As the sun starts to shine more and temperatures are creeping up in Milwaukee, the warm weather brings in one of my favorite parts about being a Marquette student: Brewers season. Not only are the games fun to watch and the fans rowdy, but being in Wisconsin means that the food will be fried, cheesy and delicious.
Last Saturday the Brewers faced the Boston Red Sox at American Family Field. While I do love watching the game, I must be honest in saying that my favorite part about baseball games is the food.
With the game starting at 6 p.m., I made sure to save up my appetite throughout the day so I could splurge at the game. Upon arriving at the stadium, I had to pick up my first snack of the day, one that I have started every baseball game in life with: peanuts.
Peanuts are the perfect snack to enjoy the pregame festivities for many reasons. First, it is perfectly normal to make a mess with them, which is right up my alley. Next, they don’t require much effort and allow you to sit back and relax. Lastly, they start to warm up your tastebuds and prepare them for the rest of the food to come.
With some peanuts to hold me over, I enjoyed the first couple of innings watching the game. It was a slow start for both teams and there wasn’t much action, so I was able to enjoy just being back at American Family Field. Once the fifth inning hit though was when my stomach began to growl.
While I love the variety of options the stadium has to offer, it is so difficult to choose one entrée. I ended up walking around the entire ballpark just to make sure I was aware of all my options. After much consideration, I decided to order some chicken nachos to take back with me to my seat.
The nachos were customizable, and I went with pulled chicken, queso, tomatoes, sour cream and shredded cheese to accompany the bed of tortilla chips.
The first thing that I look for in my nachos is chips. Are they fresh? Are they already soggy from all the toppings? While these chips needed salt, they were not stale and kept crunchy through the entire experience, which is key to having a good bowl of nachos.
As for the toppings, there was definitely a lack of flavor going on, and after dissecting each component, I determined the culprit was the chicken. The chicken lacked seasoning and didn’t really have a taste to it, and the dish definitely could’ve done without it. Overall, I thought the nachos were good for a typical ballpark meal, but would leave off the meat the next time I get them.
Because the nachos didn’t fulfill my ballpark cravings, I decided to rely on a stadium classic to better the meal. This is, of course, the hot dog, a baseball and Milwaukee staple. In terms of condiments, I used ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut to spice up the plain hot dog.
For me, you can never go wrong with a simple hot dog. All the flavors were spot on and gave me such nostalgia about going to baseball games with my family when I was younger. I am so glad that I got to go with my college friends that day, and the fact that the hot dog has continued to stay consistent in these memories is special.
While I was stuffed from all the food, my sweet tooth kicked in and led me to the Dippin’ Dots stand on the way out of the park. Once again, you can’t really go wrong with this classic ballpark treat. The chocolate chip cookie dough sweet was the perfect way to end my night at the ballpark.
Getting to go back to the ballpark after a long winter in Wisconsin is such an exciting experience. Being surrounded by my close friends and other Brewers fans was just what I need as finals are approaching, and the food at American Family Field made my experience even better.
This story was written by Phoebe Goebel. She can be reached at [email protected].
