{"id":147180,"date":"2026-02-07T13:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/147180\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:03:09","slug":"we-tried-new-florida-state-fair-foods-and-this-was-our-favorite-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/147180\/","title":{"rendered":"We tried new Florida State Fair foods, and this was our favorite dish"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do Mexican-style street corn, Italian sausage and frozen cheesecake have in common?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re just some of the new foods at this year\u2019s Florida State Fair, which runs through Feb. 16.<\/p>\n

America is celebrating its 250th this year, and the fair is honoring the birthday with a red, white and blue theme and a bevy of multi-cultural options. Mexican-style street corn makes four appearances in the new food lineup, along with a cheesy arepa and chimichurri sauce over cheese curds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With over 30 new food and drinks to sample this year, we\u2019ve culled about a dozen that you might want to put on your radar, below.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a group of us went to the fair to taste some of them ourselves. Our favorite bite of the day turned out to be a mozzarella stick coated in a cinnamon-sugar topping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to praise the CinnaMozza Corn Dog, our dark horse of the day,\u201d said culture and nostalgia reporter Gabrielle Calise. \u201cIt was everything you\u2019d want in a fair food, kind of ridiculous but also extremely snackable. It\u2019s like if an Auntie Anne\u2019s cinnamon pretzel had a baby with a basket of mozzarella sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro tip: Sometimes the best things at a place like the fair are the most tried-and-true. Our group couldn\u2019t resist getting a bucket of hot, crispy fries from Fiske Fries midway through our jaunt, and though not novel or coated in candy or topped with meat, they were a total standout. One person went so far as to call them a \u201cgreat palate cleanser\u201d between dishes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Read on for more fair food thoughts.<\/p>\n

This ancient flatbread preparation gets an American update. Macaroni and cheese is mixed with barbecue pork and tucked inside a golden arepa. Location: Shockley\u2019s Food Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the arepa and the juicy pulled pork inside was definitely its strongest asset,\u201d said senior food and dining critic Helen Freund. \u201cBut I could have done without the bland mac and cheese and, overall, the dish felt a little too sweet to me. A little salt would have helped!\u201d<\/p>\n

Culture and nostalgia reporter Gabrielle Calise wanted to like the arepa, but \u201cwas put off before I even took a bite when grease leaked out of the paper dish and onto my pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pork was smoky, sweet and juicy \u2014 perfect barbecue \u2014 but the mac and cheese kind of blended in with the arepa to create a carb-y mush,” she added.<\/p>\n

Golden Wisconsin cheese curds get tossed in an Argentinian-style chimichurri sauce. The sauce is made with parsley, garlic, oregano and red wine vinegar. The acidity of the chimichurri over the creamy fat of the cheese curds could play well together. Location: Keys Koncessions.<\/p>\n

Like a mozzarella stick but also a corn dog, this fried concoction gets rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar before being served. Location: GoldenKdog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a doubt, the CinnaMozza Corn Dog surprised us all,\u201d said food and dining reporter Evan Rodriguez. \u201cSweet and savory, with a pleasant crunch, and it\u2019s on a stick, which makes for an actual handheld. In hot pursuit of golden Wisconsin cheese curds topped with chimichurri sauce, we called an audible for the cheesy corn dog and were not disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calise added: \u201cThis is gooey without being messy, crunchy without feeling greasy and has an excellent sweet\/salty balance between Cinnamon Toast Crunch outside and the cheese on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frozen cheesecake that\u2019s dipped in cookie butter and then rolled in crushed Biscoff cookies. Is it a riff on this viral \u201ccheesecake\u201d trend<\/a>? Location: Polar Bear Concessions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Expect a \u201cfair-style\u201d Cuban sandwich with ham, pork, Swiss, mustard and fried pickle chips that is rolled and then deep fried. Yes, it omits salami, so we\u2019ll let Tampe\u00f1os be the judge on just how authentic it is. Location: Chester\u2019s Gators and Taters.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t have high hopes for this one when it arrived, but were proven mostly wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burrito was better than it looked, even if it wasn\u2019t my favorite bite of the day,\u201d Freund said. \u201cI liked the crispy shell and each bite was really well balanced \u2014 you got equal parts crunch, gooey melted cheese and just enough tang from the pickles and mustard. The meat was a little bland but the other elements brought enough to the table that it worked.”<\/p>\n

