Week 10 (2023) - Substitution

As a food allergy family, the easiest substitution to make is to swap in plant-based eggs for anything involving eggs, and that was what led us to roti john, a Singaporean omelette sandwich that is usually eggs, minced meat, and onions topped with a tomato-chili sauce on a baguette-like bread. Considering that the theme was substitution, I didn't just swap out the eggs, but also decided to make the sandwich vegan by using Impossible for the ground meat.

The recipe I followed was from the cookbook, The World Eats Here, about the Queens Night Market, one of my favorite food events in NYC that I haven't been to in a few years and very much miss. (It's a little more difficult these days between travel time and food allergies. Can't just take one train anymore!) The number of different cuisines you can try in one place while supporting small businesses is something that you can't really find anywhere else in the city at that level or price point. We never visited Native Noodles, the vendor who contributed this recipe to the cookbook, since they didn't start selling there until 2019, but if they had been there back when we went, I'm sure we would have.

To make the sandwich, you start by toasting the baguette, then heating up the garlic, onions, and then the meat-cumin mixture in a skillet until cooked. An egg mixture is added next (mixed with sambal oelek (only used a little bit), salt, and pepper) to cover the meat, and then the bread is pressed onto the mixture while the eggs cook (so that the eggs get absorbed into the bread). A spicy ketchup (ketchup, sriracha, and sugar) is spread on top of the finished baguette before it's closed up into sandwich form.

The sandwich was delicious. Messy, but so tasty. I'm sure the version at the night market was better when it could be made on a proper griddle, but I was happy with our version.

Week 1 (2023) - Rainy Day

I haven't finished posting the 2022 challenge yet, so this might get confusing, but I've had most of this year's just sitting and waiting, so it seemed better to try to catch up a little bit here too.

First week of the new challenge! I tried to picture a day with gloomy pouring rain outside and what I would want to eat, and it was actually a fairly easy choice - grilled cheese and soup. I don't know if I ever actually eat that when it's rainy out, but I don't usually time our meal plan with the weather forecast (which changes anyway). But it's my top pick, for sure.

For the challenge, I decided to go with a Kappacasein-style cheese toastie (my favorite version of grilled cheese). I made this for a sandwiches challenge back in 2015 after we returned from London, and at that time, there was an official recipe on the Borough Market (where Kappacasein is) website. That recipe is no longer there, but thankfully I took good notes on it the first time, plus I found another similar version on Feast/SBS.

The biggest difference between this toastie and the last one I made was that I didn't have leeks. The frozen leeks we've had stored for years are getting a little too old and flavorless, so I sadly had to leave them out and just use red onions, because it was too late to go get fresh leeks. Luckily, Trader Joe's still carried the same cheddar-gruyere blended cheese blocks, which is the perfect cheese for this sandwich (if you can't get the local cheeses they use in the original). This toastie is really where I learned to make good grilled cheese sandwiches, so besides being delicious (which it was again this time), it really holds a special place in my heart.

For the soup, I decided to go with a squash, bean, and corn soup I found on the Borough Market website, because why not just go fully British? The basic ingredients were acorn squash, tomatoes, corn, black beans, kidney beans, onions, garlic, vegetable stock, cumin, smoked paprika, lime juice, cilantro, and salt, but I skipped the sour cream in favor of their listed alternative of adding cheese. I couldn't find the specific cheeses they mentioned (Wensleydale or Cheshire), but we went with a white cheddar which was a good match. It was a little more like stew than soup, but that fits my personal soup preference anyway. A lovely way to kick off the challenge, and a good meal for the England AtWCC!

Week 49 - Leftovers

When it comes to food, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. What better way to use up leftovers than in a Thanksgiving sandwich?

This one has vegan turkey roast (Trader Joe's), stuffing, green bean casserole, and gravy. Mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce would have made it better, but we had a small Thanksgiving dinner this year. (Thanks COVID... again.) Still a delicious sandwich.

Captain Daniel Packer Inne

After a relaxing afternoon in the sun and sand at the beach in New London, we decided to take a short drive up to Mystic for dinner. If you're not familiar with Mystic, Connecticut, they're known for their re-created seaport village and maritime museum with buildings that date back centuries. We didn't have time to visit and sightsee on our weekend getaway, and I hadn't been to the seaport for at least a decade before our trip, but I've always had fond memories of Mystic.

We chose the Captain Daniel Packer Inne for dinner, a historic building on the Mystic River that had been built in the 1750s and which had served as a resting place for travelers between New York and Boston. We may not have had time for a full historical exploration at the seaport, but at least we could get a little taste of history by stopping by the inn.

It was crowded when we arrived, and we, of course, had not made reservations because we hadn't actually pre-planned anything for our last minute getaway. That just meant beers at the bar while we waited! What kind of beers did we get? A's Untappd app says he got the Mystic Bridge IPA, but beyond that, we have no real memories about the beer.

We were so hungry once we finally got our table. They brought out some complimentary bread alongside roasted garlic butter, and it was delicious. It wasn't just butter with some roasted garlic mixed into it though. It was better - an entire head of roasted garlic in melted butter - so not only did you get butter for your bread, but you could spread on soft garlic as well. Great start to the meal.

After indulging in our garlicky bread, we shared the portobello mushroom appetizer, which we ordered in part because the menu labeled it as "a Packer Inne original." Whether that means it was on the menu from colonial times or it was the chef's original creation, it was unclear, but the menu described it as a "large portobello cap rubbed with garlic and herb butter, then topped with Alouette cheese and seasoned breadcrumbs, baked golden brown and served with an intensely flavored chive-infused olive oil and balsamic reduction." I put the entire description here verbatim because we don't actually remember anything about the specific flavors five years later except that it was tasty and we liked it. (Really wish we took some notes about this trip...) At least now you'll have some idea what it might have tasted like.

For our entrees, we split two different sandwiches. One was the hot lobster roll, fresh lobster with a sherry butter sauce on a grilled roll. The two main types of lobster rolls are Maine and Connecticut-style, and this one was your classic Connecticut-style lobster roll, warm with butter. It was so rich and buttery, but what else would you expect when you combine lobster and that much butter? The fries on the side were also really good.

The second was the grilled crab and cheese, described on the menu as "fresh seasoned lump crab meat, red onion, fresh avocado, and gruyere cheese grilled on a ciabatta roll with tomato coulis dipping sauce." Unlike the lobster roll which came with regular fries, this one came with sweet potato fries. Between the two, we remember this sandwich being our favorite, but they were both good.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. Weekend getaways are always so short, and it was time to pack to head home the next day. We wouldn't be headed straight home though. We had plans to take the scenic route home (at least for part of it), to drive down the Connecticut coast sampling even more food and taking some more relaxing walks, so there will be a few more posts in this weekend getaway series!

PNC Park

One of the things that prompted our PA road trip was the desire to knock another ballpark off our list in our attempt to visit them all. A had been to PNC Park before but I hadn't, so now we could even out our lists again. (The opposite was true when we made our visit to Camden Yards a couple of years before that.) PNC Park was gorgeous on a clear (but chilly) fall night, and I was stunned at how beautiful the city and river views were from our seat. At least you've got an amazing view even if the game isn't going so well.

If you ask anyone about Pittsburgh food, one of the things that comes up often is Primanti Brothers, now a mini-chain, which is known for its sandwiches stuffed with French fries, cole slaw, tomatoes, and meat. I think the only time we had ever passed one together, the lines were really long, so it was nice to find an outpost at the ballpark. Love when there's local food at the ballpark. We got the Pittsburgher (cheesesteak) option. Good, solid sandwich choice, but I'm not sure it really lived up to the insane amounts of hype surrounding it.

Since A had had Primanti Brothers before, he also picked up a single order of wings from Quaker Steak and Lube, another chain that has its origins near Pittsburgh. (There are apparently branches not too far away in NJ now, but not sure if they existed back then.) He had had them before, and these were fine. Not the best wings he'd ever had, but fine.

