Food at Sporting events.

[porkpa]

I love sporting events almost as much as I love eating out. What are your favorite foods at stadiums/arenas? I like the Boog Powell BBQ, Babe Ruth Spares Ribs and fresh cut french fries at Baltomore's Camden Yards. There are also a few private vendors outside the stadium who sell good burgers and Italian Sausage.

I have wonderful memories of the between period hot dogs at the lamented Montreal Forum. I haven't been to the new Molson Centre. Have they taken those hot dogs with them?

Porkpa.

[porkpa]

The greatest choice of foodstuffs I have seen at an arena/stadium was found at the Staples Center in downtown LA. They have just about everything - Chinese, Sushi, Jewish type deli, Pizza, Fresh cut fries, a brewery, a few sit down places as well as the normally found items such as hot dogs, burgers, popcorn, peanuts, ice cream. etc.

I've been there about a half dozen times and cannot remember how I felt about any of the food. I guess that it wasn't out of the ordinary(either good or bad). Although when you reach 61, you don't remember quite as well as you used to.

Porkpa

[boaziko]

I usaually enjoy roasted Sunflower Seeds during soccer (what we call football) and basketball matches. It helps release the tension and not only supplies calories. You can buy it in the stadium, but serious consumers (like me) buy premium seeds before the match. (in Jaffa, Israel, the Middle East) naturally you can find hot dogs, bagels, popcorn, ice cream as well as Hummus in pita bread in most places.

[Stephanie]

I always used to get Cracker Jacks at Yankee games, before they switched to the behemoth boxes that cost $5 each. Now I get those Dippin' Dots if it's not too cold out. The food choices at both Yankee & Shea are abysmal compared to other ballparks.

Edited January 6, 2003 by BklynEats (log)

[Lyle]

Usually, and especially if I am unfamiliar with the specific venue, sausage sausage and perhaps a third sausage. Also, if served in the proper method, the skewers can make pretty effective devices for annoying my drunk friends and a somewhat less effective defense mechanism. Nachos with impossibly high piles of jalepenos make a proper annoyance and defense mechanism for my drunk date.

I am curious what the traditional snacks would be outside the U.S. or North Am. I still have not attended a Premier League match ( ), or any other sporting event outside North America aside from a thoroughly numbing cricket match in Germany. At the time I was unable to fashion a noose. Are traditional stadium eats around the world (and I guess the U.S....except where I live where everything completely fails) simply representations of coloquial street foods?

[Suzanne F]

I miss the spiced fried waffle-cut potatoes they used to have at Shea Stadium.

Now that I've finally found the outlets for decent beers, as long as I can get a well-done Hebrew National hot dog at Madison Square Garden, I can survive the game.

[southern girl]

I travel to Baton Rouge every other year when Alabama plays LSU...those folks do it up right...boudin, dirty rice gumbo...all kinds of Cajun goodies....and the tailgaiters outside the stadium are incredible...all kinds of stews, roasted meats and oysters, smoke meats and fish...and even flaming bananas foster at one stop!

[Stephanie]

I should add that I never bother to get "real food" at the ballpark. Dinner's usually at the deli 2 blocks up from Yankee Stadium. When my father & I would come in from Jersey, we'd buy a bucket from our local Chicken Holiday and drive up with it. Needless to say, the chicken was usually gone before we even hit the Turnpike!

Edited January 6, 2003 by BklynEats (log)

[torakris]

I hadn't been to a ball game in the US in years and last summer decided to see the Indians play the Mariners at the new Jacob's Field in Cleveland. I am not a big baseball fan but my (Japanese) husband really wanted to see Ichiro, so during the came I was wandering around the stadium looking at all the food. I ended up coming back with a huge container of nachos piled high with jalapenos, but was quite surprised at the variety of food that was offered. Sushi was the biggest shocker though, They don't even sell that at stadiums in Japan!

[Lyle]

Torokris, if you don't mind, would you describe what is typically offered at Japanese baseball games? Is it Okonomiyaki and other street food? Are any Japanese sporting venues noted for a particular product offered?

[torakris]

Torokris, if you don't mind, would you describe what is typically offered at Japanese baseball games?  Is it Okonomiyaki and other street food?  Are any Japanese sporting venues noted for a particular product offered?

The food at Japanese sporting events is typical Japanese street food. Yakisoba, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, french fries, hot dogs, fried chicken, beer and lots more beer. Vendors also walk through the seats selling popcorn, ice cream, other snacks, and beer. Sometimes you will see inarizushi (vinegared rice in tofu packets), other types of noodles and bentos.

I am assuming it is the same for most sports although I personally have only been to (American) football games, I have no interest in baseball or soccer. A friend offered us tickets to the past World Cup (the stadium is less than 30 minutes from our house) and my husband and I turned them down!

