From the Churro Dog to ... Imagining the most creative ballpark foods of 2016
MLB ballparks have a penchant for Dr. Frankensteining their way to delicious, mesmerizing foods that wow the eye as much as delight the palate. Last season, we saw a lot of concession stand concoctions that defy the limits of food physics -- and yet ballpark chefs are not ones to rest on their laurels. Is there any doubt they'll top themselves in 2016?
While it may be impossible to conceive of food to come in the '16 season -- who among us could've anticipated the Churro Dog one year ago? -- it's simply too tantalizing to resist looking into our crystal meatballs and predict the ballpark dishes and trends we'll all be talking about in a few months. Here's what we see to come:
A baseball glove made of pie
You could probably use Kauffman Stadium's 18-inch corn dog as a baseball bat. It's only fitting that a team offer a food that could double as a baseball glove to go along with it. How about a pie, shaped as a mitt, with some mixed fruit filling and ice cream in the middle?
Farm-to-concession stand
Petco Park has had a bullpen garden for a while now, and the Red Sox installed a rooftop garden last season, where they grow vegetables to serve in the stadium -- including the wonderfully alliterative Fenway Fennel. This is just the start of ballparks hopping on the locally-grown trend, we think. It'll only be a matter of time before MLB teams begin locally sourcing more and more of their concession stand offerings. Are free-range chicken fingers coming?
Hot dogs (and every other kind of street food) on pizza
In June, a New York City pizzeria gained notoriety when it topped a pizza with slices of pizza. In an interview, the creator of this transcendent work of art said, "that's the best thing about pizza - you can just keep adding and adding whatever you want."
That kind of sounds like a call to action, no? And considering a Triple-A team put full-size hot dogs on a pizza last year, it's only a matter of time before Major League ballparks start putting all different kinds of street foods on slices. Let us know when falafel sandwiches make it on a slice of Two Boots.
Meat-flavored cotton candy
The line between meat and dessert is closing fast. In 2015, bacon-topped ice cream, the Churro Dog and the Funnel Cake Cheeseburger reached the apex of savory dessert offerings. But soon enough, a ballpark will cut to the chase and serve the meat-dessert combo in its purest form: Meat-flavored cotton candy.
More MLB-themed breakfast foods
Ballpark chefs no doubt took note when Brady Phelps introduced the world to his pancake Bryce Harper . Was it a harbinger of MLB-themed breakfast foods to come? With a certain kind of toaster, AT&T Park could serve up some Bruce Bochy French toast -- and who would say no to brinner at the ballpark?
A mini-ballpark filled with nachos
Ballparks have been putting foods in different containers for years -- most notably mini-helmets. Isn't it time to put food in a mini-ballpark? How about nachos? The Brewers serve a nacho-on-a-stick dish called Inside the Park Nachos -- but what if the nachos were actually inside a diorama-sized ballpark? Just imagine -- guacamole outfield grass and salsa infield dirt all housed in a giant tortilla chip stadium able to fit in your lap. Like this, but way smaller:
