From best to whoops, a ranking of all the new foods at this year’s NC State Fair

In the glass jewel box of Dorton Arena, deep fried dreams come true.

Palm-sized shrimp, fluorescent orange chicken wings and something called The Slop Bucket — these were just some of the 30 bites we tasted at the 2023 NC State Fair media day preview.

There are delights, there are deliriously inventive deep fried inventions and there are dill pickle doughnuts.

Here is my ranking from best to whoops of the new foods at this year’s fair.

1. Bulkogi Korean BBQ: Deep Fried Gimbap (Korean Sushi Roll): Crunch is king at the state fair and these deep fried rolls from the popular Bulkogi chain of food trucks and restaurants was among the crispiest bites of the day. Rice rolls wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with either SPAM, Korean barbecue or cheese were lightly tempura-battered and deep fried on a stick, served with soy sauce or spicy mayo.

2. Oak City Fish & Chips: Colossal Prawn Pop On a Stick: Colossal is an official shrimp size where you get about a dozen per pound. Safe to say these shrimp on a stick were absolutely massive, intensely seasoned with heat and some sweetness and a squeeze of lemon to set it all off. These giant, impeccable shrimp were voted the top new fair food on Media Day.

3. Arepa Loca: Little Locas Empanadas: Fair food isn’t always about the spectacle, sometimes it’s simply an empanada, crispy and light, stuffed with beef, cilantro and cheese, well-seasoned and flavorful with a punch of hot sauce.

4. Cool Runnings Jamaican: Jerk BBQ Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl: Rich chunks of chicken thighs are tossed with sweet and spicy jerk sauce, paired with gooey mac and cheese with a browned and bubbly top and a soft and sticky plantain on the side.

5. goldenKdog: Korean Fried Chicken with Sweet Cheese Seasoning or Honey Butter: Crispy fried chicken, drizzled with honey butter sauce: You’ve probably never seen a chicken wing this orange, where bright nacho dust serves as a dry rub. It’s cheesy and wonderful. The honey butter is a bit more subtle, leaning more towards sweet than buttery, like a honey barbecue sauce without the smoke.

6. Lawrence & Perry BBQ: Deep Fried Ribs & The Slop Bucket: However you feel about the name, people are talking about The Slop Bucket and they’re all saying good things. The bucket is really just a plate of barbecue and sides, but served in a bucket with a handle. The barbecue is vinegary and as good or better than many sit-down spots with barbecue in their name.

7. Ragin’ Cajun: Cajun Style Andouille Sausage Corn Dog with Mardi Gras Mustard Dip: A spicy, smokey andouille sausage gets the corndog treatment, rolled in a crunchy coating of crushed tortilla chips and served with whole grain mustard.

8. The Cheese Curd Shack: Dill Pickle Flavored Deep Fried Cheese Curds: Good luck trying to limit yourself to less than a million of these cheesy, chewy, salty and pickle-y bites of curds.

9. Neomonde Mediterranean: Cherry Beef Bliss: Think of the perfect steak sandwich and that’s what’s going on here from the famed Raleigh restaurant and bakery. Shredded beef is topped with a sweet and tangy cole slaw on a soft roll.

10. Hot Chix Hotcakes & Chicken: Hot Chix Walking Totchos: This one is for the cheese lovers out there. This medley of crunch and cheese includes Nacho Doritos, cheese sauce, shredded cheese, all balanced by chunks of fried chicken and, if you do some digging, tater tots at the bottom.

11. Iron Kitchen Holdings: “The Crazy Italian” Savory Funnel Cake: Savory funnel cakes can be a challenging dance, but this one pulls it off, eating kind of like a pizza pull-apart, with crispy bits of dough topped with marinara sauce, cheese and lots of tiny pepperoni.

12. Chef’s D’Lites: Deep Fried Cinnamon Apple Bread Pudding Bites: Sweet-tooths will swoon at this deep fried dough bomb, that’s bright and appley and not too sweet.

13. Douglas Farms: Candied Grapes: Think candy apple, but instead of rock hard and impossible to eat, these are bite sized grapes given a bit of a crunchy sugar shell. It’s fun to see real innovations at the fair and these are a tiny but new idea in fair food.

14. Ezzells Somethin’ Good: Bacon-Wrapped Candied Jalapeno Pimento Cheese Sandwich: Bacon on the outside of a sandwich is a very cool thing, but inside this is a pretty ordinary pimento cheese sandwich. Pimeto cheese sandwiches happen to be one of the great sandwiches, but I found myself searching for those candied jalapenos.

