The dishes you need to try at Taste of Cincinnati: Our favorite picks

I arrived as soon as the doors opened at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning at this year's Taste of Cincinnati. It was a good move, since, along with Enquirer photographer Albert Cesare, we spent little time waiting in line for the dishes I most wanted to try. 

I can't say there was one particular winner, but there were quite a few I can strongly recommend if you're heading there today.

Let's start with the ja ja mein from Deme kitchen ($8). Their take on this traditional Beijingdish is a hearty serving of wheat noodles topped with spicy ground pork stir-fried with fermented soybean paste. The noodles had a perfect chewy texture and the spice level was just right. Hearing the "thud" as I tossed my leftovers in a trash can (alas, that's what us food writers must do to survive these so-called careers of ours) was almost heartbreaking.

Another standout impressed me by taking the name of this event quite literally. The Goetta Van Fleet dish from Northside's Tickle Pickle ($6) takes the famous Garbage plates of Rochester, New York to a whole new Cincinnati level by piling mac and cheese with Giler's goetta and Grippo's barbecue potato chips, which complements the goetta with some sweetness, spice and crunch.

You know what else was kind of outstanding? The cod nibbler with fries ($8) from the Off the Hook food truck. I can see why it  won a sliver medal at this year's Best of Taste Awards. The cod was perfectly fried, the batter crunchy, the fish flaky, and the entire fritter almost miraculously devoid of grease.

I also loved the roast beef on weck sandwich ($5) from the Buffalo's Best food truck. I've written about my fondness for this Buffalo classic, which used to be served at Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck before they (foolishly if you ask me) dropped it from both their menu and their name. The sandwich thankfully lives on here with thinly sliced roast beef served on a kummelweck roll topped with sea salt and caraway seeds and some horseradish and jus on the side (use them!). If you're a saucy wing lover, I recommend ordering some the wings, too ($6). I chose a sweet barbecue sauce that I'm still thinking about as I write this.

I felt a little odd ordering from the China Gourmet booth. After all, the restaurant is within walking distance of my house in East Hyde Park. Still, on a hot day like yesterday, their cold sesame noodles were exactly what I needed, chewy and redolent of sesame seeds and peanuts.

Other highlights included the chicken tostada from Mazunte ($7) and the smoked meat nachos from the Wicked Hickory food truck ($8), because how can you go wrong with smoked meat on nachos? (though these were especially flavorful; and the chips, as Albert pointed out, maintained their crunch despite the weight of all that meat, cheese and pico?

There were so many other things I wanted to try, including the fried musubi ($6) from Dine-In Hawaiian; the Chicago dog from Adena's Beefstroll, and the salted caramel brownie sundae from SugarSnap! ($4). Hopefully, I'll get a chance today. After all, a Taste of Cincinnati comes just once a year, so if you're on the fence about going, I encourage you to get there (and get there early).

This gallery shows the top picks for Taste of Cincinnati:

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The must-try dishes at Taste of Cincinnati!