I received an email about 2 weeks ago, to my extreme excitement, inviting me to visit Citi Field for their annual concessions preview. I admit, I’ve read about this event nearly every year with a mixture of “Why wasn’t I invited?!” and “Wow, that looks good.” – I am one of the only (maybe the only?) person I know who not just writes about food, but writes about baseball and even writes about baseball food. It’s like, my one niche! Come on! So I sort of felt like I’d found the Golden Ticket…

even more so when I received an email the morning after the event informing me that the Executive Chef at Citi Field is “very aware of [my] work and enjoys it” – talk about professional validation!  *beam*  I realize how dorky I am for sharing that here, but it was one of those moments that just made it all worth it.

You may or may not know that this year marks the Mets’ 50th Anniversary – as such, specially-branded items will be available throughout the park with various concessions. I’ve got my commemorative helmet, bucket and cup already

My perennial favorite, Mama’s of Corona, was there to showcase their goodies. Doesn’t appear to be anything new this year – but that’s okay, when you find something that works so well, why mess with it? exBF loved those cannolis and he’s super picky about cannolis, so take that as you will. (I’m not a fan of cannolis in general, so I have nothing to really share… I do recall that he’s got an issue with certain types of chocolate used to coat the shells, and these were fine; also, if the cream inside isn’t good, or if the shell is soggy, he gets annoyed, and he had no problems here. I didn’t teach him to be picky, but I did teach him to pay more attention to how things are made and why he might like something more at one place than another, and to be able to describe those differences – mostly as a way to help me improve my cooking, but it translated to everything he ate. Be more thoughtful of what you’re eating and how it makes you feel!)

I have actually never had sushi at Citi Field, mostly because I prefer to eat other things – but this time, it was all so pretty I had to try some. It was really fresh and pretty good actually – I may have to check out their outside-the-stadium location as well.

One of my frequent recommendations in my yearly guide is visiting Box Frites for frites. This year, they’re expanding the menu again and now offer sweet potato fries – which were crisp, salted properly and quite good – but also two hot dog options, so for those that don’t consider a large frites a meal in itself (who are you people?) you can now get a BLT dog (which wasn’t being offered that night) or a Buffalo Dog (shown above, cut into smaller sizes), an all beef grilled dog with Buffalo blue cheese sauce, pickled carrot and celery. Slightly spicy with a nice kick but nothing tear-inducing, a nice snap to the dog, I liked this though I couldn’t say I’d order this – solely because I like my hot dogs with a few simple items, and not covered in so much stuff (I like ketchup + relish and sometimes mustard).  They’ll also be offering fried fruit pies with caramel sauce, but I either didn’t see these or somehow failed to try one.  I’m mostly concerned about how this will affect lines and wait times – Box Frites has always had a line that moved fairly quickly, so this will undoubtedly increase that…

Caesar’s Club – where I’ve rarely been able to enter, as my tickets don’t grant me access – apparently has offered this “NY Cheese Steak Sandwich” for a while – no, it’s not a Philly cheesesteak.  I can comfortably say I am a cheesesteak expert and this had good cheese, excellent meat, the only thing wrong was the bread. It was too hard – so biting into it left a lot of stuff trying to squish out. Once I got past the outer crust, though, it all melted together into a really lovely bite… yum.

Promenade club – where, if I’d kept my plan, I’d now have access to simply because I’d have over 15 games in my plan – now offers a few new items as well. Home run wings – which are customized with your choice of sauce. We tried a few and they were all meaty and pretty good, I would not mind getting those (depending on price; I’m rather partial to my Blue Smoke wings).  They also now offer two new sandwiches – the New Yawkwah (corned beef, topped with sweet potato fries, bacon, pickles, slaw & Thousand Island dressing served on a pretzel roll) and the 7-1-Ate Special (pictured), with your choice of hot or sweet Premio sausage that’s been split and grilled, topped with a hash brown, fried egg, slaw and pepper hash on ciabatta.  I tried a bite and thought it was interesting – a lot going on in terms of flavor and all – but I definitely wouldn’t order this, too messy for me. Yes, I’d rather eat saucy wings than a sandwich that falls apart, haha.

The Delta club has a few new offerings as well – I’ve been lucky enough to be able to sit down there for a few games, but rarely did I eat anything interesting – the above, seared tenderloin medallions atop polenta with a red wine demi glace. Yeah, it’s fancy. It was also really good.

