Wacky carnival foods are big, bold and creative, from rattlesnake nachos to Cheetos street corn
As a new Houstonian, I hear the endless jokes from nonTexans about how everything is bigger in Texas.
When it comes to RodeoHouston, it’s all over the place: One vendor is called Big “6” Bar-B-Que. Big Texas corn dogs are advertised around the midway section. One vendor says it’ll only sell you a piece of funnel cake bigger than your face.
So I can confirm the rodeo goes big when it comes to zany, over-the-top carnival food. This goes for recipes served on a stick (like the Gold Bucklewinning deep-fried BLT) and funnel cakes topped with Fruity Pebbles.
While you can order one of Bun B’s Trill Burgers or typical carnival fare on steroids — I wanted to inhale an entire order of fries the size of a loaf of banana bread — there’s a different thrill of trying the craziest dishes available during the rodeo’s few-weeks run.
Sweet, savory or salty, it’s all up for grabs. Following are some highlights we tasted the past few days.
Rattlesnake nachos
If the thought of rattlesnake season arriving in Texas has you feeling queasy, the Pioneer Wagon located outside of the NRG Center may be a hard pass.
But like a lot of the rodeo’s over-the-top dishes, the bark is worse than the bite. (Or in this case, is it the venom? Let’s not dwell on that, even though the snakes here are sourced from West Texas.)
Exhibit A: Snake Bite Nachos ($14), where chips are loaded with gooey cheese and crumbled pieces of rattlesnake sausage. Owner Chris Taylor squirts on a generous amount of “venom sauce” — it’s really just avocado and green chile — before handing over your order with an ever so sly everythingis-going-to-OK smile.
The rattlesnake itself isn’t gamey. If anything, it tastes like bland ground turkey instead of the chorizo so many Houstonians love in their queso and breakfast tacos.
There was no line on a recent visit, but in its second year at the rodeo, Pioneer Wagon nabbed a finalist nod in the Most Creative Food category for the Gold Buckle Foodie contest and plans to come back next year.
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Taylor said. “It’s the best rodeo in the world.”
Cheesecake on a stick
I’m no stranger to foods served on a stick and may even claim to be a bit of an expert.
The Minnesota State Fair, one of the largest and oldest fairs in the country, was an annual summer pilgrimage for my family. We tasted everything on a stick back in the day — from a deconstructed, deepfried casserole dipped into a side of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup to an eggroll the size of a corn dog.
Sills Funnel Cakes, which is based in Spring, served a cheesecake version I couldn’t pass up. An order with strawberries and whipped cream ($13) was better than most cheesecakes, which I often find too bland. You break through the golden exterior to find silky cream cheese in the middle that’s warm like a just-out-ofthe-oven brownie.
Southern-fried Alfredo ball
If you’re a member of the fried food fan club, hit up the Dallas-based Southern Fried Saloon, also just outside of
NRG Center.
One of Southern Fried’s new items is a tennis ball-size serving of Alfredo that’s been fried and doused with a cream sauce. The sweet-talking, polite workers will sell you on it, but sadly, especially for someone who loves all forms of carbs (especially if it’s deep fried), this wasn’t something I’d order again. It was a tangle of mashed up pasta lacking any seasoning — for $20 on top of that. It comes with a piece of garlic toast and a few sprigs of asparagus for posterity, though.
Scorpion pickle pizza
The flashy signs adorning Swain’s Pizza seemed to goad me on: Pick your poison?
Pickle pizza, which can also be sold on a stick, is enough to make anyone do a double take. But add fried bugs — a scorpion, if you must — and I paused for a second before a colleague told me I had to try it. I survived.
Eating bugs is nothing new for many cultures across the world, but Americans get squeamish when we see critters on the menu. Just close your eyes and bite, I told myself.
The slice of pizza was covered in a white sauce dotted with pickles — a good enough balance of salty and sour. But when it came to taking the scorpion out of the plastic bag to garnish my dish, I had to remind myself that I’ve eaten crickets before.
You can’t taste anything except for a crunch. Your mind thinks about the horror movies and National Geographic specials before you swallow the bug. If anything, the cheese and pickle saves the day.
Flamin’ street corn
A common theme with carnival food this year is Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
It’s a sure win for anyone that appreciates a bit of heat and salt, more than a doctor probably recommends. Vendors are putting it in ramen, hot dogs and perhaps its best use, on corn.
Paradise Burgers of Pearland sells a generous serving of elote ($8.50) topped with crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The luminescent mix of yellow and orange is like a ’90s fever dream, combining street and junk foods that many can appreciate.