At some point during the game, we also got some chili cheese fries from one of the stands on the upper level. Don't remember anything about them, like whether they were from a local chain or not, or whether we had marked that down in advance to try, but they were probably good, because it's hard to go wrong with chili cheese fries and we love them.

To end the night, despite the fact that it was in the 40s and my hands were freezing, I went for some Dippin' Dots. It's just so hard to not get these at the ballpark, since I can't really get them anywhere else and I really like them. And they were birthday cake flavor, another thing I really like.

When the game ended, we got to witness a spectacular fireworks show with the backdrop of the city behind it. It may have been cold, but it was a pretty nice baseball experience overall. Pittsburgh folks are pretty lucky when it comes to baseball games that they get to go to games in such a gorgeous setting.

Meat and Potatoes

After driving into Pittsburgh and getting settled at our hotel, it was time for dinner. Before leaving on our road trip, we had made a reservation for Meat and Potatoes, since we liked the menu, it was close to the hotel, and we heard they were a pretty busy place. The restaurant was indeed crowded and bustling when we got there, so we were glad we had gone the advanced reservations route (since we often don't when on vacation).

Meat and Potatoes was a gastropub serving comfort food, with a menu heavily focused on (obviously) meat and potatoes. We started off with some beer, like this Bell's Brown Ale which was sweet and malty. Not a ton of hops, but a great beer to pair with burgers.

To start, we got the fried Brussels, figuring that we needed some vegetables to go along with all the meat and potatoes in the meal. The sprouts were crispy and full of flavor, topped with a little bit of parmesan cheese, and accompanied with some aioli. From what we remember (it's been four years...), these were a good start to the meal.

One of the things we were really looking forward to was the bone marrow, because we really like trying that in various places. This one came with three pieces, some grilled bread, and garnishes of salt, gremolata, pickled onions, and capers. It was really well-executed, nice and creamy with complementary toppings, and we were really glad we ordered it.

We had already gotten a substantial amount of food with the bone marrow (those were not small pieces) and sprouts, but still on the way were our main courses. We had decided to get a burger and a sandwich to split, and each of those came with a generous portion of fries, which we remember as being quite tasty and well-seasoned.

The sandwich we got was the Korean reuben sandwich (which is the only thing we got that isn't still on the restaurant's menu according to the version online). The sandwich had corned beef, Brussel kimchi, "Korean special sauce," and Swiss cheese. We both like reuben sandwiches, and this one had nice griddled bread, good flavors, and a ton of corned beef. It was pretty large with quite a lot of meat piled on there.

For the burger, we split the pub burger with pork belly pastrami, horseradish cheddar, fried egg, and "special sauce" on a housemade bun. The burger was really good (amazing in A's words), and it's the part of the meal A most remembers this many years later, especially that dominant flavor of horseradish cheddar (dominant in a good way). The combination of the bacon (well, pork belly pastrami) with the creamy horseradish cheese and the egg was just perfect. While both the burger and sandwich were good, we clearly liked this one better.

The food at Meat and Potatoes tasted good, but we were so full by the time we rolled out of there. What I actually remember the most about the meal was just how stuffed we were. After digesting for a little bit, we couldn't just sit around in our hotel room feeling as full and heavy as we did, so we ended up going to the gym later that night. It was the only remedy we could think of for how we felt, and I guess it helped a little bit. Good food, but very, very full.

2nd Ave Deli

We haven't made as much progress on our pastrami taste-off for this year as I thought we would, but I at least was able to get out to 2nd Ave Deli with my coworkers to welcome some new members. I still wish I had been able to try it when it was at its original location on 2nd Avenue, but walking over to 3rd Avenue was well worth it.

Pastrami is always a little on the salty side, but this pastrami was so rich and delicate. It melted in my mouth, and was incredibly delicious. I ended up adding a small spot of mustard to enhance the flavor, and the tartness really accented the flavors of the pastrami. This was easily the best pastrami sandwich I had ever had, and I'm extremely excited to next try to hit up Katz's as the coworker who set this lunch up made it very clear that, as good as I thought this was, Katz's is just transcendent. Hopefully M and I can make that judgment for ourselves!