Also in the Delta Club: Swedish meatballs: not just for trips to Ikea anymore! These were actually almost shockingly tender, and just perfect. Think of your favorite Ikea meatball experience, then multiply that times 10. Or just take your experiences eating Swedish meatballs that had nothing to do with Ikea (mine are limited to Smorgas Chef in the city), and add a little bit to that. Yeah, that good.

Empire Suites also offer buttermilk crispy chicken with mac&cheese and cornbread.  I mean, if you’re going to pay all that money for those seats… well, I thought the fried chicken was only OK, but you know I’m a fried chicken snob.

Pork osso buco is now offered as one of the entree options in the Acela Club – the all you can eat buffet I did one year.  Tender, delicious.

Then I ate Mr. Met.  I mean, wait, what?  Yes, dear friends, if you have an event catered there, you, too, can have Mr. Met’s bust as your cake. How awesome is that?!

This is actually one of the items I am easily the most excited about: Cool Haus ice cream sandwiches are now available in all the clubs around the park. Okay, so I don’t generally have club access, but that’s not the point. I mean, I LOVE that Citi Field works with the little guys – not just big conglomerates, but that they have Mama’s of Corona, Daruma of Tokyo, alongside with Shake Shack and Blue Smoke – well, it means a lot to me that they don’t just look to those with big pockets.  That small businesses are represented at Citi Field is important to me, and that’s how I see Cool Haus entering this market: awesome.  Hopefully, eventually, Cool Haus will be available to all seats – not just in-seat service and those with club access (which, honestly, is most of the park – almost every level of seats offers club access of some sort, I just don’t have it because I had the cheapest possible seats)… hopefully!

I didn’t get to try everything, but here’s a list of what’s new and where:

El Verano Taqueria: vegetarian tacos with portobello mushrooms, zucchini, corn and Poblano peppers; barbacoa quesadillas with slow cooked beef with chipotle and guajillo peppers

Box Frites:  Buffalo Dog; sweet potato fries; fried pies

Catch of the Day: flash fried beer battered shrimp skewers

Cholula Hot Sauce: Cholula chipotle crispy chicken sandwich

Brooklyn Burger: pastrachos – pastrami-topped nachos

Delta Club: fried flounder sandwich; smothered Swedish meatball; seared tenderloin medallions

Caesars Club: Cafe Roma: reuben quesadilla with pastrami, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese and scallions

Acela Club: pork osso buco

Promenade Club: homerun wings (choice of traditional Buffalo, chipotle BBQ, teriyaki, garlic parmesan, honey-black pepper or Thai-chili sauces); the New Yawkwah sandwich; 7-1-Ate special

Empire Suites: buttermilk crispy chicken; southwest chicken salad

Metropolitan Hospitality: tuna tar tar; chicken and waffles; seared Long Island striped bass

Citi Field Desserts: Mr. Met Cake; Metropolitan hospitality cake; Cool Haus ice cream sandwiches; banana bread pudding

Finally, a few things I discovered after speaking with the USHG chef who oversees Taste of the City, and the Aramark concessions manager…

Menus from Blue Smoke and Box Frites locations will be streamlined and will all now match – so no more “you can only get this at the Blue Smoke on promenade” as a pro tip. Speaking of which, THERE WILL NO LONGER BE FRIED CHICKEN BY THE PIECE AT BLUE SMOKE. Chef Scott Levine said “there will be fried chicken! in the sandwich” but let’s be real, when someone says “fried chicken” you don’t think “fried chicken cutlet in a sandwich” do you?  But menus at both Box Frites and both Blue Smokes will be the same as each other, no secret hidden items at least.

Other exciting news – at least for the beer drinkers among us – as I mentioned, Citi Field really works with our local/small businesses, which I absolutely adore. This year, SixPoint Sweet Action – the cream ale that is perfect on a hot summer day at the ballpark – will be available at Craft Beer Stands near section 105, 127 on Field Level and 413 on Promenade Level (which is right behind my section, actually).  There will also be Blue Point Summer, Toasted, and White India Pale Ale, Goose Island IPA, Kona Longboard Lager (!!!), Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Magic Hat #9, Widmer Drifter Pale Ale… so craft beer nerds, rejoice – the selection is getting larger and larger…

This year promises to be interesting – not just in terms of the food and drink options at Citi Field, but the on-field talent. As always…

LET’S GO METS!!!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, press event

That photo is from the last regular season game at Citi Field that was included in my Sunday plan (September 25, 2011). 

