State Fair News

State Fair of Texas selects 24 over-the-top semifinalists for Big Tex Awards

Can anything surpass fried jello, the Big Tex winner in 2016?

Photo by Jason Hays

The fried food fest is back: The 2024 State Fair of Texas has unveiled 24 semifinalists for the Big Tex Choice Awards, their annual contest where concessionaires compete for prizes.

The semifinalists were culled from a field of 65 entries submitted by 40 concessionaires.

Semifinalists used to be chosen based on name and description alone, but a release from the State Fair indicates that judges also tasted these dishes and ranked them according to fairgoer appeal, creativity, and taste. So that's new.

Of the 24 chosen, 10 are savory entries and 14 are sweet. Dominant themes include: pickles, sriracha, cotton candy, layers, and over-the-top constructions, which is saying something since State Fair food is inherently over-the-top.

In mid-August, 10 finalists will be announced, followed by a hoo-ha awards ceremony that narrows it down to three winners: Best Taste – Savory, Best Taste – Sweet, and Most Creative.

SAVORY

Deep Fried Crispy Vietnamese Crepes
Battered and fried crepe filled with savory meat, shrimp, and veggies, served with dipping sauce. Also known as Deep Fried Banh Xeo (bahnSAY-oh).

Dominican Dog
Dominican queso frito and salami frito coated in seasoned corn dog batter and fried, drizzled with red Dominican secret sauce, topped with crushed garlic plantain chips.

The Drowning Taquitos
Stuffed with shredded chicken, served in a cup, and topped with tangy cream sauce, jalapeño, guacamole salsa, shredded lettuce, avocado, tomatillo, pico, and Cotija cheese.

Fat Bacon Pickle Fries
Slivered dill pickles battered and fried, dusted in a spicy ranch pepper seasoning, and topped with queso, maple caramelized bacon chunks, sour cream, jalapeños, and chives.

Hammy Pimento Meltdown
Grilled pimento cheese sandwich with black forest ham.

Hippie Chips
Wavy potato chips covered in choice of ranch or blue cheese dressing, topped with green onions, bacon bits, and sriracha sauce.

Hot Chick-in-Pancake Poppers
Nashville hot chicken and pimento cheese mixture rolled into a ball, dunked into pancake batter, and fried, drizzled with Sriracha honey and Nashville hot powdered sugar.

Oktoberfest Pizza
Pizza with mustard-infused white cream sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, German sausage, German potatoes, onions, green peppers, and sauerkraut.

Texas Fried Burnt End Bombs
Beef burnt ends wrapped with shredded potato, bacon, and green onion mixture and fried, with raspberry chipotle barbeque sauce.

Triple Meat Big Back Snack
Five-layer snack has elote street corn, brisket, smoked gouda mac & cheese, biscuit, pork belly burnt ends, nacho beef brisket sausage link, and crinkle-cut maple waffle-flavored potato slices. That sounds like seven layers, though.

SWEET

Beso De Angel
Fritter taco base with sweet crema, strawberry preserves, whipped cream, cajeta caramel, condensed milk, and sliced strawberry.

Caramel Macchiato Fritters
Creamy coffee cake balls dipped in beignet batter and fried, with whipped cream, caramel, white chocolate drizzle, served with a shot of espresso.

Cookie Butter Nachos
Fried flour tortilla chips dusted with cinnamon sugar, with cookie butter cheesecake filling, cream cheese icing, caramel sauce, and crushed Biscoff cookies.

Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick
Bacon on a stick dipped in a caramelized cotton candy syrup glaze.

Crookies
Croissant is filled — and topped — with cookie dough, baked, and drizzled with syrup.

Frozen Limoncello
Sweet and tart limoncello in a lemon peel is filled with limoncello sorbet.

It's Bananas…B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Banana shake with banana pudding on top, plus whipped cream, Nilla wafers, chocolate-covered bananas, and caramel drizzle.