Whole Foods Bryant Park

We were looking for a light dinner on Memorial Day (yes, this post is a bit overdue), and as we walked through the Herald Square area, started thinking about Chick-fil-A. It wasn't Sunday, unlike most days that we find ourselves thinking about Chick-fil-A, so we figured they would be open. Unfortunately for us, we got there about two minutes after they closed for the holiday, so no Chick-fil-A for us. Since we were close to the Whole Foods in Bryant Park, we decided to go there and finally try out the prepared foods in their "food hall." It wasn't really much of a food hall as there weren't any stalls, but instead you order from a menu with different themed options on some central kiosks.

We split two things. The first was a Korean hot dog which was topped with kimchi, a sweet and spicy sauce that looked gochujang-based, and scallions. We were pleased to see that the kimchi toppings on this hot dog were plentiful, and the toppings and sauce tasted good. The hot dog itself seemed fine but nothing extraordinary, but went well with the kimchi and sauce. However, the bread was not great at all. It was dry, crumbly, and cold, and really detracted from the rest of the hot dog. A griddled bun would have been much better.

The other thing we split was from the hot chicken menu - the Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich, a fried chicken thigh which came with slaw and some pickles on the side. We ordered it with medium spiciness, since we figured hot chicken would be hot and we probably shouldn't order it spicy because we might end up with something extra spicy (like saying spicy at a Thai restaurant). For hot chicken, it wasn't really very spicy at all. I think I got one bite with any kick to it at all, and A got none. Considering this was what medium was, we figured that if we had ordered it at the spiciest level (one above), it probably wouldn't have been that spicy either. The pickles and slaw were fine but nothing special.

We weren't that impressed with our first visit to WF Bryant Park's "food hall." The two things we ordered were just okay, and we probably wouldn't get them again. Also, considering how few other people were ordering at the same time we did, it took a very long time for the food to be ready. We might try some of the other options at some point -- they had Italian sandwiches, reubens, and Indian-inspired bowls as well, the last of which was probably the most interesting of those three -- but there are lots of other places we'd like to go in the area first. I also think we like the WF buffet bar better than what we got here.

Week 17 - Cafeteria Food

The last cafeteria lunch I ate was probably in elementary school, and I have fond memories of beef turnovers and French bread pizzas (although I already made those pizzas for a different challenge) and breaded chicken (formed meat) sandwiches. I thought about making meatloaf (except I've made meatloaf for a number of different challenges already), but in the end went with grilled cheese, mostly because we had bought a loaf of wheat bread for other reasons and were going to have leftover pepper jack cheese to shred after using it in grits.

The ingredients were basic - bread, butter, and shredded jack cheese. Alongside the cheese I finished off a bag of frozen tots that we had opened long ago. Looked like a cafeteria meal to me.

I made the grilled cheese the same way I've been making the toasties ever since our Kappacasein visit  - buttered bread, shredded cheese, flattened with a pan in a skillet. I don't think I'll ever make grilled cheese another way again.

Dinner was fine, even if nothing special. But grilled cheese and tots were definitely cafeteria food!

Kerbisher and Malt

Before going to London, I did a lot of research into fish and chips. That was one thing we knew we wanted to get in England, and it seemed like everyone liked different spots for different reasons. One of the highly recommended spots online was Kerbisher and Malt, which we were especially attracted to since it was located in Hammersmith, only a short walking distance from our hotel room.

Kerbisher and Malt offered up fried fish in almost every form imaginable - plain, with chips, in butties and burgers, as fish fingers. (You could get it grilled too, but we don't remember seeing anyone do that.) One thing we really liked about them was that all the fish was from sustainable sources and cooked on the spot after ordering (and then delivered to your table). We also liked that they had some lunchtime specials which came with chips or a salad, ranging from £5-6. I got one of the specials, while A ordered off the regular menu and got fish and chips.

Since A was already getting chips with his fish, I opted for the salad as my side, thinking it would be healthier and we could also get some vegetables in. It was a small portion on the side of the plate, but at least it was more interesting than just some lettuce. The salad consisted of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, radicchio, and pomegranate seeds. It was lightly dressed with what tasted like olive oil and vinegar. The salad was fine, nothing extraordinary, but it was nice for lightening up the rest of our meal of fried food.

