Pig - - Page 31

by BS

America’s Real Best Ballpark Food

We’re talkin’ ballpark food for this week’s Who Cooked It Better, inspired by the New York Times’ Travel Section. Food writer Peter Meehan had the enviable assignment of traveling to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums and sampling their many edible offerings. Of course, this being the New York Times, the baseball food they cover is less beer and pretzels, more Champagne and edamame. Call me old-fashioned, but I’d rather not sample the eel nigiri while sitting in the bleacher seats. In fact, I’m pretty sure that half the things on the Times list would get you a bloody nose if you’re sitting anywhere outside the executive suites. I’m not saying you have to always go for that slimy boiled hot dog that’s been sitting in warm water for god knows how long, or the “nachos” that are served in a plastic bag. But if we’re going to call it America’s pastime, it must surely be consumed with some sort of food smothered in cheese, grease, and other glorious fatness.

So while the Times writes for the black AMEX crowd, we’ve been scouring the Times online commenters, who are weighing in on the less fancy eats that the story chose to ignore.

Here’s our alternative list (with many thanks to all the angry NYT commenters) of America’s greasiest, cheesiest, most heart-stoppingly amazing ballpark food. Read through to the end to cast your vote for the best.

Washington Nationals – Ben’s Chili Bowl Fully Loaded Half Smoke

Photo: This is Gonna Be Good

It’s unclear how the Times got through a visit to the new Nationals Park without smelling out the offerings from DC’s legendary Ben’s Chili Bowl. I’m still not sure exactly what half-smoke means, but hotdamn it is some kinda tasty sausage. Ben’s fully loaded version is topped with chili, chopped onions, grated cheddar and yellow mustard. Don’t even think about not siding this with some of the world’s best cheese fries.

Baltimore Orioles – Boog’s BBQ Sandwich

Photo: malliavale

Times commenters are up in arms that the article missed the pit smoked pulled pork sandwich offered at Camden Yards. You won’t find a brioche or baguette slice here – the plain old doughy roll is only along for soaking up the gooey Jack Daniels BBQ sauce. Bonus: It’s served up by former Orioles first baseman Boog Powell.

by broadandpattison

How to Eat Your Way Through Spring Training

It’s early March, which can only mean two things: it’s either time for the second annual spring training trip or it’s time to begin over-hyping the Washington Redskins. Last year, myself and two of my “we-finally-got-rid-of-abreu-lieberthal-bell-and-wade-so-we-can-root-for-the-phillies-again” friends decided to start an annual trip down to spring training in Clearwater, Florida.

While our 2007 focus was mostly on beer and hot dogs and a Howard Johnson hotel near the stadium, we expanded our horizons in 2008. Staying in Ybor City allowed us to not just enjoy the nightlife, but also the fine Tampa cuisine.

Below is a day-by-day eating recap. (Note: since the average ES reader is likely unaware of the Phillies AA team, we do not recap the baseball games here. I will say this, however, Greg Golson is faaaaast.)

Weds:
Breakfast – the tray table on the airplane where I was faceplanted until 6 in the morning on my red-eye from Salt Lake City.

Lunch – Baseball game…..the usual…..hot dogs and plenty of beer

Dinner – Fried Calamari: have you ever noticed that all non-cocktail, calamari sauce is always a little bit different. I wish it were a little more consistent. This batch was fried, but a little soft. I like my calamari like I like my NFL free agents: crispy and hard to stop talking about. The Lava Burger – I could try to describe this, but there is no better description than what is on the Green Iguana’s Bar and Grill Menu – Caution! Contents extremely explosive – a Caribbean – spiced grilled burger with the Lizard’s Lava BBQ sauce and tobacco onions.

in Breakfast / Drinks / Pig 6 comments

by BS

What Would St. Patrick Eat?

When holidays come around, the ES mailbag tends to fill up with letters from worried readers unsure how to properly prepare for the coming celebratory feasts. Since it is almost St. Patrick’s Day – one of our most exciting holidays, at least in terms of ingestion – we’re taking this opportunity to address some of these questions publicly. Hence, our newest feature: Ask ES.

Send your comments, concerns and food-related dilemmas to info@endlesssimmer.com

The Feast of St. Patrick:

Dear ES,

March is upon us and I find myself thinking… what would St. Patrick eat? Naturally, green, white and gold must figure somewhere, but aside from pistachio muffins and my own bland tri-colour risotto, I’m at a loss.