This picture is from the last regular season game that I actually attended – September 27, 2011 – courtesy of my overactive Twitter account one day a few months ago.  I participated in a Twitter battle between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Mets, and because I helped them beat the competition, they DMed me for my address “to send me an autographed photo of Mr. Met” – but included in the envelope was a couple of surprise goodies, including a nifty orange watch with the Mets logo on it, and… four tickets to the second-to-last game of the season, with these seats. 

Because I’m a nice “boss” – and because there are few people in this world more fun to watch baseball with than Beer Boor – I decided to take the NY-based members of the Feisty Family (bloggers, not my blood family, because they hate baseball – I am the only one who enjoys it): Beer Boor, TT & CT. 

After my usual photo of David’s first at-bat (posted above), we went to get food.  Most of this is nothing new – the elotes that I love so dearly, but this time they were not mine.  Beer Boor smartly ordered this… I should have asked him to get one for me too! 

He also got the taco combo, which he logically pointed out was $10.75 for three tacos, and pretty good quality ones at that.  Fine, they’re not expensive, I just don’t particularly like them there.  I’ll take Nixtamal any day! 

TT opted for Blue Smoke and ordered the BBQ bologna sandwich.  It’s definitely one of the more interesting offerings at the park; the bologna is cut very thick, then grilled to give it a smoky flavor, doused in BBQ sauce, onions and pickles.  I remember I’d enjoyed the less saucy bologna sandwich last year, and it looks even better now… I just couldn’t justify the price when I got it.  However, since then, they’ve lowered the price to $7.75, which is more in line with what I said I’d pay for it (in that first link when I ate it) – and it looks bigger now, too.  Interesting – I might get this again at some point! 

CT went for the buttermilk ranch sandwich, which hadn’t been good the time I sampled it but I’ve heard varying reports, and I think she enjoyed it.  I didn’t hear any complaints, anyway! 

What did I eat?  Well…

I finally decided to bite the bullet and order the lobster roll from Catch of the Day.  I always balked at the price and at eating lobster at the ballpark, but TT sent me a photo earlier in the day from another blog and it looked half decent.  I justified it by saying lobster rolls elsewhere around the city are easily $30 – Ed’s Chowder House, anyone? – so why not?  Here’s why not: the photo TT sent was from a few years ago and showed a top-split hot dog bun with chunks of lobster, not much mayo, and just… a lobster roll.  What I got, as you can see in the pics above, is chopped up lobster meat.  You don’t chop up lobster meat unless it’s to get rid of bad parts / hide the funky bits.  No one wants to eat shreds of lobster meat, they want to eat chunks of it.  While it was tasty enough – like chopped up lobster meat, bits of celery, and I squeezed lemon on it for a little brightness… I would not recommend this – even at a cheaper price.  I didn’t get sick, but really, I was offended by the chopped up lobster meat.  Let the meat shine!  Let it speak for itself! 

Unfortunately, though we were winning for most of the game, true to form, we wound up tying, then going into extra innings and just… bleh.  I hope TT and CT enjoyed their first ever game at Citi Field, despite the cold and the loss (they left before the game ended; it was a school night after all!). 

One more season down at Citi Field, and one more sadface from me.  My home for 6 months out of the year, and it’s over!  Next year guys… there’s always next year.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lobster rolls

This year, things are a little different.  Baseball is still my number 1 sport, and I don’t see that changing any time soon, but my bestest buddies started a Fantasy Football League this season, and I’m participating.  I’ve watched the Super Bowl every year regardless of whether I cared who won or not (I always pick a team to root for just to make it more fun), and I like football enough… but I’d never been to a game. 

Enter Cookie: she won tickets to her company’s suite at New Meadowlands Stadium, and graciously invited me to attend with her.  Um, yes, hello, suite seating?  Sure, it was a pre-season game, but whatever, why not enjoy a game in style? 

After a bit of traffic – yes, I drove into lower Manhattan to pick Cookie up, then onwards into NJ, on a Monday evening – we arrived at the stadium.  I took a photo of this because I understand the Weber connection, but Lobel’s?  Does this mean there’s a stand inside???  I really like their steak sandwiches at Yankee Stadium…

but we headed straight to our suite and I snapped a photo of the view, while the players warmed up a bit. 

For the suite, as soon as I walked in, this was on the table on the right – cookies, brownies, and a Cobb salad.  With lots of bacon and chicken, which sucked for Cookie because she’s a vegetarian. 

The salad itself was really pretty – grilled green onions, cubes of avocado, chicken, blue cheese, bacon, brightly colored tomatoes, cabbage… it was pretty tasty too. 

