face plant it, and smother the mustard. Smother the mustard. So it's all over your corny dog. Now it's even more corny. I think this is the corniest of dogs. So good. The outside batter is so delicate. Again, it's that subtle, light crunch that comes with every perfectly fried corn dog. And the batter outside, again, like I said, lightly wraps around the dog like a sweet blanket. This is like the iconic fair food. Like when I walk around a fair, I want to be holding one of these in one hand and cotton candy in the other hand and just like be skipping along. That's how I picture myself in a fair. And besides this, check out this new invention they created. This thing is definitely a corn dog after my own palates. Took a corn dog, which is fried in the same gray batter, but spice-ified. Slid open like a sandwich. Mac and cheese inside, and check this out. Crispy jalapenos on top. Pick it up like a sandwich. Little hot sauce drizzle all over this thing. Ooh! Oh, this batter is so light. It breaks apart when you exert a little pressure to it. That is crazy delicious. Ooh, the heat hits you like five, ten seconds later. It's a delayed bomb. You still taste that great, subtle crunch when you bite into the corn dog. Again, the dog itself is splendid. But now you've got the creaminess of the mac and cheese and additional heat from the jalapenos. Mmm. That's a messy dog, but that's a delicious dog. I feel like today, mission accomplished. Not that we're gonna stop eating. That's not what I mean. I'm gonna show you guys my personal favorite bite on a corn dog. I mean, I love all this. I love meat. I love everything. I love the tail end of this with that nice little crunch on the stick. That little crunch, I always look forward to that at the end of my corn dog. Now, of course, all the big festivals, theme parks you go to, there's Smoked Turkey Lake everywhere. I've never seen it like this before. This is the ultimate Smoked Turkey Lake stall. So what you just saw was basically an Armadillo branding iron going into the batter. And out comes this Armadillo ice cream sandwich. By the way, state animal of Texas. Cookie butter ice cream in the middle. This is the ultimate ice cream sandwich. Have you seen an ice cream sandwich more ultimate than this? I don't believe you have. A Brunuelo cookie. So this is like a crispy churro cookie with the ice cream shaped like an Armadillo. You gotta eat this quick because, oh, it's melting right now under the Texas sun. This is good. It's decadent though, but it is good. The cookie outside, it's just extremely crispy. Ice cream is all sorts of buttery and when it melts into the crevices of the cookie, that's the genius about this. There's so many crevices, not just one flat cookie. There's so many little nooks and crannies where the ice cream can steep into. Definitely innovative, definitely adorable, definitely delicious. All right, take a break from eating and check out the view. Wow, I think I've tried everything I really want to try at the Texas State Fair. Like I said, it's been about two decades since I've been to any fair. So this one was pretty overwhelming by just how big it is. I think I just explored the food part. I don't think I explored the carnival part, the game part, none of this stuff yet. So I think the rest of the day, I'm gonna try to just burn off some calories, win some prizes, and we'll head out to dinner. One last thing, big shout out to the Texas State Fair for bringing me here and helping out so much. This is Veronica. She's been helping me out all day. You're awesome. Thank you so much. Dinner time at Uncle Joe's restaurant. Still the best biao miao noodles. Get that. And they have the fish with the rice noodles on top. Definitely getting that. This is still my go-to comfort food. Again, when I moved to New York, this is the only place I found that served the biao miao noodles I love. He's a really good guy, but it's such a big restaurant and I don't think, he said business is not going so well. So if you like a good bowl of biao miao noodles, come here and get it. This is the dish that I haven't had since I got to Dallas because I was sold out every day. So they fry these noodles and these noodles are super, super thin. And on the bottom is a crispy fried fish. Of course, the classic biao miao noodles, chunks of garlic, bok choy, chilies. As fun as it was to go to the State Fair and try all those innovative fried foods, oh, it's nice to come to a good Chinese restaurant and have some classic homemade noodles. Oh, this is home right here. This is my comfort zone. Oh, this fish is so good. Sweet and sour fish, some biao miao noodles. I did one extra. Tomatoes and eggs, biao miao noodles. My favorite dish with my favorite noodle. Of course, you gotta do hot oil. Just a little, just a little bit. Oh, so happy. Been wanting to go to the Texas State Fair since coming over to Dallas and try out all those crazy fur food. So today, definitely, food dream come true. Again, everybody there was so courteous and helpful. So if you get a chance, even if you're not from Texas, head to the fair. And for me personally, after having all that fried food, come here and get a fried fish and noodles. As always, thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again, see you later.