SAN ANGELO, Texas — Funnel cakes, nachos, jumbo corn dogs and more are all classic carnival foods.
At the San Angelo Rodeo, attendees from across Texas can experience a wide variety of meal options from 12 different vendors.
One of these is Joe Rivera who, along with his wife Lile, own El Rancho Grande Barbecue and Burritos.
"We just share the cooking together," Lile said as she and Joe prepared for day one of the rodeo.
The couple serves homemade Mexican and barbecue foods including street tacos, corn in a cup, fruit cups and more.
The corn in a cup, or "esquites" in Spanish, include special toppings of the customer's choice.
"You can get real creative with it so we have the basics, the mayonnaise, the parmesan cheese, the hot sauce...," Joe said.
The Riveras only serve their food during rodeo season and they have been participating for the past 19 years now.
The couples' children help them cook and someday, Joe hopes to see his grandchildren carry on the family legacy.
After all, their unique menu provides options for everyone.
"They're [the customers] great, they always come back every year," Joe said.
He and Lile will be at the rodeo nightly, but they're not the only ones.
Another San Angelo vendor is Bada Bing Wood Fired Pizza, which is also co-owned by a husband and wife.
"Ours is cooked in the wood fired oven," co-owner Debra Phillips said. "So our pizzas cook in about two minutes once we get them in there."
Customers can order classics like pepperoni, mushroom or sausage pizzas and according to Phillips, everything is made unprocessed.
"We do make everything fresh," she said. "We make our own dough...we also make Italian sausage...," she added.
The dough itself takes approximately 24-48 hours to make and Phillips is hoping for a good turnout of customers.
Another vendor, Frian Sugiharto, is serving food at the rodeo for his first time with Texas Twister.
The main menu item is potato twisters but he also offers Indonesian spicy ramen, cheesecake and more.
"This is my first time at the rodeo," Sugiharto said. "This is my fourth time in Texas."
Sugiharto has been in business for nine years and is based out of Katy. He travels to different locations to serve his cuisine across the country.
March 31 marks night one of the rodeo but events will take place for the next two weeks.
Go to sanangelorodeo to learn more.
