We are so happy that baseball is back. We managed to get tickets to Opening Day at Dolphin Stadium; the Marlins lost to the Mets (boo!), but it was still a great time.
To celebrate, we thought we’d present a photo essay of ballpark food from each of our cities. We’ve actually visited and eaten in each of the parks listed, except for the two in the Bay Area. We’ll start with our favorite: Philadelphia.
Citizens Bank Park
We hate the Phillies. But we think their ballpark is great, and we love the fact that we can get a Tony Luke’s roast pork Italian sandwich for about the same price as at the restaurant. Whenever we go to a game there, we arrive early to get our sandwich before the game starts, because by the third inning, the place is mobbed.
US Cellular Field
We had to get one of these at every White Sox game (and we went to quite a few throughout our college career), sans ketchup of course. The sauteed onions really were key, and you could smell them as soon as you walked into the stadium.
Wrigley Field
We heard that there were Chicago-style hot dogs at Wrigley Field, but we were never able to find any. Were they reserved for those sitting in the lower level? (We sat there once … in the bottom of the ninth inning when the Cubs were being blown out.) Every hot dog we had at Wrigley was boring (frankfurter, bun, mustard, maybe raw onions), but the photographic evidence indicates that interesting hot dogs do exist there. So clearly we weren’t looking hard enough.
Fenway Park
So there’s the Fenway Frank. It’s famous. We’re not quite sure why. We remember having a hot dog at Fenway, but we don’t remember much about it. Conclusion: it was forgettable.
AT&T; Park
After a quick image search and a chat with San Francisco editor Adam M, we learned that garlic fries are the way to go in both stadiums. And boy do they look good. The ones above are paired with a Polish sausage that has been ruined with ketchup. We’ll never understand that.
McAfee Coliseum
See? More garlic fries. And a Chicago-style hot dog. It doesn’t look completely authentic (poppy seed bun?), but hey, they’re trying.
Dolphin Stadium
We’ve been to about 20 times as many games here as at the other ballparks, yet we can’t remember the last time we actually purchased food at the park. Two reasons: 1. When you go to so many games, that overpriced food can get expensive. 2. The concession stand money goes to Wayne Huizenga. Not a good thing.
There’s a Caribbean food area where you can get Cuban sandwiches and jerk chicken, which aren’t bad options. But really, the best option is to bring your grill and tailgate (see above). That’s what the enormous parking lot is for.
Photos: tumblebunny, 81timesayear, Thinking Violet, andrewmalone, fancydee, mojo!, nicaorgullo [Flickr]
