Buckle Up

RodeoHouston celebrates all the deep-fried goodness with Gold Buckle Awards

This donut chicken sandwich won a Gold Buckle.

Photo by Brandon Strange

The Rodeo's annual celebration of all things deep-fried has revealed this year's winners. Now in its 12th year, the Gold Buckle Foodie Awards invite a panel of media and foodie influencers to sample 83 of the carnival's most over-the-top treats.

Prizes are awarded in eight categories: Classic Fair Food, Most Creative Food, Best Food-on-a-Stick, Best Value, Best Fried Food, Best Specialty Food, Best New Flavor, and Best Dessert.

Hot Cheetos ruled the day. Different vendors presented the snack food applied to turkey legs, french fries, corn dogs, and more.

Other hits included "pregnant pickles" — fried pickles dipped in peanut butter and served with a peanut butter drizzle — as well as chocolate-dipped jalapeños. Turns out that a dish dubbed "Big Sticks," a two-foot-long stick wrapped with either chicken or pork, not only looks great on Instagram but tastes good, too. It earned a coveted buckle for vendor Big Bubba's Bad BBQ.

At an event where a shot of Bloody Mary mix counts as a "specialty food," it's best not to take the results too seriously. After all, as CultureMap columnist Ken Hoffman pointed out a couple of years ago, turkey legs and corn dogs are still the top sellers — and deep-fried Oreos are still delicious, even if they're a little passe.

Still, the vendors' creativity keeps things exciting, and the roster of creative fare rewards multiple visits to the carnival. Get out there and eat.

Here's the full list of winners, via the Houston Press:

Classic Fair Food
1st: Ribeye Steak Sandwich, Burton Sausage
2nd: Big Daddy Cheetos Cheese Corn Dog, Biggy's BBQ
3rd: Harlon's All Meat Stuffed Potato, Harlon's BBQ

Most Creative Food
1st: Loaded Waffle Fries with Shredded Pork or Beef, Holmes Smokehouse
2nd: Flamin' Hot Cheetos Cheese Turkey Leg, Biggy's BBQ
3rd: Nitro Cotton Candy Lemonade, The Float Saloon

Best Food-on-a-Stick
1st: Big Sticks (pork or chicken), Big Bubba's Bad BBQ
2nd: Foot Corndog, Holmes Smokehouse
3rd: Cookie Dough, Sweet Cheeks

Best Value
1st: Ribs and Sausage Platter, Saltgrass Steakhouse
2nd: Loaded Baked Potato, Yoakum Packing Company
3rd: Loaded Baked Potato with Beef, Burton Sausage

Best Fried Food
1st: Donut Chicken Sandwich, Get Fried
2nd: Fried Red Velvet Cupcake with Homemade Buttercream Icing, Sill's Funnel Cakes
3rd: Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders, Big Bubba's Bad BBQ

Best Specialty Food
1st: Big Bayou Bloody Mary Mix Original, Big Bayou Cocktail Sauce
2nd: Chocolate Cobbler, All of Us
3rd: Cattle Drive Corn Chip Casserole, PDQ Meals

Best New Flavor
1st: Deep Fried Cookie Dough Sundae, The Original Minneapple Pie
2nd: Pretzel Cheese Dog, The Float Saloon
3rd: Michelagua, Fruteria Cano

Best Dessert
1st: Deep-Fried Cheesecake, Granny's Cheesecake
2nd: Brookie, Totally Baked Cookie Joint
3rd: Brownie Ice Cream, Fried What!

news-you-can-eat rodeo

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

Buckle Up

RodeoHouston celebrates all the deep-fried goodness with Gold Buckle Awards

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

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