[MHesse]

I like peanuts. At the ballbark I don't worry about the mess the shells make. I usually bring my own sandwhich if logistics permit. And cherries.

Sometimes snipe, if it's fresh. All washed down with six dollar beer.

--mh

[ranitidine]

I don't go to ballgames much anymore. Whenever I do, however, I always make and bring the same sandwich. In fact, in our house we call it a "baseball sandwich." Take half a crusty Italian bread. Pull out some of the crumb. Pour olive oil to taste and rub it in. Crush a clove or two of garlic and rub it into the oil. Put in as much Genoa salami and provolone cheese as you wish. Pour some red pepper flakes on top of the salami and cheese. Fold the bread closed. Wash your hands as you don't want to rub your eyes after having used your fingers to spread the garlic and pepper flakes. Wrap the sandwich. Take it to the ballpark. Eat it and follow it with fresh, roasted peanuts. Wash the meal down with cold beer. You won't care if you ever get back.

[pixelchef]

At the ACC (Air Canada Centre), they deliver fresh sushi to you in your seat if you'd like.

*cough*go Leafs go!*cough*

[tajanna]

My first job - way back when - was dispensing the boiled weiners in steamed buns at an arena in small town Ontario. At the time I thought they were great.

I haven't been able to look a hot dog in the face ever since.

[anil]

Eon's ago we'd walk over the bridge to Fenway Park, buy bleecher tickets and eat hot-dogs and beer and more beer Now, we go over to the Yankee Clubhouse eat and watch the first few innings on the monitors before heading to our seats.

[jhlurie]

Does anyone know who currently does the Field-level "waiter" service concession at Shea stadium? I was at a game there for the first time in years (and in a field level seat for probably the first time in a dozen years) and the food has certainly come a long way from the bad-old "Harry M. Stevens" days of years past.

Particularly impressive was the Corned Beef sandwich, which was good in an absolute sense and not just for ball park food. Salty and garlicky to the right extent, with melted swiss cheese, on a pretty good rye bread.

Also extremely good (although its from a booth in the private Field level "food mall" and not through the waiter service (where you order from your seat and they deliver it to you) are the Jamiacan Beef Patties, which were the best I've had in quite a while.

If you care, the Mets lost TWICE today, in a double-header, to the Diamondbacks. Boo hiss.

Edited April 28, 2003 by jhlurie (log)

[Suzanne F]

Aramark got the contract for MSG that HMS had, so maybe they do Shea also. This is just a guess.

[bloviatrix]

In 1999, Yankee Stadium started selling kosher hotdogs and knishes. After years of being of bringing sandwiches with me to games, I could finally eat a 'dog at a ballgame like everyone else.

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing better than a hotdog and beer.

[Carlovski]

Sounds like food at sports is considerably better outside the UK.

For Football (Soccer to my American friends) We have gone from extremey dodgy pies, to overpriced, low quality franchise type operations in premier league grounds (You can still get a dodgy pie in the lower leagues though).

I try not to eat at football grounds.

Cricket used to be great for taking a picnic, and a coolbox full of beer, but I'd be surprised if they haven't clamped down on that as well. I haven't been to a big game in years.

[sandra]

I have never had good food in a UK football ground, ever... and actually I think the worst offender may be our own Highbury - meat (read surprise!) pies, really bad hot dogs, Bovril, tea and coffee, that's about it - oh and beer which you have to drink inside, it may not be brought to your seats...

We usually have pizza before

[tjaehnigen]

When I used to go to Baltimore Orioles games, I'd get Boog's BBQ. But I don't do baseball anymore.

Now, I do Washington Capitals Hockey. They have these garlic fries that are simply great. If someone in your section, even if diametrically opposed to your seat location, gets these fries, you start salivating like a Pavlovian dog. 'Must...get...garlic...fries!'

[dscott]

Eon's ago we'd walk over the bridge to Fenway Park, buy bleecher tickets and eat hot-dogs and beer and more beer    Now, we go over to the Yankee Clubhouse eat and watch the first few innings on the monitors before heading to our seats.

Gasp. "Hot dogs"? No no no! They are "Fenway Franks"...and they are yummy.

[bloviatrix]

Now, I do Washington Capitals Hockey. They have these garlic fries that are simply great. If someone in your section, even if diametrically opposed to your seat location, gets these fries, you start salivating like a Pavlovian dog. 'Must...get...garlic...fries!'

They sell garlic fries at Pac-Bell and the smell wafts through the entire ballpark. It's quite intoxicating. Before you know it, you're being lured to the stand to purchase some.

[SobaAddict70]

How much does one usually pay for meals at sporting events?

Whenever I go to the U.S. Open, I've learned to bring my own munchies and eats. The vendors at Flushing Meadows know they've got a good thing and often charge an arm and a leg for items that wouldn't cost nearly as much elsewhere....I have memories of $5 hot dogs and $6 trays of nachos.

Soba