So, I challenge ES to concoct something appropriately coloured and tasty… Extra points for incorporating Guinness. Or vodka, just coz I like vodka.

Ailbhe

in Drinks / Holiday / Personal / Pig 7 comments

by BS

Rub Me the Right Way

We here at ES headquarters are pretty obsessed with spices. Put any one of us in front of even an average supermarket dried spices aisle, and don’t expect to get out of there anytime soon. On one particularly productive workday, gansie compiled an excel spreadsheet listing every spice she owned. She forwarded me the document and asked me to review and advise in case she had missed anything. I think I remember the phrase “I only have four sea salts listed and I know I have more than that.”

My point is, we have problems. But my other point is, spices are frickin amazing. You just sprinkle this magic little dust on your food, and it is instantly spicy, savory, salty, sweet, or some beautiful combination of all of the above. It almost feels like cheating.

While searching for the perfect spice to redden up my dahl, I happened upon a quirky little package of ume-shiso sprinkle, described on the bag as how:

in Personal / Pig / Recipe 7 comments

by BS

Sows Gone Wild

I assume I’m ineligible for the prize winnings, but my competitive streak won’t let me pass up the gauntlet gansie threw done with the varmint cooking contest.

Unfortunately, the food co-op was sorely lacking in the squirrel, mole and chipmunk departments, so the craziest thing I could find was wild boar. I know, not exactly scurrying folk, but really, it might not be a wild boar, it might be a rodent of unusual size.

Anyways, it’s from D’artagnan, so I jumped. Aside: can we talk about how awesome the D’artagnan brand is? I’ve already told you about their duck bacon. But I’ve been stockpiling their other fancy-pants provisions too, like chicken truffle sausage, dried porcinis and more. Plus, they are apparently all earthy and sustainable to boot. I swear this is not paid promotion, I’m just blown away by their meat.

And, this particular wild boar mini-roast is made from the knuckle of animal, and while I’m not exactly sure what that means, it sounds pretty damn varmint-y to me.

Back to the boar…

in Contests / Food Travel / Pig / Recipe / Red Meat 3 comments

by h diddy

Sauerkraut to the Rescue!

People tend to cringe when I tell them what I eat for Christmas dinner. The Sweigard household generally serves up a fairly ethnic (Estonian and German) Christmas dinner- a meat heavy, tan plate of goodness. Blood sausage, pork loin, pickled beets, sauerkraut, roasted potatoes, homemade rolls and green beans (for color I think) grace our plates every Christmas Eve, right before we go to church and pass out. I guess people get the wrong idea when they hear blood sausage- maybe it sounds kind of, well, gross. But people should keep in mind that it’s wrapped in bacon! And I’ve been eating it every year for Christmas since I was born and no one told me what it was until I was like 15! So lay off already!

Um, so instead of focusing on blood sausage, I’ll just give you the recipe to my family’s sauerkraut instead. It’s great. And has beer AND bacon in it.

The recipe and more yummy pictures after the jump!

in Bacon / Personal / Pig / Recipe 3 comments

by Tim

Bay of Pigs

This past weekend, the lady and I headed out for a Saturday drive. We made a bee line for Point Lookout, MD, a sentinel’s post overlooking the conflux of the Potomac and Chesapeake. You can’t see across the Bay there, Cherry Island being the nearest land fifteen miles to the East with the actual Eastern Shore a full twenty-four miles away. The Potomac is nearly as broad, the southern end of the river’s mouth, South Point, a whopping eleven miles distant. We were lucky enough to catch a wild snow falling when we arrived, a truly beautiful sight. Anyway, enough about nature, this article’s supposed to be about our lunch.

We were hungry when we left home. We were excited to hit Point Lookout, but our sights (and stomachs) were set squarely on Bear Creek Open Pit BBQ. I read about this place on Jane and Michael Stern’s greasy spoon bible, www.roadfood.com. Stern’s description of the ten foot by ten foot indoor brick pit left no question of where to stop for lunch. It was in plain view when we walked in the door, ten or fifteen pounds of pork slow-cooking on the massive steel grates. My God, it was beautiful. Details on the food postule-jumpule.

in Pig 13 comments