Citi Field: World Market Mama’s, Box Frites

I’m sure you’re all familiar now with my passion for baseball.  (And yes, that is a photo of David Wright’s first-at-bat of the game, a habit I’ve acquired and now have a sizeable collection of such photos – and this photo is especially nice because if you blow it up to ‘actual size’ you can see the ball going towards David, plus he hit it into the outfield for I believe a single.)  BF had a wedding reception to attend, so I took the opportunity to bring HB to her first game at Citi Field. 

(HB and I have been going to baseball games together since 2002 or 2003, generally at Yankee Stadium.  She and her boyfriend have a Saturday plan, much like how BF and I have a Sunday plan… You’ll recall that we went to a game with her & her bf at Yankee Stadium a short while back!) 

Of course we walked around for a bit as it was her first time there.  I’ve always walked by World Market on my way to Taste of the City (where Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, Box Frites and El Verano are), but never gone in because I don’t want sushi at Citi Field (though I will have sushi at SafeCo Park when it’s their turn…).  It turns out that World Market is also the only other location of Mama’s of Corona (the other location is behind behind my seats on Promenade level – you can tell where my seats are by the above photo, actually).  Well, as we wandered towards Taste of the City, I offered up sushi as a suggestion to HB, who declined but thought we should walk into the corner, so to speak, to take a peek anyway.

What did we see but a fried dough stand?  I never saw this before at Citi Field!  Unfortunately, as we walked closer, I saw the offerings – of which I didn’t manage to snag a photo – but they were thick, flat, round discs of dough.  Way too thick to look tasty; you add your own powder sugar at the end, and this one guy was standing there pounding on the dispenser.  If you’ve been to Citi Field, you know how windy the entire stadium is, so powdered sugar was flying EVERYWHERE while he did this… plus the smell of the oil was overpowering and greasy feeling on my face.  We quickly walked into the World Market.  (I LIKE fried foods, remember?  But the smell was sickening, not delicious.)

The first case we saw as we walked in was a display of desserts.  Unfortunately, none of these desserts had their names listed on them, so I shrugged and moved on.  I didn’t feel like finding someone in the supermarket-like place to point at each one and ask “And what’s this?  And this one?”  (It wasn’t entirely obvious what they were; sure those are red pieces of cake, and probably red velvet, but there was other stuff around that didn’t look quite like one or the other…)

Mama’s of Corona down here had a slightly more extensive menu than upstairs, which has only some of these offerings and all pre-made.  Actually, before this, I never had Mama’s not pre-made. 

Some of the desserts offered.

The girl making our sandwich!  (We decided to split one.)

Packing it up

Side view

Shot of the innards

And once again, Mama’s doesn’t fail to satisfy.  Add on some of those peppers, mushrooms, and you’re good.  Mmm, meaty and delicious.  There wasn’t much difference in taste between the pre-made sandwiches I’ve had from the Mama’s on Promenade level and this one, except this one was cut awkwardly (the bottom was way too thin) and the meats/cheeses weren’t evenly spaced.  Funny, I guess since they aren’t made on the spot at the one on Promenade, they are more careful/take more time to make them, and line everything up evenly.  Still delicious either way! 

Of course, after hearing me talk about Box Frites with such love in my voice – she is a fellow enthusiast of Pommes Frites – we decided to split a large order (since the small is total BS).  I opted to get the chipotle garlic with it, noting that the sign is still spelled wrong, though they changed it to chipotle garlic and now don’t have prices listed next to the sauces (not sure why – do they no longer allow you to get more? or perhaps people were confused about the pricing since your first one is free?).  Look – the container is larger now, too, which is cool. 

The fries were not overly salty, which some people have complained about, and the dipping sauce was nice though still not my favorite.  A light kick of heat, chunky, garlicky, but eh.  HB was happy though and said they were really good frites.  (She got ketchup for her own dipping purposes after trying the chipotle.) 

With both items – half the sandwich each and half the frites – we were both very full and happy. 

Hey look, it’s Mr. Met (and some random kid)!

Ahem.

I’m almost done exploring all of the major food options at Citi Field.  The above is what I’d fully recommend to anyone going to Citi Field – especially those of us who live in NYC – for taste and value.  Yummy. 

Citi Field
Field Level
Flushing