Citi Field: Nachos Grande and Taqueria

June 22, 2009.  St. Louis Cardinals v. New York Mets.

Another game.  Another photograph of David Wright’s first at-bat.  (I have a collection starting from last season continuing through this year to the games I’ve attended.)  We won this game. 

As it was a night game post-work, I didn’t want to eat too much.  It was slightly chilly – this season has yet to warm up, still – so I grabbed a jacket and headed to the Nachos Grande stand (the one on promenade level close to the elevators by right field as you come up).

The menu.  I find it hard to believe that their nachos clock in so low, especially given that a few days earlier, I’d gone to the movies where the movie nachos, simply chips with melted cheese, clocked in at 1400 calories.  (I skipped and just got a small popcorn, 274 calories.)  But whatever…

The nice thing is that they make the nachos for you on the spot and there are lots of toppings from which to choose.  Refried beans (watery, but tasty), cheese of course, pico de gallo (what I got), jalapeno slices, or a regular salsa.  I like fresh tomatoes with less soupy gunk, so I chose the pico de gallo, clearly, which had a nice fresh taste, very very slight kick (which I like), and overall, it was tasty.  At $7.25, I didn’t find the price horrifying (nor cheap), but considering you could tack on $1.75 and get chicken or steak (I thought they used to have pulled pork? but I could be wrong)… it isn’t expensive, as I’m sure adding on a meat would fill you up for dinner.  As it was, I was full and satisfied after eating these, and enjoyed munching them throughout the game.  Yum! 

June 28, 2009.  New York Yankees v. New York Mets.  No, let’s not talk about the game, let’s just say it completed the Yankees’ three game sweep of my darling team.  Not a good season thusfar, weatherwise and baseball-wise. 

In any case, I chose this game to complete my tour of Taste of the City, with only one stand left to sample: Taqueria.  I opted for the combo, which came like so:

So I don’t really know which of the three salsas was meant to go with what.  Not that I could have told them apart, anyway. 

Roasted tomato, tomatillo, and salsa fresca (not in that order, and I only know the names because I blew up that pic I took of the menu, but I can’t really tell them apart anyway…).

Carnitas – the pork was super tender, but slightly dry and needed the salsa (I randomly chose and added a bit) to boost up the moist factor there.  Appropriately sized/portioned. 

The steak was very tender, but lacked in flavor.  BF tried a bite and agreed with me; I wound up adding one of the salsas to add to the flavor, but not really the juiciness.  Also, they were a bit cheap with the steak – what gives?! 

The chicken mole was bursting with chicken – in fact, there was too much chicken in there.  Some of it was shredded, some of it was big chunks, big dried out white meat chunks.  I was unhappy with that.  And this is personal preference, but I discovered that I guess I don’t like mole – if this is what it’s supposed to taste like – a bit sour and spicy at the same time.  I like vinegar and vinegary hot sauces, but that wasn’t this… it just had this weird sour taste to it that didn’t appeal to my tongue.  I added bits of salsa to this to try to change the flavor profile, but it didn’t help.

BF wanted simply chips & salsa, which, for $3.50, isn’t too bad.  I mean, it’s less than half price of the Nachos Grande cart, which, ok, didn’t have such a super long line as Taqueria did, though Taqueria’s line moved quickly.  And Nachos Grande is much closer to our seats than this place was.  These chips were thickly cut, and pretty good, though I didn’t like the salsa they had – I much preferred the pico de gallo I’d gotten from Nachos Grande the last time we’d been at the park. 

As for the elote, the corn on the cob that I’d thought was meant to be grilled but closer inspection of the menu says it’s steamed… then slathered with mayo, cotija cheese and a dash of cayenne… BF really wanted corn but didn’t want any crap on it.  I wanted to try it just to try it.  I don’t know about $5… the corn was a bit over-steamed and a tad soggy, though the cheese all stayed on and very little fell off into my lap while I was eating it.  There was a nice kick from the cayenne – making it not spicy-I-want-to-cry, but just a slight kick that played well with the cheese.  I liked it! but I don’t think I’d pay $5 to get it again.  It’s nice there’s a stick to hold onto as you eat it, though, making it easy to eat it without getting it all over your fingers, too.

Funny moment: I was at my seat, waiting for David to bat before eating it so I could take a pic of him, and someone tapped me to ask me “I have to know, is that a CORN DOG?” and I was all, “No, but don’t you wish they sold corn dogs here?  It’s corn on the cob,” before turning back around.  (Actually, when I was bringing those nachos above back to my seat, as I entered my section, I heard directly above me “OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT? THEY HAVE NACHOS HERE?!” and I looked up and the guy looked back sheepishly.  I seem to be the food expert in my section…)

So, that basically completes my tour of Taste of the City.  I have now eaten at Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, Box Frites – twice, and Catch of the Day.  I only have one more shop to hit up before I’m really done eating the stadium and have, to my satisfaction, tried everything I would like to try.  After that… well, I’ll post my final thoughts on the food of Citi Field when I’m done, I suppose.  🙂

Yvo says: Nachos Grande is a pretty sweet deal, inexpensive and a fun thing, I think, to eat at the stadium.  A large improvement over nachos at Shea, which were a tray of corn/tortilla chips, with two containers of cheese or salsa, as you wanted (the pre-packed, not fresh kind that you can buy for 99c at convenience stores – you know what I’m talking about!).  The Taqueria – I have NO idea if these are authentic, but they tasted alright.  I don’t like the prices however, and I also felt the tortilla on all of them was undercooked/not toasted enough.  I like mine to be burned a little or it tastes ‘raw’ to me (I buy these sometimes and make like black bean tacos with them), but that could be personal preference.  I don’t believe I’ll be back – maybe for elote once in a blue moon, but otherwise, I’ll pass. 

Citi Field