Dubai Chocolate and Tex-Mex Lead the 2025 State Fair Food Semifinalists | Eater Dallas

"The annual fair’s semifinal food list leans hard into bacon, brisket, chocolate, and tacos, with an unusually high number of drinks (seven) and even three Dubai chocolate items; the writer warns, “dear lord, do not let the Red Bull margarita make it past this point.” One Dubai-chocolate mash-up reconfigures funnel cake into strips, coats them with melting Belgian chocolate, and tops them with pistachio cream and ribbons of kanafeh pastry — a simple and elegant way to “slap” Dubai chocolate on a staple (the writer adds they “do hope they add some powdered sugar” to the final product). Another crowd-pleaser is a cannoli stuffed with bacon jam that’s slow-cooked in brown sugar, maple syrup, and spices, layered with ricotta and chunks of milk chocolate, and finished with a shell drizzled in warm Belgian chocolate — “Dream food.” A Vietnamese corn dog is reinvented by coating the usual batter in Panko and bánh mì crumbs, frying it, and serving with Sriracha mayo and bright, pickled vegetables. A coconut-centric drink fills a coconut with coconut-flavored slushie, crowns it with coconut-flavored soft serve, and sprinkles coconut flakes on top — “obviously perfect,” though its success will depend on judges’ personal devotion to coconut. A Key lime pie “bomb” builds a crust of crushed graham crackers and Nilla Wafers; the Key lime pie mix and crust dust are rolled into bite-sized bits, coated in pancake batter, fried, then finished with a squirt of Chantilly cream, powdered sugar, and a lime-jelly candy. Brisket is folded into silky beer cheese (sharp cheddar plus an unnamed heavy beer), wrapped in pretzel dough, sprinkled with sea salt, and baked — a solid bite likely saved by decent beer cheese and served with spicy mustard. Ube appears as ube-flavored ice cream with puffed rice, finished with Cool Whip and a cherry, a simple Filipino-style treat. Tex‑Mex chicken spaghetti loaded with Hatch chiles, queso, and shredded Monterey Jack is stuffed into a garlic-and-parmesan bread cone and topped (perhaps unnecessarily) with pico, sour cream, and avocado. There’s also a frozen margarita rimmed with Pop Rocks — a smart, decompression-ready choice — and a tiramisu riff that claims to combine “two Italian classics: tiramisu and espresso,” adding a layer of Quadratini wafer cookies topped with something called “cremespresso” and whipped cream. Conversely, one entry is dismissed on name alone: Texas Water, which “sounds like pineapple- or lime-flavored Crystal Light that is meant to be added to water and pale ale beers, which is unnecessary.”" - Courtney E. Smith