Last night, I made my way with the whole family to Citi Field, where I consumed many things. As most NYC-ers know by now, Citi Field has abundant and creative food offerings, including outposts of Shake Shack and Blue Smoke. Especially if you're a meat lover, you'll be happy as a clam there. But I made do with several dessert/snack-ish items, as follows:
1) Carvel soft serve, chocolate-vanilla swirl. Creamy, sweet, and delicious-- a solid rendition, which definitely hit the spot. The bro got some later and reported you could get free rainbow sprinkles. I was not offered sprinkles. I was upset.
2) Blue cotton candy. I am obsessed with cotton candy. It tastes like blue sugar (mmm, blue). I've been known to put away significant quantities at once, but unfortunately Citi Field's $4 package was a paltry offering, dispatched in about three minutes flat. Point me to Fenway Park, where they give you about two and a half pounds of cotton candy, which can last me several innings at least.
3) Box Frites. I basically forced the bro to get these, but boy were we both happy. They offer you one dipping sauce with each order of fries, with selections ranging from mayo to olive & pepperoncini to chipotle (spelled "chipolte" on the menu signs) to smoky bacon. The bro went with smokey bacon, so I abstained from the sauce, but let me tell you one thing: if you like french fries, you will LOVE Box Frites' rendition. They are incredibly crisp and tasty and just beg to be scarfed piping hot. Don't be deterred from the long lines; they move relatively quickly, and there are enormous monitors everywhere so you don't miss a second of the game, wherein the Mets might be losing 11-2, thereby making the line at Box Frites actually significantly more entertaining than the game you're missing.
4) Cannoli from Mama's of Corona. Mom came back from an expedition around the food areas (did I mention we were searching for alternate methods of entertainment?) with ample cannoli for everyone, which, given the amount of food I had consumed by this point, presented a bit of a conundrum for me. I solved the "I'm full but oh man I want some cannoli" debate by having a bite of the end of the pastry, decorated in true home-team fashion with blue and orange sprinkles. Fortunately for the future health of my stomach, I wasn't a huge fan of this cannoli; the filling was average, and the pastry shell was heavily spiced with cinnamon, which was a bit of a turnoff for me. Just as well. The bro finished mine off, so I didn't feel too bad.
So there you go-- a brief look at Citi Field from the eyes of my stomach. It was a pretty impressive showing of dessert consumption, if I do say so myself (and I do). Rest assured that when I returned home, I gobbled a delicious Wawa string cheese before collapsing into bed. Heaven.
Showing posts with label Wawa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wawa. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wawa string cheese is still the best stuff on earth (sorry, Snapple)
A few weeks ago, when I went with AV to visit his family in Princeton, NJ, not only did we check out the Little Chef, but we also checked out the local Wawa. Now, if by any chance you've been a faithful reader of my blog since the very beginning, you'll know that there's a certain something that Wawa offers that's far superior to any I've found anywhere else. Yes, it's true: Wawa has the best string cheese on earth.
This past weekend, we stopped at a Wawa on our way out of Long Beach Island, and I cleaned the place out of string cheese, packing my small lunchbox with the little white strips in an effort to keep them cold until they reached my fridge. And now I'm savoring them one by one, rationing them like the Donner Party's last bits of oxen jerky. There's something about this particular part-skim mozzarella-- perhaps it's the creaminess, perhaps it's the stringiness, perhaps it's the fact that it's only available at Wawa, which of course is nowhere near Massachusetts or NYC, and is thus always special-- but, golly, it's just the greatest.
Wawa, I love your string cheese. Thank you.
This past weekend, we stopped at a Wawa on our way out of Long Beach Island, and I cleaned the place out of string cheese, packing my small lunchbox with the little white strips in an effort to keep them cold until they reached my fridge. And now I'm savoring them one by one, rationing them like the Donner Party's last bits of oxen jerky. There's something about this particular part-skim mozzarella-- perhaps it's the creaminess, perhaps it's the stringiness, perhaps it's the fact that it's only available at Wawa, which of course is nowhere near Massachusetts or NYC, and is thus always special-- but, golly, it's just the greatest.
Wawa, I love your string cheese. Thank you.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Philadelphia: Marathon, La Viola, and... Wawa!!
I have discovered the greatest string cheese on earth.