Food and dining editor Michelle Stark was pleasantly surprised, too, and thought the acid from the mustard and pickle went a way long toward making this a pretty craveable, if heavy, option.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Dill Devil looks to be a picnic perfect mash-up. A whole dill pickle is halved and cored then filled with a cheese-based deviled filling, and sprinkled with red pepper flakes. Location: Tiki Tea – South Lake Road.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez thought the Dill Devil was delightful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had a sour crunch from the pickle, the creamy deviled egg filling contrasted nicely with the acidity, and the dry heat of the red pepper flakes was a welcome sensation after all the sugar and fat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stark made a bold declaration after taking one bite: \u201cI am going to eat this entire thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A welcome relief from carbs, the perfectly seasoned pickle paired really well with the creamy filling, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely my favorite dish of the day, something I\u2019d eat again even outside of the fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice is blended with cane sugar and fruity cold brew tea. It gets topped with vanilla coconut milk ice cream and coconut flakes. Location: DeAnna\u2019a Banana Pudding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This viral chocolate flavor is still going strong. The funnel cake is drizzled with milk chocolate and pistachio cream, then topped with crispy kataifi, pistachio butter and crushed pistachios. Location: Popcorn Neal – Funnel Cake<\/p>\n

Calise was one of the only members of our crew who enjoyed this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a raging sweet tooth so I was a fan … especially the crispy bits of shredded phyllo dough in the pistachio cream that provided a crunchy finish,\u201d she said. \u201cThe pistachio was really rich, but paired with hefty dollop of Hershey\u2019s chocolate syrup, the whole thing had a nice highbrow\/lowbrow contrast that I kind of loved. I was kind of gobsmacked when I found out this was $18.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freund liked the pistachio cream and phyllo crunch \u201cbut the chocolate syrup was overly sweet and the funnel cake itself was mostly spongey, lukewarm dough. Would have loved more hot, crispy bits.\u201d<\/p>\n

A clever deconstruction and riff on the classic apple pie \u00e0 la mode. Granny Smith apple fries get coated in cinnamon sugar and then drizzled with Mike\u2019s Hot Honey sauce. It is topped off with vanilla soft serve. Location: Apple Fries.<\/p>\n

Not your traditional batter, this cornbread-Tajin funnel cake is topped with Mexican crema, corn kernels, Cotija cheese and then dusted with Tajin. Location: The Best Around – Funnel Cake SL.<\/p>\n

Meat on a stick is what fair dreams are made of. Italian sausage is wrapped in homemade dough with marinated peppers and onions, baked, brushed with garlic butter and then dusted with Parmesan. It is served with marinara for dipping. Location: Mazzarella – South Lake Road.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The fair is held at the Florida State Fair Grounds, 4800 U.S. Highway 301 N., Tampa.<\/p>\n

To better navigate the fair, there is a Florida State Fair app that can be downloaded from the Florida State Fair\u2019s site.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do Mexican-style street corn, Italian sausage and frozen cheesecake have in common? They\u2019re just some of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[71219,71220,51386,71221,28,30,29,65270,71223,71224,23881,71222,722,71225],"class_list":{"0":"post-147180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-cheese-curds","9":"tag-chimichurri-sauce","10":"tag-cinnamon-sugar","11":"tag-corn-dog","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-florida-state-fair","16":"tag-frozen-cheesecake","17":"tag-macaroni-and-cheese","18":"tag-michelle-stark","19":"tag-mozzarella-sticks","20":"tag-red","21":"tag-white-and-blue"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}