For the special itself, I got the fillet of fish "burger" which really just seemed like a fried fish sandwich. What arrived was a fried fillet of fish on bread with lemon mayo, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and onions. We weren't sure which fish this was (they had several options you could choose from for the regular fried fish, but the sandwich didn't specify), but it was good. The vegetables on the bottom were very reminiscent of the salad ingredients (quite possibly were the same without the pomegranate), and the lemon mayo added some nice flavor. Unfortunately I was still feeling some of the effects of the stomach discomfort from the day before, so I didn't have as much of an appetite as I thought I would when we were ordering and couldn't finish the sandwich, but I wished I could have.

A ordered the fish and chips with haddock (the other options on the menu were cod, plaice, pollock, and coley). He also got a side of tartar sauce, but we had forgotten with the initial order that you had to order the sauces separately so we had to add it while we waited for the food to come. (The other sauces they had were mayo, lemon mayo, red curry, and sweet chilli.) The price wasn't too bad for the fish and chips with sauce (a little under £10), and for people with smaller appetites, they did have slightly less expensive "small" fish and chip specials.

As for the fish and chips themselves, we found the batter a little on the sweeter side, sort of like those Chinese fried milk things you get at banquets. The fish itself was a really large single piece of fried fish, and very flaky. It wasn't very seasoned or salty, which was good since it seemed like they were trying to let the flavor of the fish itself shine through. We thought similarly about the chips which were also not very salted so you could really taste the potato. I didn't love the batter and preferred the way the fish sandwich was prepared, but A liked it.

Kerbisher and Malt also offered numerous sides, many of which sounded good. We had to decide whether to get mushy peas, or a fennel and dill salad, or coleslaw, or pickled onion rings, or baked beans. I've made no secret of my love for onion rings, and we were really interested in trying the pickled onion rings because they sounded different (and looked good in all the Instagram pics we saw before going). Basically they take pickled onions and then batter them and fry them up. The flavor was definitely different from "regular" onion rings because of the pickled flavor, and they were definitely worth trying. Back then, we had no idea pickled onions were so popular and loved in England, but between these onion rings and the pickled onion snacks we brought home to eat, we feel like we didn't take advantage of this as much as we could have when we were there, and have definitely learned our lesson for next time.

It's hard for us to compare Kerbisher and Malt with other fish and chips places in London, since we didn't visit any others. But we did like what we got there. We probably would have enjoyed it more if our stomachs weren't so uneasy and uncomfortable from the days before (no fault of theirs, obviously), and we would return to try it again if we were in the mood for some fish and chips.

Queens International Night Market

One year ago today was the opening night of the Queens International Night Market. We were really excited about this - cuisines from all over the world, affordable dishes around $5 each, lots of stuff we had never tried before, and a beautiful spring day - and apparently so were hundreds of our fellow New Yorkers. We got there before they opened and the line circled around and around on each side. It was absolutely packed, so crowded that later in the night the nearby train platform got seriously treacherous as there were so many people on the platform that nobody could move or get off the trains when they pulled in. We were glad we went early, but early was still bad.

Once the market actually opened for business, people streamed in from both sides. We were some of the first people in, as we had found the shorter line on the park side, and immediately started trying to figure out where to go. Lots of places already had lines, and decisions had to be made quickly. We ended up choosing a couple of spots on our side of the lot (never made it to the other side the entire night), splitting up, and waiting in line to get stuff, as we watched the aisles fill up, the lines get so long that they were crossing over each other, and the lot get so congested that there were many places where you literally could not move or got carried slowly by the moving crowd around you.

A waited on line for Burmese Bites, which didn't have a terrible line (yet) because we had gotten there so early, and which we really wanted to try after following them on Facebook for a bit. Burmese food isn't that easy to find in NYC outside of the occasional food fairs, so we were really happy to see them here. They had two options on their menu signs: keema palata and chicken curry palata (the one we got). Palata is a flaky flatbread that is similar to paratha or roti, and this one was topped with a really flavorful chicken curry and accompanied by a little cup of slaw on the side that packed some heat if we remember correctly. The portion size wasn't big enough for a meal, but that was good since the whole point of night markets like this is to roam and try lots of things. We were really happy with this and would have considered getting more if not for the lines.

