Ranking this year's crazy food found at the Pima County Fair 🍭

It’s that time of year again: the busiest season for deep fryers!

When mid-April rolls around, stuffing your face with buckets of mini donuts and fried Twinkies is encouraged! In fact, it’s shameful if you don’t indulge in at least one fluffy, golden-brown deep-fried Oreo.

At any other time, the mention of fried butter may get you some aggressive side-eyes, but when you’re at the Pima County Fairgrounds, it’s a completely normal snack.

It’s fun to try your hand at games and be flipped around in the air a couple of times, but the real fun starts when the food comes out.

I mean nothing can beat the pure joy you feel as you walk by a giant grill covered in hundreds of giant turkey legs. It’s truly a sight to be seen.

From pizzas topped with crunchy pickles slices to funnel cakes with your favorite childhood cereal sprinkled on top, the Pima County Fair features all kinds of flavors and combinations that sound like they came straight out of a fever dream.

I stopped by last week to try some of this year’s new food, ranking them so you know what’s worth the splurge and what to skip.

1. Mike’s Hot Honey corndog

One thing about me: I LOVE corndogs. My go-to food at Disneyland? Corndogs. My Sonic drive-thru order? Corndogs. If corndogs are on the menu, I’m devouring it with a smile on my face. So, when I heard they were doing a hot honey corndog this year, I could barely hold in my excitement. I headed straight to the Biggy’s stand, making sure this corndog was my first stop. This was the biggest corndog I’d ever seen, you could definitely share it with a couple of friends. That first bite was amazing, the deep-fried batter was crispy and flakey while the inside was more like a high-quality sausage than a flimsy little hotdog. Then you get the sweet heat of the hot honey and it all goes together perfectly. My only critique: I would like more hot honey on top! I would definitely get this again; in fact I would order it at a restaurant if I could!

2. Chocolate strawberry cup

Chocolate covered strawberries will always be an elite combination, so I knew this would be a good treat. I did have a few apprehensions going into it though: would the strawberries be ripe enough and would there be enough chocolate. Those worries disappeared as soon as the cashier handed me my cup. The giant cup was filled with lots of bright red strawberries that were practically swimming in chocolate. All of the strawberries were sweet and perfectly ripe. (I’m going to need their strawberry dealer’s info) It’s a great, classic option for those who may not want a crazy treat that somehow has Hot Cheetos incorporated in it. I do wish the strawberries were colder, other than that it was delicious!

3. Buffalo chicken mac and cheese fries

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Since mac and cheese is one of my all-time favorite meals, I can be a bit of a mac and cheese snob. I judge my mac and cheeses VERY seriously, everything needs to check my boxes, down to the noodle shape. So, when I saw a stand with giant pictures of mac and cheese, I was excited yet cautious. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw mac and cheese at a fair, so I put my biases aside and ordered their buffalo chicken mac and cheese fries. Soon, I was handed a paper boat filled to the brim with noodles, fries and crispy chicken. Going in I had zero expectations, but after my first bite I was pleasantly surprised! The chicken was crispy yet juicy and the fries were much better than average and didn’t get mushy under all the noodles. The mac and cheese was actually pretty good, way above fair standards. Everything meshed together perfectly, it exceeded all expectations!

4. Pineapple whip

You don’t have to travel all the way to Disneyland anymore to get a taste of this sweet treat! The fair’s pineapple whip is its take on the classic Dole Whip. For $6, you’ll get a cup or cone of swirly pineapple flavored soft serve. The creamy tropical flavor was so nostalgic. Suddenly I wasn’t at the fair, I was running after the ice cream truck to order a Spongebob SquarePants popsicle with gumball eyes. It is so refreshing and tasty, a great snack to help beat the heat while you’re walking around the fairgrounds.

5. Fruity Pebbles funnel cake

You didn’t go to the fair unless you had a funnel cake. It’s criminal to leave without stuffing your face with bites fried dough and whipped cream. While the classic toppings always hit the spot, I wanted to try something crazier, so I ordered the Fruity Pebble flavor. The funnel cake came with heaps of whipped cream, powdered sugar, a strawberry sauce drizzle and lots of Fruity Pebbles. The funnel cake itself was amazing, it had a crispy exterior with a soft, fluffy inside. The strawberry and fruity flavors were definitely intense, but I loved it all. If you have a sweet tooth like me, this is the snack to get!

6. Candy pickle

Candy covered chamoy pickles are all the rage on social media, so of course they’d be at the fair! This pickle came wrapped in a Fruit Rollup and stuffed with Skwinkles, Mexican gummy candy that comes covered in tamarindo and chamoy. After squeezing some chamoy on my candy pickle, it was ready to eat. The pickle itself was perfect: cold, crunchy and tart. The chamoy and Skwinkles inside really completed the sour pickle, adding a bit of sweetness to the intense pickle flavor. While I did like the hint of blue raspberry it gave off, the Fruit Rollup would melt on the pickle, creating a weird mushy texture. If it was just pickles and Skwinkles it would’ve been a 10!

7. Coconut Cowboy dirty soda

There’s nothing like a crisp, ice-cold Dr. Pepper. Some may say I’m addicted to Dr. Pepper, but I can’t help myself, a glass of soda will always make everything a million times better. I was excited to try out one of the fair’s new dirty sodas, which come with different flavors like blue raspberry and cherry. I ordered the Coconut Cowboy, which tasted like Dr. Pepper mixed with vanilla and coconut. It hit the spot and I loved it… until I got halfway through it. After a while, all the sweet flavorings become a bit overbearing and you just want a plain old water instead. I will say, it is fun to walk around with!

8. Pickle pizza

At the fair, you’ll find pickles on top of everything so I wasn’t surprised to see that they had slices of pickle pizza. I had to try this weird combination out! It was pretty much just crust, melted cheese and slices of pickles. While I actually did enjoy the pickles, the crust itself was a little too hard for my liking. It was not gross at all, but I wasn’t wowed by it. Instead, I’d go with the cannolis they sell at that pizza stand, so much better!

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