Everybody has a special purpose to go to the Houston Livestock Present and Rodeo—whether or not it’s the carnival rides, mutton bustin’, the concert events, or merely the meals.
If the infinite consuming choices alongside the halfway really feel overwhelming, let the Gold Buckle Foodie Award winners encourage your first chew.
Now in its seventeenth 12 months, the Gold Buckle Foodie Awards invite Houston Livestock Present and Rodeo distributors to submit their most irresistible dishes to be evaluated in certainly one of six classes: Greatest Fried Meals, Greatest Meals-on-a-Stick, Greatest Basic Honest Meals, Greatest Most Artistic, Greatest New Taste, and Greatest Dessert.
A group of 40 judges, consisting of cooks, influencers, and members of the media, tackles the daunting process of tasting every of the 18 dishes which were submitted, casting a vote for who ought to rule in every class.
Bacon, fried concoctions, and sugary sweets reigned supreme this 12 months, though this author thinks Casa de Yummy’s Fruit Roll-Up-wrapped pickle with Sizzling Cheetos mud deserves one other look.
For the primary time within the competitors’s 17 years, two distributors tied for second place within the Greatest Basic Honest Meals class. Harlon’s BBQ and Saltgrass Steakhouse snagged the second-place spot for his or her baked potato creations.
Asian Streetness, the one Asian meals vendor on the rodeo, gained first place within the Greatest Fried Meals class. Its crab rangoon eggrolls mix two favourite Chinese language-American dishes right into a crispy-chewy chew that is paired with a candy chili sauce and conventional shrimp chips.
Style testers had been clearly smitten with Rousso’s Cotton Sweet Bacon on a Stick. Exclamations of enjoyment crammed the room as volunteers handed out towering slices of half-inch-thick bacon slathered in a housemade cotton sweet glaze after which encased within the pink sugar-spun confection. Just a few judges took house to-go packing containers of the deal with.
Here is the entire listing of 2025 Gold Buckle Foodie Awards winners.
Greatest Fried Meals
- 1st Place: Asian Streetness — Crab Rangoon Egg Rolls and Shrimp Chips
- 2nd Place: Rousso’s Fats Bacon — Bacon Jam Tacky Pickle Fries
- third Place: Yoakum Packing Firm — Hen Fried Bacon
Greatest Meals-on-a-Stick
- 1st Place: Munchoes — Texas Praline Caramel Apple
- 2nd Place: Corndog with No Title — The Midnight Cowboy Corn Canine
- third Place: Paradise Burgers — Tater Kegs on a Stick
Greatest Basic Honest Meals
- 1st Place: Finer Diner — Floor Ribeye Steak Burger
- 2nd Place TIED: Harlon’s BBQ — Harlon’s All-Meat Baked Potato
- 2nd Place TIED: Saltgrass — Pork-Stuffed Potato
Greatest Most Artistic
- 1st Place: Rousso’s Fats Bacon — Bacon Jammy Jam Wagyu Sliders
- 2nd Place: Asian Streetness — Snack Pack Combo
- third Place: Casa de Yummy — Spicy Pickle Roll-Up
Greatest New Taste
- 1st Place: Rousso’s Fats Bacon — Rousso’s Cotton Sweet Bacon on a Stick
- 2nd Place: Darlin’s Fried Hen — Hen and Waffle Sliders
- third Place: Saltgrass — Flaming Sizzling Chili Mac Canine
Greatest Dessert
- 1st Place: The Unique Minneapple Pie — Minnecookiedough Pie
- 2nd Place: Casa de Yummy — Churro Ice Cream Sundae
- third Place: Munchoes — Crimson Velvet Cookie Sandwich
