Eating Hot Dogs at Ballgames Is So Last Century

Growing up in the D.C. area, my first exposure to “non traditional” ballpark food came when Camden Yards opened in ’92, equipped with Boog’s BBQ on Eutaw Street behind the oversized right field wall. It’s difficult for soft pretzels and hot dogs to compete with Boog’s delicious pork BBQ sandwiches.

Specialty food stands, like Boog’s, are now commonplace in MLB ballparks, however. And The New York Times’ Peter Meehan recently had the unenviable task of traveling the country and finding the best (and worst) of the culinary delights at baseball stadiums:

I spent a few weekends after opening day this year bopping around to 10 American cities, where I ate my way through 12 major league ballparks. ... Hot dogs and peanuts still rule the food court, but I spotted signs of progress almost everywhere on my road trip.

Of course, I also saw plenty that deserved jeers: in the cramped confines of Wrigley Field’s concourses, I watched a large man, his head thrown back, guzzling spicy curly fries from a cup like they were a beverage. I ate mushy hot links, bone-dry hot dogs and hot wings with no heat. And in Baltimore, I came face to face with a crab cake sandwich that edged out guinea pig (yes, guinea pig) as the least appetizing dish I have ever tried.

If you can handle Meehan’s Foodie, snobbish attitude throughout (example: a guy eating fries out of a cup at a sporting event completely upsets his delicate sensibilities), it’s a fine and informative piece on what to eat when in a strange land. Although based on the fact that he ate a crab cake sandwich at Camden instead of the above mentioned Boog’s BBQ, I’d question how much talking he did with the locals.

To further assist your fatness, The Times has an interactive map providing one do and don’t for each Major League stadium. Except for U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chisox; the food there was so horrible that they recommend nothing. So, just stick to the liquid diet, I guess.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.