Lay's Potato Chip Drink
Potato chips blended with mango and citrus juices, hot honey, jalapeño infused syrup, strawberry drizzle, foam, and Spicy Honey Potato Chips.

Nutty Bar-laska
Chocolate-dipped nutty bar rolled in peanuts, smothered in marshmallow and toasted, topped with two Oreos, strawberry sauce, and freeze-dried strawberry pieces.

Standing on Business
Salted caramel ice cream in a waffle cone bowl topped with a spicy dark chocolate cookie, fried sweet potato pie, chocolate and caramel sauce, whipped cream, French fries, and a chicken wing.

Strawberry Pop-Tarts Beignetffle
Waffle made from beignet and croissant dough, with strawberry filling, vanilla icing, and whipped cream, served on a stick.

Texas Sugar Rush Pickles
Three cotton candy-flavored pickle slices coated in Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, and Cap’n Crunch, layered in cotton candy, strawberry syrup, and vanilla ice cream.

Tropical Two-Step Punch
Punch with citrus, passionfruit, and mango, in alcoholic or AF versions.

Whole Bundt of Kisses
Deep fried 7UP Bundt cake filled with Belgian chocolate, with crumbled chocolate chip cookies and miniature kisses, a regular Hershey's, whipped cream, and edible silver glitter.

state-fair

Market News

Small specialty grocer in Celina is a go-to for imported foods

Di Mantzios Greek & Italian Gourmet Market

There's a gourmet shop in downtown Celina offering imported European foods: Called Di Mantzio’s Greek and Italian Gourmet Market, it's a small grocery and cafe at 204 E. Pecan St., Ste. C, where it's bringing in goods you might not find elsewhere in town.

Owner Vasilios Mantzios is a native of Greece and former NATO military serviceman who moved to the U.S. in 2008. Missing the foods he'd enjoyed in Greece and Italy, he started a booth at the Frisco Fresh Market in 2015 selling olive oils, Balsamic dressing, olives, and Mediterranean salt. In late 2024, he made the move to open the storefront in Celina (coincidentally down Pecan Street from Mangiamo Italian Market & Deli, another highly personal deli and market, making pecan Street a fun destination for a foodie field trip).

Di Mantzio's carries olive oils, pizza, cheese, charcuterie boards, flour, refrigerated meals, and meatballs with a Greek red sauce, made from a family recipe from Mantzios' aunts and their grandmothers. He also imports marinated lamb and beef meatballs from Greece.

"I only have things that I would put on my table to personally eat — I pick out my items by the quality because I don't want people to have issues with the food," Mantzios says. "I have my mother test everything, so if you pass her, you're in the store."

While he does offer Greek foods such as a recent special with beef kebabs and pita bread, there's a big demand for Italian items. He has a big selection of cheese: parmigiano reggiano, feta, mozzarella, and cheese from Il Forteto. Dry goods include Molino Paolo Mariani Manitaly flour, Caputo gluten-free flour, and Hellenic Farms and Lia extra virgin olive oil.

Mantzios prioritizes small, family-owned businesses because they enjoy what they're providing to customers and value quality.

Di Mantzios Greek & Italian Gourmet MarketDi Mantzios

On the prepared food front, he does pizza using a wood-fired crust imported from Pizza Food Love in Italy, delivered to the shop every three weeks. The base can be topped with ingredients from Tuscany, Italy for a truly authentic experience. More prepared foods are one of the biggest requests he gets from customers, and it's a category he's continuing to expand, as well as adding wine and beer.

They also have cakes and desserts such as cannoli, baklava, Greek rice pudding, French macarons, and gelato from Gelatys.

The interior is neatly organized, with refrigerated foods as well as Greek and European decor such as pestle and mortar, a gladiator helmet, and Greek and Italian flags pinned to the walls.

Mantzios thrives from the personal contact he gets with customers, and they find him equally charming as well.

"The bulk of my customers come from Prosper and Celina, and Celina is the number one growing city with people coming from all around who can appreciate what we are doing," Mantzios says.

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