My second trip to the Iowa State Fair was as support staff for the world famous competitive barbecue team Tall and Meaty. This year was a little bit different because they they didn’t earn their way to the big stage with a win at the Boone County Fair. There are a couple of classes in the state fair barbecue contest where you can just enter. This year they entered Lamb. It would be the only competitive barbecue competition for Tall and Meaty this year. I half think they only entered it so I would stop referring to them as the defunct competitive barbecue team.
I’m not going to get much into the results of that competition because that will happen on a future food adventure post. For now, it is enough to know that this is the reason I made my second trip to the Iowa State Fair.
Gaze upon the cell phone pictures from my trip:
Last year we got breakfast burritos at Stockman’s Inn. I have thought about that breakfast burrito almost every morning since then. It was transcendent!
But this year’s breakfast burrito could be generously (and you know how magnanimous I am) as meh. My heart was broken. My taste buds underwhelmed.
Tall and Meaty.
Baby Got Rack! Still the greatest to ever do it!
Despite never really having made their dish before Tall and Meaty got second.
The work of the day done. It was time to enjoy the Fair!
Logan got himself an Ultimate Minneapple Pie. He didn’t inherit his mom’s cinnamon affliction. Thankfully!
I decided to knock off the other two Best New Fair Food Finalists because I didn’t want to risk them being sold out by the time I got back to the Fair.
I started with the Porky Parm Gnocchi at Destination Grille.
Gluten-free potato gnocchi and Graziano sausage tossed in a house-made AE cream parmesan sauce with a pesto drizzle, shaved parmesan, fresh parsley and topped with an America 250th year flag and a souvenir piggy pal.
It would be the People’s Choice winner.
It was really good. But not what I would consider “fair food”. But definitely tasty!
Logan also had some so he could also make his own estimations.
This does feel a little bit like bribery, but I’m not hating.
The last Best New Fair Food finalist. The All-American Scrambled Egg Roll.
Winn & Sara’s Kitchen won the Best New Fair Food in 2024 and 2025.
Wrapped in our signature crispy golden egg roll is the ultimate American classic feast: thick-cut smoky bacon, savory sausage, hearty hash browns, farm-fresh fluffy scrambled eggs and melted cheddar cheese — all perfectly blended into one mouthwatering masterpiece. Finished with a rich drizzle of our homemade cheesy ranch, every bite delivers the comforting flavors of an American favorite with an irresistible Fair-food twist.
And it really didn’t work for me at all. It wasn’t the worst State Fair food I’ve ever had. But it is definitely in the Bottom 5.
I think the main misfire here for me was the ranch. It doesn’t belong on eggs or bacon or sausage.
But Logan liked it. It was his favorite New Fair Food.
On the way out we stopped at the Ugliest Cake Contest. This cake of people vomiting on the Giant Slide really spoke to me!
After having tried all 3 finalists this is how I would rank them:
- BEST NEW FAIR FOODS
- Ultimate Mineapple Pie – Minneapple Pie
- Porky Parm Gnocchi – Destination Grille
- All-American Scrambled Egg Roll – Winn & Sara’s Kitchen
It feels like I ate less at the Iowa State Fair than I usually do. Might be just because I didn’t spend as much time at the Iowa State Fair than I normally do. Might just be that everything is just crazy expensive now which has decreased my real income by quite a bit. Despite the current economic disaster we are living through, I did make one more trip to the Iowa State Fair. We will cover that next Sunday!