Foodies Club Florida State Fair 2015 Food Thoughts

We visited the Florida State Fair yesterday and tried a wide-variety of food at various vendors. Everything we tried was great and truly left a great impression. Here are our thoughts:

We started off with the ramen pizza. We will admit that when we first heard of the ramen pizza, we didn’t think it would be incredibly appetizing. Boy were we wrong, the ramen tastes like a delicious portable spaghetti, especially the pepperoni ramen pizza. It was great and presented by Chai Yo Thai Cuisine, based out of Riverview.

Next we tried the Funnel Cake Cheeseburger at The Best Around Concessions. The funnel cake burger features a cheeseburger packed between two funnel cake buns with glazed drizzle on each bun. This burger blew us away and was certainly a contender for the best burger at the Florida State Fair. The buns were perfectly cooked and had a crunch that complemented the meat and toppings inside.

 

The owner of the stand told us customers would constantly ask her to make a funnel cake burger and this year she decided it was time to add it to the menu.

We also sampled the Red Velvet Funnel Cake – another delicious and sweet offering at the fair.

After that, we made our way over to Over The Top Burgers. Over The Top featured the Ramen Burger last year, which was a huge hit at the fair. This year they have a Parmesan-Crusted Burger with a twice-fried burger patty coated with a potato chip/parmesan-romano cheese mixture until crispy.

 

We were big fans of this burger and it was the winner of a contest held by Over The Top for which burger would be their new menu item for 2015.

We also tried the Jalapeno Crusted Burger. The taste of the burger was similar to loaded nacho chips in a burger format.

As if that was not enough, we also tried the doughnut burger with a special mac-and-cheese spread on top of the burger meat. This was seriously some tasty macaroni-and-cheese.

If Over The Top has a chance they should consider entering their mac-and-cheese into the Mayor’s Mac and Cheese Throwdown.

We took a trip over to Polar Bear Ice Cream afterwards. Polar Bear has been at the Florida State Fair for almost 30 years and consistently pumps out great ice cream every year.

Finally, we finished our food journey at The Amish Baking Co. with freshly-baked doughnuts and pretzels. The Amish Baking Co. serves authentic Amish baked goods and can be found at various fairs and festivals.

We also spotted the White Caste Crave Mobile on the way out of the fair.

The last day to visit the Florida State Fair is Monday, February 16th, 2015. Make sure you try some of these awesome food items before they are gone.

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Florida State Fair 2015 Happening Now – Food Highlights

The 2015 Florida State Fair is in town. Tickets can be purchased online at http://floridastatefair.webconnex.com/2015floridastatefair. Unlimited ride armbands are available on different days. Check out this page for more details: http://www.floridastatefair.com/events/2014/fair-tickets–armbands. Parking is FREE.

Don’t miss! Tuesday, February 10th: Families Helping Families – $2 Tuesday, Bring 2 items of non-perishable food and get in after 5PM for $2 admission/$2 rides. Ride Armband – Valid only after 3pm, $30 advance purchase, $35 purchased at the gate. Weekday Super Saver Armband – Valid only after 5pm, $20 advance purchase, $25 purchased at the gate. All donated food will go to Feeding America Tampa Bay.

Here are some new things on the food menu this year that we are looking forward to:

Burger of the Gods: A beef patty topped with brie, bacon, and an apple, maple compote on a toasted bun.

Deep Fried Oreo Burger: A beef patty fried on the griddle then dredged through an Oreo cookie batter and deep-fried. Add bacon, glaze, and crumbled Oreos. There’s even an extra Oreo included for dessert!

Holiday Express Burger: Thanksgiving on a bun! A beef patty topped with Havarti cheese, bacon, stuffing, sweet potato fries and a cranberry-orange marmalade sauce on a toasted bun.

Jalapeno Crusted Burger: A twice-fried burger patty coated with a corn chip/jalapeno mix until its crispy. Then topped with shredded Mexican-style cheese (melted with a kitchen torch), guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

Parmesan Crusted Burger: A twice-fried burger patty coated with a potato chip/parmesan-romano cheese mixture until crispy. Topped with bacon, a mayonnaise-parmesan sauce and torched until melted. Finish with your favorite condiments.

Some other notable food highlights include:

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Cronut™: The bakery sensation that’s been sweeping the country arrives at the Florida State Fair. A light and fluffy hybrid of a doughnut and croissant, which has created lines around New York City and other metros.

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Funnel Cake Cheeseburger: A juicy cheeseburger nestled in between two, crunchy, glazed funnel cakes, topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a pickle.

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Ramen Pizza made with ramen noodles as the crust.

We can’t wait to visit this upcoming week! The Foodies Club will visit the fair this upcoming Friday, but there is no reason to wait. Tuesday you can help support Feeding America Tampa Bay and enjoy some of these foods at the same time.