When Rodeo Meets Gourmet: These Award-Winning Fair Foods Stole the Show
June 9, 2025
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo isn’t just about broncs and barrel racing—it’s also a haven for over-the-top, mouthwatering fair food.
One of our writers recently stumbled across the results of the 17th Annual Gold Buckle Foodie Awards and shared the article with the team. Needless to say, it made us all hungry and sparked a lively debate over which dish we’d try first (we’re still torn between the Crab Rangoon Eggrolls and that MinneCookieDough Pie).
This year’s awards celebrated the best bites submitted by commercial food exhibitors, with public votes narrowing down the top contenders and a panel of local celebrity judges—TV and radio personalities, influencers, and food critics—crowning the winners.
With categories like Best Fried Food, Most Creative Food, and Best Dessert, the lineup featured everything from the inventive to the indulgent.
The big winners included Asian Streetness’s Crab Rangoon Eggrolls with Shrimp Chips, the Bacon Jammy Jam Wagyu Sliders from Rousso’s Fat Bacon, and the over-the-top MinneCookieDough Pie from The Original Minneapple Pie.
For those who love their fair food on a stick, Munch-oes Bakery took top honors with their Texas Praline Caramel Apple. And in the Best New Flavor category, we’re still wrapping our heads around the idea of Cotton Candy Bacon on a Stick—Rousso’s Fat Bacon snagged yet another win with that one.
Whether you crave sweet, savory, or something totally unexpected, this year’s Gold Buckle Foodie Awards didn’t disappoint.
If you’re lucky enough to be at NRG Park during the remainder of the Rodeo, you can track down these award-winning eats using the RODEOHOUSTON app.
And if you’re just drooling from a distance like we were, you can still explore the full list of winners, shopping and dining vendors, and carnival eats online. Just be warned: you will get hungry.
