New NYC Ballpark Food Tour '09, Part One

Well, first off, I doubt I'm going to get to Yankee Stadium before this fall is over, so this will probably only be a one-part series.

Went to Citi Field to see the Mets yesterday. I haven't paid much attention to the Mets since, well, 1986, but I did want to see what the new ballfield was all about. The cheap tickets and chance to hang out with some fun coworkers didn't hurt either.

Mostly, though, I wanted to check out the food, chiefly its Shake Shack outpost. The line was pretty long at first pitch, despite there being only about 100 people in the stadium. So we got regular old dogs and beers and headed to our seats. Well, not our seats. We sat in some empty seats closer to the field than our actual seats (not sure if it was due to the team's performance of late, or the U2 concert).

Here's the food rundown. Hot dog: tasty, good bun, everything you'd want it to be. Beer: Miller Lite. Slightly above average owing to the atmosphere. French fries: thicker and less salty than I'd like. But I'm not a big fry person anyway. Dill pickle-flavored sunflower seeds: Wait, what? Did you say "dill pickle-flavored sunflower seeds?" I did! I did say "dill pickle-flavored sunflower seeds!" They were ... interesting. Not available in your area? Sprinkle some pickle juice on a popsicle stick, chew on it for a bit, and spit it out. There you go. Again, though, they really lent something to the ballpark ambiance.

As the game wore on and we assumed the line was growing short, we walked over to the Shake Shack. Hurrah! No line to speak of. So I got myself a vanilla shake even though I didn't think I had the room left in me. It was thick and delicious -- pricey, yes, as I recall, but now I am not exactly sure what it set me back. No more than you'd expect at a stadium, though. I think it was more that the cup was small. I'd be mad if I had counted on it to be my whole meal.
But in the end, I wasn't able to finish it all without succumbing to post-beer heartburn, and so, comfortable in my successful conquest of the park's eateries and in my avoidance of Pepcid, I tossed the near-empty cup in the trash, took a deep breath, and patted my breast. Success.

Archived Food Focuses: my faves, winter '08-'09

-Quaker Muffin Bars. (I love Quakers.)
(EDITOR'S NOTE: They stopped making them since I wrote this! So mad!!)
-Polar vanilla seltzer. It's fantastic.
-Pasta in the old 16-oz. boxes instead of the new, cheap-ass 12-oz. boxes
-My aqua cast iron pot, not new anymore but still heart it
-Medium iced tea, unsweetened, with no lemon ("Yes, I said NO lemon")
-Kosher salt

Breaking the Fast

OK, so there is not really a good excuse for having neglected this so long. But, briefly -- on Dec. 23 I came down with a wicked cold/sinus infection/bronchitis/GI distress/what-have-you. Really not appropriate for a food blog. Basically, too sick to eat or blog. Then my computer crapped out. Then I bought an emergency netbook to tide me over till Windows 7 comes out but its small keyboard is not really conducive to, well, typing. Then I decided my recreational writing time should be spent on my novel. Then things got busy at work and for the past 3 or 4 months my writing chops have been devoted to for-profit writing.

Now the busy season at work is just about over and after about a month of thinking about what I would write to break the fast, so to speak, I decided to just get this all out in one post and then return like nothing ever happened.

So here I am. Back at ya.