Seriously. I know string cheese isn't usually a food that ascends to "greatness"; frankly, I would never even think of searching for great string cheese. I haven't even eaten string cheese in a long time. But I tell you: while I was visiting my friend at Penn this weekend, he took me to Wawa, and by fortuitous, delightful chance, I selected a mozzarella string cheese. And it was so, so, SO delicious: creamy, buttery, and VERY stringy-- not gummy at all, the way some string cheese can be. This all seems somewhat ridiculous, but I was there for under 48 hours and I had four Wawa string cheeses. It was that good.
While I was in Philly, we did eat things other than string cheese (although, if I had had my choice...). We grabbed dinner at Marathon Grill the first night. Marathon was a fairly comprehensive fast-casual style place-- a little nicer than TGI Friday's, say. They earned major points for having a "control freak salad" option, where you can customize a salad of your own creation by choosing greens, toppings, and dressing. Needless to say, I went with that: baby spinach with grilled eggplant, beets, asparagus, and carrots. The grilled eggplant was good and cut in big pieces; the asparagus was grilled and tasty but there were only a few spears draped over the top of the salad. The beets were surprisingly delicious (they were actually baby beets, which I enjoy). The only negative was the fact that carrots weren't shavings but chunks of carrot about the size of marbles, which is probably the least appetizing way to present a raw carrot in a salad. Overall, I'd say Marathon got the job done.
The next night (after strolling around Reading Terminal market for several hours in the afternoon-- an AWESOME food place, definitely recommended if you have the time and are in the area), we wound up at La Viola, a little Italian restaurant on 16th street. We made reservations for 7PM and arrived right on the dot to find a packed (and tiny) restaurant with no empty tables. We waited outside, as it was a lovely night and there was absolutely no room inside, and the minutes ticked by. About 10 or 15 minutes later, the hostess asked us whether we wanted to sit inside or outside. Almost in unison, we replied "First available," and while we were wondering why should would even ask us our preference while the restaurant was clearly getting slammed, we witnessed a couple of busboys bringing out a THIRD row of tables to the sidewalk to increase their outdoor seating capacity. Now, I love al fresco dining as much as the next guy, but this third row of tables was about 3 feet away from the gutter, meaning you'd might as well be sitting in the middle of the road. After a few quick words with the hostess, she agreed to seat us inside at a table that had just opened up, and our dinner was underway.
We looked over the menu, decided, and had placed our order within about 5 minutes of sitting. They brought out a bread basket: a warm loaf, clearly just cooked. VERY delicious (I say this only because I packed away about an entire loaf over the coarse of the dinner). We dipped the bread in the accompanying olive oil/vinegar/pepper concoction and settled in.
Turns out we didn't need to (settle in, that is)-- our appetizers arrived about 4 minutes later. My salad, a trecolori salad with parmesan, was pretty standard, although the dressing was delicious. My friend enjoyed his caesar salad and finished it quickly. While I was working on finishing the cheese on my salad (pairing with with the delicious, delicious bread), they whisked both our plates away. To their credit, a waiter came by almost immediately to apologize for rushing us through the appetizers, which was a nice gesture, except for the fact that AS HE WAS STANDING THERE-- literally-- the runner arrived with my friend's entree (elapsed time between appetizer and entree: approximately 1 minutes). Oh well. He polished off his Marco Polo chicken, which had spinach and cheese melted on top, while I ate his side of peapods. And then we were done. We were out of the restaurant in about a half hour, give or take. Phew. My head is spinning even thinking about it. So overall the food was pretty good although not spectacular (the bread was definitely the highlight), and the service was somewhat alarming. I wouldn't go back, but then again, I live in New York and probably won't have the opportunity to!
We capped off both nights with ice cream concoctions at Scoop de Ville, a Coldstone-esque type of place where they basically pulverize your toppings into your ice cream. It was delicious both times.
It was a fun little trip all in all, but I'm glad to be back in NYC and will have more to report shortly!
Correction from last post: my mentor and I did not, in fact, get Just Salad on Wednesday, as we ordered on Seamless and were told it would take EIGHTY MINUTES to deliver. Seriously. I even called up Just Salad to confirm that wasn't a ridiculous misprint, and I got a very snippy confirmation. So we canceled our order and went to Green Symphony, on 43rd near 8th avenue, for some delightful vegetarian-ish food. I ordered a toss-your-own salad, which was delightful. Everything worked out, but I wanted to clarify the record: Just Salad is officially on probation due to ridiculousness.