I snapped this photo when we got there, but it was refilled shortly after – chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and buffalo wings (which went the quickest – definitely football food!). 

Hot dogs… which no one touched.  Baseball food, I guess?

Pulled pork on the left, and spinach-cheese dip on the right (which is what Cookie wound up eating mostly).  Needs more chips and bread! 

I don’t know why this amused me so much, but it did: the phones have the Giants logo on them! 

And my first plate was clearly absentmindedly chosen: cole slaw, salad, and chicken fingers.  I still don’t know what I was thinking.  Cisco phones and Sysco food… the chicken fingers were exactly as you’d expect. 

The pulled pork was marginally more interesting, while I liked the spinach-cheese dip a lot.  The wings were pretty eh – again, standard Sysco issue – but great football food.  I think I may start making wings on weekends as I’m watching a lot more football now (and getting my butt kicked in my Fantasy Football League). 

Then, kickoff! and I sat outside, glued to the game, watching the Giants kick Bears butt.  I totally forgot to wander around the stadium to see what’s available in terms of stands because I have this “nasty” habit of staying in my seat during game play.  (I get to baseball games early, eat, then sit in my seat for the entire game… rarely taking bathroom breaks unless absolutely necessary.) 

I had a lot of fun at my first live football game though, even though the food was only so-so in the expensive seats.  Thanks again to Cookie for the ticket, and big ups to the Giants for their stomping of the Bears in pre-season ball!!! 

Oh yeah: Ottis Anderson was totally in the suite next to us, rocking both his Super Bowl rings.  A girl in our suite started ranting about him being a jerk for wearing the rings or something, but I didn’t understand what she was talking about.  Cookie went over to say hi to him, and he let her try on one of his rings, which I thought was cool (they are BLING!).  The guy seemed nice enough but I didn’t feel comfortable going over to talk to him when I had no idea who he was…  Oh well! 

Let’s go BIG BLUE!!! 

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: football

Since he’d gone on his own at a game earlier this season, but we’d not gone at the last Yankees game together as my budget didn’t allow, this time, Beer Boor decided he wanted to get the meatball sandwich from Parm for a second time (he’d gotten it once at another game that I didn’t attend with him).  For $14, well, I was happy to let him get one that I could photograph!

The center of the cart displays the rolls and fresh tomatoes on the vine.  (And if you look really closely, you’ll find the answer to the question I Tweeted earlier that day: “Yvo Incognito: what do I wear when I don’t want to be recognized?”) 

They also have two display sandwiches, I guess in case you don’t know what a turkey sandwich or a meatball parm sandwich looks like.  Turkey was actually winning that day; a lot of people were ordering it. 

Beer Boor’s sandwich in the box…

Closer up…

Inside shot – fresh basil makes me happy.

And finally, a cross section.  I was cajoled into taking a bite, just so I could report on how it tasted, though I wasn’t very hungry.  Honestly?  My bite was towards the end of the sandwich, but honestly?  I don’t get the hype.  It’s a seasoned burger with no crust, topped with parm-toppings (cheese, sauce, basil), served on a soft roll.  The meat was pretty soft where I took a bite, and while it tastes good… I don’t think this is worth $14 at all.  This gets a huge fat MEH from me.  The texture was all one-note, and I really need more texture to my food than “soft” all throughout, even if the flavor was good.

Sorry Parm & Torrisi, but I’m ruling this a big PASS. 

Note: Beer Boor thoroughly enjoyed this sandwich – at least twice now – and much like myself, he won’t spend money on something he doesn’t think tastes good.  So I know he liked it quite a bit, and I’m sure he’ll chime in with his own thoughts as well, but personally, this didn’t do it for me. 

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: sandwiches, Yankees

So one gorgeous afternoon when the Mets were playing the Angels  - these are not my normal seats, no, my darling mother-in-law’s friend offered BF and I tickets to these seats, and I took this picture to show how close I was to 3rd base… sadly, David Wright was already on the DL, and I’m not sure when I’ll again sit so close to his position, wahhh.  And they lost terribly that day… plus Howie Kendrick lost control of his bat, and it went flying into the stands heading straight for me.  It hit a little girl a few rows ahead of me, but we were on TV briefly because of it.  She was fine, and got to keep the bat – and a Mets representative in a suit showed up moments later to ask her for her contact info, presumably to offer her consolation items later.  Maybe tickets to another game later.

In between innings, I walked over to Keith’s Grill.