From the Burmese food line, we could see a stall for Eve and Johnny's Caribbean style shark sandwiches, so M went over there. The line didn't look too bad at the time, and M was probably about 10th in line, so we thought the wait wouldn't be too, too bad. As she waited, she saw the lines around her getting longer and longer by the second, so she was glad that she had gotten in line early. However, since it was the first night of the market, it seemed like they hadn't gotten their prep done in time to open, and while M waited in line, A showed up with the palata, and we finished it, and then we waited some more. Under normal circumstances, A would have left M in line and gotten something else to share while waiting, but these lines were not normal.

The Caribbean style shark sandwich was basically Trinidadian bake and shark, fried flatbread with seasoned fried pieces of shark and toppings. We'd had bake and shark on our WorldEats to-try list for some time, but had just never made it out to spots in Brooklyn, so this was convenient. These sandwiches were topped with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cole slaw mix (cabbage and carrots), cilantro and onions, pineapple, and three sauces: tamarind, chaden beni (a green culantro sauce), and a creamy garlic sauce. All together, it was so good. From the first bite, the mingling of all the flavors was good.

The sandwich was stuffed full of shark which was a really nice surprise. Often we've found "special" sandwiches to skimp on the protein portion, but this was definitely not the case. The shark itself was tougher than we were expecting, but it had a nice fish taste to it that didn't seem very foreign. It was more fishy than a typical white fish but far less fishy than an oilier fish like mackerel. The combination of all of the slaws and toppings combined to make a sweet and savory that was completely balanced and perfectly complemented the shark. We would have definitely gotten two of these if we had known they were so good and thought ahead about how bad the lines were around us.

After eating the shark sandwich, we thought about trying something else, but after getting stuck in the crowd for a few yards, it was unbearable and quite claustrophobic and we decided to leave. We couldn't make sense of what line was ending where, and it was nearly impossible to walk. On our way out though, we did see a stall without much of a line. It was for Haitian food from Belmere, which worked for us, since when we were doing WorldEats in geographical order, Haitian was where our journey stalled.

We ordered something small there (considering that the prices of most things were the same there, this was probably the least food for the price), and then took our to-go box into the park to eat. It felt so good to get out of the mess that was the night market, and we kept watching more and more people streaming in. As far as the food, we got a piece of stewed chicken which was pretty tasty and topped with some giant onion slices. There was also a little slaw on the side that was spicy, primarily pickled cabbage with a few carrot and cucumber pieces mixed in.

The Queens International Night Market is a great idea, but we were so uncomfortable during our visit there that we couldn't wait to leave. (We ended up finishing our dinner at a taqueria which was delicious but not the plan for the night.) There were serious crowd control issues, which to their credit, they have been trying to remedy this year by selling admission tickets for the first two weekends. We do want to go back, as having that many vendors representing cuisines around the world is totally our thing, but we'll probably wait a little longer into the summer to go.

Emma

This month, Lenwich has been running a special promotion for a $5 sandwich of the day during lunch, rotating different sandwiches every weekday of the month. Not only was I interested in this because $5 is a good price for lunch when the sandwiches are regularly about $9, but it would be a good way to try out sandwiches I hadn't ordered before. I missed most of the ones in the first half of the month, but finally made it last week for the Jimmy T (not new to me) and the Emma.

The Emma is smoked ham, smoked turkey, cole slaw, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing on bread of your choice (I got a whole wheat roll). It's kind of like a "healthier" twist on a Reuben, and I really liked it. Everything just went really well together, it wasn't as salty as I expected considering the ingredients, and I liked having the cole slaw to balance out all the meat and cheese. I would get this again.