Seriously. I know string cheese isn't usually a food that ascends to "greatness"; frankly, I would never even think of searching for great string cheese. I haven't even eaten string cheese in a long time. But I tell you: while I was visiting my friend at Penn this weekend, he took me to Wawa, and by fortuitous, delightful chance, I selected a mozzarella string cheese. And it was so, so, SO delicious: creamy, buttery, and VERY stringy-- not gummy at all, the way some string cheese can be. This all seems somewhat ridiculous, but I was there for under 48 hours and I had four Wawa string cheeses. It was that good.
While I was in Philly, we did eat things other than string cheese (although, if I had had my choice...). We grabbed dinner at Marathon Grill the first night. Marathon was a fairly comprehensive fast-casual style place-- a little nicer than TGI Friday's, say. They earned major points for having a "control freak salad" option, where you can customize a salad of your own creation by choosing greens, toppings, and dressing. Needless to say, I went with that: baby spinach with grilled eggplant, beets, asparagus, and carrots. The grilled eggplant was good and cut in big pieces; the asparagus was grilled and tasty but there were only a few spears draped over the top of the salad. The beets were surprisingly delicious (they were actually baby beets, which I enjoy). The only negative was the fact that carrots weren't shavings but chunks of carrot about the size of marbles, which is probably the least appetizing way to present a raw carrot in a salad. Overall, I'd say Marathon got the job done.
The next night (after strolling around Reading Terminal market for several hours in the afternoon-- an AWESOME food place, definitely recommended if you have the time and are in the area), we wound up at La Viola, a little Italian restaurant on 16th street. We made reservations for 7PM and arrived right on the dot to find a packed (and tiny) restaurant with no empty tables. We waited outside, as it was a lovely night and there was absolutely no room inside, and the minutes ticked by. About 10 or 15 minutes later, the hostess asked us whether we wanted to sit inside or outside. Almost in unison, we replied "First available," and while we were wondering why should would even ask us our preference while the restaurant was clearly getting slammed, we witnessed a couple of busboys bringing out a THIRD row of tables to the sidewalk to increase their outdoor seating capacity. Now, I love al fresco dining as much as the next guy, but this third row of tables was about 3 feet away from the gutter, meaning you'd might as well be sitting in the middle of the road. After a few quick words with the hostess, she agreed to seat us inside at a table that had just opened up, and our dinner was underway.
We looked over the menu, decided, and had placed our order within about 5 minutes of sitting. They brought out a bread basket: a warm loaf, clearly just cooked. VERY delicious (I say this only because I packed away about an entire loaf over the coarse of the dinner). We dipped the bread in the accompanying olive oil/vinegar/pepper concoction and settled in.
Turns out we didn't need to (settle in, that is)-- our appetizers arrived about 4 minutes later. My salad, a trecolori salad with parmesan, was pretty standard, although the dressing was delicious. My friend enjoyed his caesar salad and finished it quickly. While I was working on finishing the cheese on my salad (pairing with with the delicious, delicious bread), they whisked both our plates away. To their credit, a waiter came by almost immediately to apologize for rushing us through the appetizers, which was a nice gesture, except for the fact that AS HE WAS STANDING THERE-- literally-- the runner arrived with my friend's entree (elapsed time between appetizer and entree: approximately 1 minutes). Oh well. He polished off his Marco Polo chicken, which had spinach and cheese melted on top, while I ate his side of peapods. And then we were done. We were out of the restaurant in about a half hour, give or take. Phew. My head is spinning even thinking about it. So overall the food was pretty good although not spectacular (the bread was definitely the highlight), and the service was somewhat alarming. I wouldn't go back, but then again, I live in New York and probably won't have the opportunity to!
We capped off both nights with ice cream concoctions at Scoop de Ville, a Coldstone-esque type of place where they basically pulverize your toppings into your ice cream. It was delicious both times.
It was a fun little trip all in all, but I'm glad to be back in NYC and will have more to report shortly!
Correction from last post: my mentor and I did not, in fact, get Just Salad on Wednesday, as we ordered on Seamless and were told it would take EIGHTY MINUTES to deliver. Seriously. I even called up Just Salad to confirm that wasn't a ridiculous misprint, and I got a very snippy confirmation. So we canceled our order and went to Green Symphony, on 43rd near 8th avenue, for some delightful vegetarian-ish food. I ordered a toss-your-own salad, which was delightful. Everything worked out, but I wanted to clarify the record: Just Salad is officially on probation due to ridiculousness.
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