There are only two things on the menu – the Gold Glove Burger and the Mex Burger.  Both are $10.  There are no fries, no hot dogs, nothing else on the menu.  And please note that BF wanted to try this stand almost as much as I did, but when I said “Isn’t there too much stuff on the burger for you?” he agreed, then said he’d give it a try… but then decided against it when he saw his friend was ordering a plain burger.  Boo – if he’d gotten the Gold Glove, I’d have gotten the Mex Burger and gotten to try both!  Instead, they both opted just for bacon cheeseburgers, which costs the same as the Gold Glove or Mex Burger – $10.  Granted, this is a specialty stand, and you should go here for specialty burgers, or walk down three stands to the Brooklyn Burger stand… but still!  $10?!  Ridiculous.

Because they only make two types of burgers, it’s pretty assembly line – one guy makes up the buns and stacks on the toppings for whatever burger you ordered, and then plops them in a tray for the guy to slide your cooked patty on top.

While I was taking these pictures, the guy manning the grill kept telling me that “That’s without the burgers!”  I guess he was worried I would pick up the tray and walk off without my meat?  It was funny.

Also, note that my burger has bacon on it, even though the Gold Glove doesn’t normally have bacon on it. There was a mix up and when the guy asked if we wanted bacon, I just told him to put it on all of them. Oh well.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat the burger until about 45 minutes later, so while I enjoyed the burger and thought it was tasty enough – just not $10 tasty – I thought it could have been better. I decided I had to try again… to give it a fair shake.

The next time I went was easily the busiest I’ve ever seen the stadium this season.  I’m not entirely sure if it was because it was Jose Reyes’ return to the Mets off the DL, or if it was because it was BOBBLEHEAD DAY – or BOTH! – but the stadium was somewhat packed.  I went early for a bobblehead and then dutifully waited on line for my burgers.

As I waited, I noticed these gorgeous wall decorations above the stand, to the left.

A really nice gift for me would be a huge poster of David Wright with his tongue out, hitting the ball… ahem…

See the bobblehead?    Beer Boor wound up wanting to try the burger as well, so we decided to split both.  Unfortunately, due to some mishap behind the stand, the Golden Glove burger was ready first and we spent time waiting for the second one to come out.

The Mex burger, with jalapenos, guacamole, bacon, pepperjack cheese AND cheddar…

and the Gold Glove burger, again.  Oh yeah – both burgers come with some potato chips and a Tootsie Roll pop.

I started with the Mex burger.  Please note that somehow, I managed to get two tops for my burger, no bottom bun.  Fluffy, but too much bread for me.  The flavor of everything was lost – I barely had any heat from the cheese (I moved the fresh jalapenos off my side of the burger), and while the bread was soft, just too much of it.  Maybe because I got two tops?

On the other hand, the Gold Glove burger had lots going on in terms of flavor, but the bread was stale.  Rock hard and difficult to bite through easily.  It’s the same bread (technically), but was the lag time while I waited enough to make it stale?  No, I’d gather this bread was prepped too far in advance (they prep trays of grilled buns, chips and lollipops ahead of time, and then dress them with the appropriate toppings as needed; the prepped trays are stacked up in the back), and became super stale and hard.  Should have been thrown away.

Oddly, Beer Boor had the opposite opinion, much preferring the soft, fluffy bread and taste of the Mex burger to the Gold Glove.  I gather that consistency is the biggest issue here: our burgers may have been topped unevenly, leading to me having more topping on my side of the Gold Glove, and vice versa for him.  Obviously, having two top buns (or bottoms, as someone must’ve had) is a (small) problem as well… but the stale bun is one of the more egregious mistakes here.  That is something that really needs to be QC checked for… it can totally ruin an entire burger!

I’m hoping that as time goes on and the stand becomes more popular (it hasn’t been particularly busy the few times I’ve been, though this time there grew a line behind us – partially because it moves slow, and partially because people walking by actually commented “this line is long, it must be good!”), they work out all the kinks and figure out how to deliver this product the way it’s intended to be eaten.  I think it has a lot of potential that just isn’t being realized for now.

Just… like… the… Mets…

This was our view this time around.  Not bad – fair territory.  An interesting angle to watch the game from.

And as we exited, I was still surprised by how busy it was – a sea of red brake lights! – that I had to snap a photo that didn’t really capture that point.  Ah well.

Let’s go Mets!!!

Final conclusion: the burger is good, but I don’t know if it’s $10 good.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Burgers