#fsuconcessions

TL;DR Version: The Reuben from FSU Baseball concessions is a hefty corned beef & Swiss panini with a little bit of sauerkraut and no Thousand Island dressing; a satisfying sandwich, albeit a bit bland. Full Review: This week I went to a baseball game with @mtrbtr and let him pick the food for my next review. Unfortunately we discovered that the food tents on Haggard Plaza had consolidated their menus and gotten rid of more than half the food items that were previously available. Of the remaining items, the only ones I hadn’t eaten yet were the BBQ Bacon Burger, the Chicken Sandwich, and the Cheese Bread. Luckily, we noticed that the second floor concessions stands had more adventurous options including Cuban sandwiches and Reubens. The Reuben ended up being the choice since the risk/reward factor was so high. In case you’ve never been to a deli, a traditional Reuben is corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing on rye bread. As we stood waiting for the food I had plenty of time to contemplate how disgusting ballpark Thousand Island dressing would be, but there would be no payoff to that question. This “Reuben” was corned beef, Swiss, and a smattering of sauerkraut on pressed white bread. It seems FSU Concessions was one step ahead of disaster this time and left out the one ingredient bound to ruin what turned out to be a perfectly satisfying corned beef & Swiss panini. The sauerkraut was barely noticeable, partly due to the small amount of it and partly due to the truly respectable amount of meat on this sandwich. Once again, the concourse concessions stands put the Haggard Plaza concession stands to shame. #FSUBaseball #FSUConcessions #FastFoodReviews #RealFastFoodie #EatForTheCycle #CornedBeefReuben

TL;DR Version: The Art Smith Hush Puppies are not only the worst #EatForTheCycle item so far, they’re one of the worst things I can ever remember eating. Full Review: After being told during last night’s game that the concessions stand was out of hush puppies, I returned today intent on trying something that seemed impossible to mess up. The hush puppies are the cheapest thing on the menu at $6... or so I thought. When it came time to pay I was charged $8 for the hush puppies. I told the cashier that the sign said $6 and she gave me the hush puppies for free because there was no button for $6 on the register. I told her she should change her sign because it’s illegal to advertise one price and charge another, but after tasting the hush puppies I would suggest outlawing them altogether because they are awful. Despite having to wait for them to make a batch the hush puppies somehow arrived cold and stale, which should be impossible since preparing them in a manner that required waiting should’ve involved a deep fryer. The taste, inasmuch as they tasted like anything, was a little bit spicy and it looked like there was some cheese in there though I couldn’t pick that flavor up amid the ball of cold, stale dough. I made it through one and a half hush puppies before I gave up. I paid nothing for these and it was still too much. Never again. #FSUBaseball #InstaReviews #FastFoodie #ConcessionStandFood #FSUConcessions #ConcessionStandSides #HushPuppies (at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium)

TL;DR Version: The cinnamon bread is the best #EatForTheCycle item so far, although it was incredibly messy and should probably be split with another person. Full Review: The cinnamon bread at FSU baseball concessions is the first #EatForTheCycle item that was actually hot when it was handed to me and it benefitted greatly from that fact. For the usual $10 hit you get a plate full of bread completely covered in buttered cinnamon sugar, delivering on everything the name promises. The bread is only about half an inch high and has a pizza crust consistency with parts of it being a bit chewy like a good brownie. The cinnamon sugar is almost forms a shell and cracks apart quite a bit with every bite. The result is that I spent the time in between bites pushing cinnamon sugar off my chest and stomach, which wound up being a considerable amount of time because it takes quite awhile to house an entire plate of bread even if you show up hungry. As much as I actually enjoyed this item, I did wonder how terrible it would have been if it’d been served cold and/or stale like so many other things I’ve already eaten this season. God willing, I’ll never have to find out. #FSUBaseball #InstaReviews #FastFoodie #ConcessionStandFood #FSUConcessions #ConcessionStandDessert #CinnamonBreadSticks (at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium)

TL;DR Version: The unhealthy version of the fruit kabob is far and away the best thing I’ve had during #EatForTheCycle and for the first time no one around me said it looked gross. Full Review: Among the more interesting food items being offered this season is the fruit kabobs. Coming in slightly cheaper than usual at $8 they’re available in “healthy” and “regular,” which reads implicitly as “unhealthy.” The regular kabob is strawberries, bananas, and brownies, covered in a chocolate drizzle. Meanwhile, the healthy option consists solely of strawberries and bananas with no brownies or chocolate drizzle. Even without looking at the picture, everyone should know which version I got. The first three times I brought concessions back to my seat at least one of the people sitting near me commented on how disgusting the food looked. Today multiple people around me said, “Oh, that looks so good.” And it was, in fact, so good. It was impossible to eat without using both hands, I had chocolate all over myself by the time I was done, and the kabob threatened to snap under the weight of all the fruit during the entire walk to my seats, but this was miles ahead of everything else I’ve seen so far this season. #FSUBaseball #InstaReviews #FastFoodie #ConcessionStandFood #HealthyOptions #FSUConcessions #ConcessionStandDessert #FruitKabob #FastFoodHomerun (at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium)

TL;DR Version: The sausage poboy is the first successful entry in my #EatForTheCycle series, despite not being as good as the andouille sausages they used to sell here and inexplicably coming dressed with ketchup. Full Review: Today was supposed to be my review of the “buttered cinnamon bread,” but, despite showing up 15 minutes before first pitch, the person in front of me got the last one. Instead, I went for the sausage poboy with fries to go ahead and polish off the poboy options early in the year. As an aside, there might need to be an entire post about how wildly disorganized the new concessions setup is. But for today the sausage poboy finally succeeded in having a meat:bread ratio of 1:1 or greater. It is about a foot of grilled kielbasa in a 9” hoagie roll. I generally love kielbasa, but I still prefer the andouille sausages they’ve served in years past. That’s particularly true with regard to the way it came dressed. The andouille was topped with peppers and onions, but, for reasons I can’t even begin to understand, this sausage poboy comes topped with ketchup that does not compliment the flavor of the kielbasa at all. It’s yet another $10 menu item, but since most of the food is the same price it’s all relative. If you do go this route, I would definitely recommend you ask that it come plain. As for the fries, they are the same ones that come with the shrimp poboy and pretty much everything else on the menu. #FSUBaseball #InstaReviews #FastFoodie #ConcessionStandFood #SausagePoboy #FSUConcessions #SausageFest #Meat2BunRatio (at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium)