This Labor Day, winners were crowned for the Big Tex Choice Awards. And we were definitely a little (OK, maybe a lot) excited. Like, a lot a lot. Allan Weiss took home the Best Taste title with his fried buffalo chicken in a flapjack (more on that later). And most unshockingly, Justin Martinez won Most Creative with his fried bubble gum.
While Martinez's fried bubble gum isn't actually a fried ball of real bubble gum, it is pretty tempting. "We're really excited about it," he says. "When you fry a marshmallow, it really mimics the texture of bubble gum. And when we added the bubble gum flavor extract to this strawberry marshmallow, it really makes it so that it does have that bubble gum flavor -- whatever that is." Bubble gum is a weird flavor, isn't it? It's like the color pink and Lisa Frank made a flavor baby.
One of the four judges on the panel, Eric Johnson, was excited about the fried bubble gum, but as he bit into the bubble ball, he winced. "I couldn't eat much of that." But, he still gave it high marks for creativity. And that's my problem with the Most Creative category at the Big Tex Choice Awards. If you fry something weird enough, it can taste gross (see: fried beer) and still win. Because at this food competition, Most Creative doesn't mean Best Taste.
City of Ate's Patrick Williams described the look of the fried bubble gum balls best: "Looks like My Little Pony turds." After having tasted these little fried marshmallows, it's an accurate description of both look and taste. Fried bubble gum tasted like equal parts Rainbow Brite and Easter bunny (which is what I imagine My Little Ponies eat on the pony ranch). It's super sweet. Super stretchy. Super sticky. If you like the idea of eating a fried ball of chewy cotton candy, get you some of this. Guaranteed, it'll be this fair's kid crack.
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