Lobel's and More

Baseball is back! In addition to the game itself, one thing we look forward to every year is seeing what the new offerings are at the ballparks, since someday we're still hoping to visit them all. Here in New York, we've generally found the food at Citi Field to be better than Yankee Stadium, but during our visit to Yankee Stadium this week, we hoped we would find the gap narrowing. Our first stop was Lobel's, a meat shop from the Upper East Side that also operates some outposts at the ballpark.

Being a meat shop, Lobel's is known mostly for their steak. A got a prime steak sandwich at Lobel's years ago, the first time we went to the stadium after their opening. He didn't really love it, especially not considering the very, very, very long wait for it. He definitely didn't feel like it was worth the wait, and considering the usual length of the line when we passed by, we never went back. We decided to give them another try this time, as the line was much shorter than it used to be and they had some new menu items.

One of those new items was the classic meatloaf burger ($12.50) which came with cheddar cheese and crispy onions on a toasted brioche bun. I love meatloaf and we were really looking forward to this burger. It was the primary reason we were going there at all. The first thing we noticed was that, compared to the other food we got, it wasn't that warm. All the sandwiches seemed pre-made, but the others were at least warm to the touch. Second, once we opened it, the meatloaf patty seemed kind of small and dwarfed by the bun. At least there was a good amount of fried onions on top.

The burger itself was okay. Outside of the texture being different from a regular patty, nothing about the flavor screamed meatloaf. It didn't have a ton of flavor. The onions were fine, but even though it looked like a lot of onions, there wasn't really that much onion flavor. The bun was kind of soft and not really toasted like the description said. We were kind of disappointed as we were expecting it to be so much better.

The other sandwich that interested us from Lobel's was the hickory molasses glazed grilled chicken sandwich ($8), also on a toasted brioche bun, which the menu said came with "leaf lettuce, vine ripened tomatoes, Bermuda onion." While these sandwiches were warm, the bun didn't seem toasted like they said. However, we forgot all about the bun when we saw that the sandwich had no lettuce, tomato, or onion whatsoever. It wasn't a fluke either, as we had ordered two of these and neither of them had any toppings. We hadn't ordered them without toppings and they had come out quickly and pre-made just like the meatloaf burger, so either they forgot to add the toppings before giving it to us or the menu was just plain wrong.

The sauce on the chicken wasn't bad, but it was a very one-note chicken sandwich and kind of ordinary. Lettuce, tomato, and onion probably would have improved it, but it still wouldn't have stood out as special compared to other chicken sandwiches elsewhere. Sadly, another disappointment.

Another member of our group got the steak and potato fries ($15) from Lobel's, and after trying those, I had buyer's remorse. First, this dish was made fresh and was the only thing we really waited for. It came with steak, fried russet potatoes, bacon, cheddar cheese, and green onions in homemade gravy with sour cream. The gravy had a great rich flavor, the steak was tender, the flavors of the whole combination together worked, and the potatoes were nice and crisp. From this dish, it seemed like the Lobel's outpost was capable of putting together a good dish with lots of flavor, so what went wrong on the other two things we got? Such buyer's remorse.

We were still decently hungry after splitting our two sandwiches, so after a few Yankees runs, we went off in search of more food. We ended up getting our usual garlic fries ($9.50), which were fine, except despite the strong garlic aroma and some visible garlic, they didn't have as much garlic flavor as we thought they would. Garlic fries should be really garlicky!

We also got some Bronx Bomber hot dogs ($8 each), which A noted was his favorite thing that night. Sure, ballpark hot dogs are good, but when compared with the specialty food, they really shouldn't have been the best thing we ate that night. (The steak and potato fries were probably better, but that was just a taste, and A opted not to try it.)

A was pretty unsatisfied with most of the stuff we got at Yankee Stadium so he got some ice cream to try and improve the night. The ice cream was his second favorite thing that night.

While we do acknowledge that we didn't try some of the other specialty places since they are easily visited from home and for cheaper - places like Hale and Hearty, Bareburger, and Mighty Quinn's (which we had just visited the day before) - it seems safe to say that Citi Field still has the edge when it comes to ballpark food in New York. Maybe someday that'll change, but this visit didn't convince us.