The Eastern Idaho State Fair held its annual best fair food contest on Thursday where assorted media representatives, sponsor employees and one lucky Facebook winner tasted and judged 33 sweet and savory fair food creations.

Well, actually, we each blindly chose a table to sit at and once everyone was set they randomly assigned each table to a different category of fair foods — Best New Entree, Fairest of Them All Entree, Best New Sweet and Fairest of Them All Sweet.

Those at the sweet table judged both categories for 11 decadent sweets. Meanwhile on the savory side, the Best New Entrees were busy with tasting 10 entries and the Best of the Fair Entrees had 12 entries to judge.

Each entry was scored on a scale of 1-10 on presentation and 1-10 on taste.

Having been warned of eating way too much, getting sick and hating food forever, I devised a plan. I call it the One Bite Challenge. Each entry had only one bite to WOW me. The winner was the entry that made me crave a second bite.

Coming prepared with a sturdy knife, fork, wet wipes and plastic bags for storing the rest of each entry, I chose a likely place. Since I avoid sugar and love trying new things, I was very pleased to end up judging the Best New Entrees. That was until I saw it included Pickle Pizza! (Which, by the way, was actually good).

To increase the likelihood of judges surviving this food marathon, organizers rotated the four categories, allowing a bit of space to prepare for the next set of flavors.

Our table sampled “Surf and Turf” by the Between the Buns vendor, “Lime Crazy Stick” by Mexican Crazy Corn, “Gourmet Stuffed Nacho Bites by La Casita Mexican Food, “Crabby Patty Melt” by Chop & Crab Shack, “Sweet Hawaiian Pork” by Big Guys Hawaiian BBQ, “Blackhawk Beast” by Blackhawk BBQ Pit, “Chicken Cordon Bleu” by Camille’s Crepes (taking a breath here, there is more) “Flamin Flautas” by La Casita Mexican Food, “Pickle Pizza” by Momma & Poppa Leos and finally “Cajun Cheesy Fries” by BJ’s Bayou, which is operated by Robert “BJ” Berlin, the Mayor of Roberts.

Not a dud entry in the group – I will be stocked with leftovers for days!

Before giving my results and the group’s results, I must confess I am not a professional foodie. I do, however, appreciate good flavor. Here goes....

Of the 10 entries, I gave three 18 out of 20 points and I did find one that made me want to eat the whole thing. Third runner-up was the Gourmet Stuffed Nacho Bites which had a pleasant, but not overwhelming spicy bite in the nacho bite, surrounded by rice and beans.

My second runner-up was the Blackhawk Beast, a sandwich that stands about four inches tall with layers of smoked pulled pork, chopped beef and sausage topped with nacho cheese sauce and jalapenos. The meats were superb as usual, but it was hard to get all the flavors in one bite.

First runner-up was the Pickle Pizza, an alfredo sauce, generously cheesy pizza with chopped dill pickles and a sprinkling of fresh dill on top. It was a surprise, to be sure.

The winner? Crabby Patty Melt, a crisply toasted sourdough sandwich with real crab filling that was rich and delicate — not overwhelming or fishy. Personally, this surprised me since I’m not a huge fan of seafood.

That is my own One Bite Challenge. The rest of the judges collectively awarded first place to the Surf and Turf entry, second place to the Crabby Patty Melt, and third to the Chicken Cordon Bleu.

But, really, you can’t go wrong with any of these new food offerings.

The top winners of the Fairest of them All Entrees: first place was Hog on a Log by the Blackhawk BBQ pit, second place was Sample Platter by CR Fish and Things, and third place was the Whole Damn Farm by Smoking B’s.

As to the sweet entries, first place in the Best New Sweet category was The Devil’s Delight. It was also the runaway favorite at our table — we snitched a taste. Definitely a delight. Second place was Creamy Creation’s Strawberry Butter Cake and in third place was Peachy Keen by Camillie’s Crepes.

In the Fairest of Them All Sweet category, first place was, appropriately, Better at the Fair Cake by Creamy Creations. Second place was The Peach Temptations by Sweet Temptations, and third place was Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownie also by Creamy Creations.

For the first time the People’s Choice was also chosen as part of the competition via internet voting on Facebook. They were voting on a broader array of food choices, and, in fact, none of the Best Fair Food Contest entries won a People’s Choice award.

In first place was the Blackhawk Mac and Cheese Bowl by Blackhawk BBQ Pit, second place was Scone Nuggets by Scone Nuggets, and third place was Fruit Crepes by Camille’s Crepes. By the way, Camille’s Crepes offers gluten-free crepes.

If today’s contest is any indication of what food delights will be at the fair this next week — how can you go wrong? Enjoy!