First up, Isaac Rousso: The Fried Salsa™ Dude. (Note the trademark. Isaac's following in Zable's footsteps from last year with the fried food trademarking. Hopefully this fried salsa tastes better than that fried beer.)
Rousso's fried salsa features jalapenos, roasted garlic, onion, tomato and pepper rolled in masa, then tortilla chips and deep fried. (FRIED!!!!!!) He then serves it up with a creamy queso.
Rousso's very proud of this product: "It's so money. I'm really excited for people to taste it."
If his name sounds familiar, it might be because you remember Rousso from last year, when he was The Fried S'mores Pop Tart Dude.
If this fried salsa is as delicious as his fried pop tart was sweet, Rousso's got a real shot at a title this weekend.
He says this year he built a commercial kitchen in the back of his warehouse so he could work out ideas all year long. "I started working on this the day before the fair started last year. We were talking about all the stuff we needed for our stand and someone said, 'We need salsa.' It hit me: salsa's even bigger than ketchup here."
Although jalapenos are listed first in the ingredients list from the State Fair of Texas, Rousso says, "It's not spicy at all. Jalapenos should probably have been put down way lower on that ingredients list. Maybe fourth." He assures me that spicy wimps need not fear his fried salsa.
Judges will decide which finalists earn the Best Taste and Most Creative titles this Labor Day. Now's probably a good time to break the news to your cholesterol levels.
