RenFest 2015 food options include deep-fried nachos on a stick, other oddities

The "slammer" -- a cheese-stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon and pork sausage and then (you guessed it) deep fried -- is coming to the Texas Renaissance Festival this coming season. The "slammer" -- a cheese-stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon and pork sausage and then (you guessed it) deep fried -- is coming to the Texas Renaissance Festival this coming season. Photo: Texas Renaissance Festival Photo: Texas Renaissance Festival Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close RenFest 2015 food options include deep-fried nachos on a stick, other oddities 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

On Wednesday the folks behind the Texas Renaissance Festival gathered foodie minds from the Houston area to show off some of the concession items that will be available when its 41st season begins Oct. 10.

The festival’s concessioners and independent chefs created a whole menu of items for the tasting event at the Sandtrap Grill in Houston’s northwest side, complete with refreshments from the festival’s official wine partner Messina Hof.

The King of the Texas Renaissance Festival was also on hand, fully-decked out in his festival finery, to preview dishes like fried lobster on a stick and “barbarian bones” (chicken-fried pork ribs).

The festival’s organizers seem to be upping their food game to match Houston’s. Old reliable standards like turkey legs and sausage on a stick aren’t going anywhere of course but as Rhonni Dubose, one of the festival’s food creatives said, Houston’s tastes are changing and the festival wants to change with it.

“Festival food overall nationally is moving towards highly-curated menus,” said Dubose. Festival are moving past turkey legs and into more adventurous fare, akin to what you would find at RodeoHouston, the State Fair of Texas or a major music festival.

Meanwhile, most RenFest fans are still trying to work off all of those fried Oreos and Twinkies from last month's rodeo as it is.

Houston’s award-winning restaurant scene seems to have caught the eye of the festival.

“We want to appeal not to a Texas palate, but to a Houston palate,” said Dubose, which she says are two different things. Deep fried baklava will probably bridge the gap. It’s being able to play with the typical festival fare that excites Dubose and the concessioners.

Items like nachos on a stick (refried beans and beef rolled in crumbled tortilla chips and then deep fried), fried sauerkraut balls, meatballs on a stick, placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) and a flourless chocolate torte (gluten-free) are all new for 2015. The concessioners brought out each item Wednesday and spoke a bit about its evolutionary process for the assembled media before everyone dug in.

A representative from Messina Hof said that in 2014 more than 400,000 glasses of the label's wine were sold at the festival. No word yet on which one of their four wines will pair with nachos on a stick (probably all of them).

“Houston is getting very food-savvy,” said festival spokesman Travis Bryant, adding that the festival would like to become the unique food destination that RodeoHouston is, but in the fall.

Some items, like a new homemade potato soup, will sell well when the first cold front hits the festival in Todd Mission. The meatier items will increase your chances of "meat sweats" on the warmer weekends.

The festival’s vendor coordinator Dan Lowe says that the use of third-party food concessioners is one of the secrets to the festival’s success. He says that other renaissance festivals he’s visited don’t do that, which he says makes the edible and non-edible products suffer.

“Everything is third-partied out. Everybody is an individual proprietor of their own shop. It makes for better service,” Lowe says. This also means vendors want to innovate, birthing something like a slammer, which is a cheese-stuffed jalapeno wrapped in bacon and pork sausage and then (you guessed it) deep fried.

“Each shop is invested in its own success,” says Lowe.

Fans will get a chance to taste these new items, and many others, when the festival opens up on Oct. 11 with Oktoberfest Weekend.