For the second year in a row, an ethnic twist on fair food has won the title of Best New Stampede Midway Food.

In 2011, it was Kubie Korn Balls, a delicious corn fritter with bites of kielbasa sausage that tasted like a pancake breakfast. This year The Calgary Food Truck revolution has swept into The Calgary Stampede for the centennial celebration. There’s a long line of the trucks outside the prize home, and one of the newest on the road took home The Best New Stampede Midway Food title for 2012.

Stephanie and Aman of The Naaco Truck hovered over their offerings at the judging table and just couldn’t stop talking with love about their food. The Naaco Bites served up a twist to the usual “deep fried something” we see at this competition. Their dish was colourful, delicious and, as Aman beamed, may be “the only place to get fresh vegetables on the grounds.”

The Naaco Truck gang really prides themselves on being local, fresh, and authentic. This delicious dish features 5 big pieces of chicken sausage sourced from The Missing Link. They then added butter chicken spices to their chickpea flour for deep frying. Wow. A yogurt chutney on a fresh cut slaw finishes it off. This is a very unique take on street/fair food. It’s fresh, and has a nice kick. A worthy winner.

Deep Fried Wagon Wheels
What a great dish to celebrate The Stampede Centennial. The best way to describe this is as a deep fried ‘smore. Normally a wagon wheel is a ‘smore without the melty chocolate, but the deep frying melts the marshmallow and chocolate into a gooey good mess. This entree is $5 for 2 wheels and a lady finger. I’d split this between 3 or 4 people easily. Great value, and a fun treat.

Centennial Sandwich
For the first time, The Calgary Stampede‘s food services entered into the Best Midway Food competition. Executive Chef Derek Dale‘s sandwich features a Spolumbo’s sausage, pulled pork, and pulled bison all in a hoagie with Stampede slaw. It’s a meat fiesta, and it’s so good. The sausage was the final piece of the puzzle was the sausage. It was a trick he learned at Chicago’s Wrigley Field – and it’s delicious.

Other new fare includes Cotton Candy Cupcakes (very very sweet, kids might like the sugar overload, I didn’t), Deep Fried Kool Aid (oily, sugary, and worth a share amongst the group if you’re curious), Funnel Cakes made with red velvet, or bacon and maple syrup, and the list goes on.

All that food sounds great, but it does come with a price – check out the calorie counter for the Stampede Midway foods before you decide to go whole hog.