Every year, the San Diego County Fair becomes the city’s biggest pop-up restaurant with 150+ vendors, a million visitors, and one very serious food fight. In this episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy Johnson and Jackie Bryant go behind the scenes of the Fair-tastic Food Competition, now in its fourth year.
Troy and Jackie try all 18 dishes across savory and sweet categories before sitting down with the winners. First up: Nathan Marcus of West Coast Weenies, whose Korean Churro Dog—a mozzarella stick cloaked in churro batter and rolled in corn flakes—took home Best in Show for the third year running. Then, People’s Choice winner Nema Causey of Candy Me Up, whose Pistachio Dubai Chocolate Ice Cream Bar stopped the judges (and Jackie) in their tracks.
It’s a love letter to fair food, San Diego food culture, and the multigenerational families who travel fair to fair to feed us. Don’t miss this one.
This summary was provided to you by AI. To hear from the humans, listen to Happy Half Hour wherever you get your podcasts.
