Watch 2 Brothers Tackle The Ultimate Tasting Of The Indiana State Fair

Located in the heart of Indiana's capital city of Indianapolis, the Indiana State Fair is one of the Hoosier state's biggest attractions. Spanning 18 days in July and August, the fair welcomes over 830,000 visitors each year. Along with a full schedule of livestock shows, carnival rides, and live entertainment, the event also features an indulgent lineup of fair food.

All of the whimsically presented desserts, snacks, drinks, and fried meats on a stick are arguably the biggest attractions. In honor of the creative spirit of fair food, and to lure hungry visitors to the festivities, the Indiana State Fair created "Taste of the Fair", a list of the wackiest, tastiest, and most over-the-top new food creations you can find each year. And on behalf of Mashed, brothers Brian and Scott Wilson paid a visit to this year's fair and got an exclusive taste of everything on the list. The daring brotherly duo took an epic tasting tour, sampling 30 different items from numerous food stands around the fair over the course of one long, gut-busting day. And they got it all on video.

The Wilson brothers managed to pull off the difficult yet delicious mission to eat their way through the Indiana State Fair, delivering entertaining reviews of each dish and drink — 10 straight hours of eating is certainly an admirable if not intimidating feat. They've done the grunt work on what to eat and what to skip, so you know which food stands are worth waiting in line for to fill up on.

The Wilson brothers offered two diverse culinary perspectives; one was a meat eater and the other a vegetarian. They were also transparent about their personal opinions on certain kinds of food that will undoubtedly differ from one person to another. That said, they vocalized praise for the most lip-smacking dishes, no matter how full they were.

The highest-rated foods at the fair included novel and classic desserts, meat-centric meals, and creative takes on pizza. For carnivores, the top scoring dish was the spicy, sweet chili walking taco, a cross between frito-pie, a crispy taco, and fully loaded nachos served conveniently in a Doritos bag. This was one dish that might convince vegetarian's to set aside their dietary preferences; even Brian said he was "sad [Scott] couldn't try this." The buffalo pork mac and cheese tied for first place with the walking taco, although the brothers warn it's one of the heavier meals at the fair, so maybe consider sharing. 

The top-scoring vegetarian-friendly item was the elote pizza, a white pizza riff on the famous spicy, creamy, cheesy Mexican street corn, dotted with pickled jalapenos and served with a chipotle dipping sauce. Scott said without hesitation that he "would eat this, like, in everyday, regular life," remarking in the recap that it was so good he devoured it "like a maniac."

Both brothers were especially excited to dig into the indulgent array of sweet creations, and they were not disappointed. Their favorite dishes included creative twists on classic state fair food; the s'more funnel cakes, a cotton candy and whipped cream covered caramel apple, and the lemon drop fried doughnut holes received rave reviews.

The Wilson brothers were kind judges, giving even the most mediocre menu items a five out of ten. Nevertheless, there were some dishes they had to quash with unforgiving criticism. Many of them were in the drink category including overly sweet and syrupy cherry lemonade, a deep-fried Oreo-flavored beer, and a canned cherry gin cocktail.

Surprisingly, Brian's least favorite food from the tour was the classic corn dog — perhaps because it lacked creativity compared to all the other elaborate items they tried throughout the day, or maybe just because he never liked corn dogs to begin with. And while the walking taco was a great success, the walking burger was a goopy mess, consisting of baked beans and hamburger meat poured over potato chips and served in a Ruffles bag. Another fusion of American favorites that fell short of the mark was the pepperoni pizza pretzel, which Brian described as a doughy, dense doppelganger that tastes "like school pizza." 

Finally, at the very bottom of the list lies the unanimously despised deep-fried corn on the cob — proving that apparently, there is a food that doesn't taste better deep-fried! Scott wanted to "rub the fried part off of this" asserting that "corn doesn't need [to be fried]!" 

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.