15. Las Gringas Food Truck: Mexi-Eggroll with Guacamole Dipping Sauce: Eggrolls often offer so much promise in fair foods and usually end up chewy and tough. These egg rolls with shredded chicken and black bean salsa might be the most successful so far, certainly helped by some excellent guacamole for dipping.

16. La Farm Bakery: Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese Danish: One of the Triangle’s top bakeries leans into fair food every year. This year’s offering includes a perfect flaky danish dough and some mac and cheese with pork. It’s all fun on its own but doesn’t really speak to each other.

17. Kono Pizza: Kone: Cheese pizza cone: This is less like a slice of pizza and more like a cheese vortex encased in dough. You might be a fan of the pizza cones if you find slices of pizza difficult to carry, but the crust has always suited me just fine.

18. Kora’s Cookie Dough: Bacon Berry Cookie Dough on a Stick: There are generous heaps of bacon bits piled on these creamy blocks of cookie dough. Does bacon need to be on cookie dough? It’s hard to say from this bite, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it.

19. Waypoint Oyster Bar: Crab and Shrimp Rangoon with a Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce: The fried food offering finally expands to include these crunchy pockets of creamy crab and shrimp. We can’t give points for creativity here, but lots of folks will be happy to see this favorite on the menu.

20. Ethio Indi Alkaline & Vegan Cuisine: Efo Riro & Fufu: African Spinach Soup & Ghanan Pounded Yams: Fufu has an unbelievable texture, creamy but firm, and stewed spinach like this is a rare find for the fair. Could deep fried fufu be in the fair future?

21. Woody’s Sports Tavern & Grill: Big Mac-Woody Egg Roll: Billed as everything in the Big Mac, minus the lettuce, because who needs lettuce at the fair? Of the many fair-tastic egg rolls that have been invented for the state fair, this is one of the better ones, beefy and moist and touching on all the flavor notes of its golden arched inspiration.

22. Moose Joose Slush: Fresh-brewed Peach/Mango Sweet Tea & Strawberry Cheesecake Slush: It’s incredible to see a whole slice of cheesecake sticking out of a drink, like a celery stalk in a Bloody Mary. This strawberry slush is tart and sweet and balanced by the tang of cheesecake.

23. Pioneer Wagon: Fried Caramel Apple Cow Tail: Cow Tails are one of the underrated candies out there and it’s wonderful to see their fair food debut. These likely won’t be the next deep fried Oreo, but fans will enjoy the warm chewy of the deep fried Cow Tail.

24. The Peach Cobbler Factory: Cobblers: This cobbler is no joke, sweet and sticky with a flaky crust on the bottom and addictive, candied pralines. All that sweetness needed just a bit more fruit for balance.

25. Waffle Chix: Oreo Brownie Blast: Another great addition to the dessert on a stick tradition, these cross-hatch waffles are stuffed with brownies and dusted with Oreos. More brownie inside would have given these a bit more of a nice chocolaty chew, instead the waffle is the star and needed a bit more of its shimmery marshmallow sauce.

26. Hickory Tree Turkey BBQ: The Morning-After Stuffed Leg: You can imagine the night that might lead to this in the morning. This scramble of smoked turkey, cheese, eggs and potatoes was invented to soak up the belly ache and fog of a long night. It might be better if the diner is in fact hung over.

27. Fluffy’s Hand-Cut Donuts: Dill Pickle Donut: This doughnut is the talk of the fair this year, daring to mix sour and sweet and the pungent pucker of pickles. A dill pickle doughnut is everything fair food should be about — pushing flavors and textures and combinations in search of something surprising and new. This doughnut is certainly surprising and new and will likely appeal to the most ardent pickle fans. Everyone else might find it a bit of a struggle and a bit of a mouthful when you hit that pickley cream cheese.

28. Merrill Holdings: Rancher Ribeye: There’s a lot of confidence in this sandwich, simply a thin slice of ribeye on a bun. The steak was well seasoned but a smear of horseradish sauce would have been a wonder.

29. Fat Boys BBQ: Brisket & Waffles On a Stick: Smoked beef brisket is the current mountaintop of barbecue, staggeringly difficult and astoundingly delicious. These fried balls of brisket are beefy and look like hushpuppies, but you won’t find much smoke and even less waffle. A dip in hot honey or maple syrup is nice, but these deep fried balls lean on the gummy side of the deep fried spectrum and are not what you picture when you hear brisket and waffles.