Phillie Phanatic - Still Vegan!
March 25th, 2008 by Labuda · 3 Comments
I’ve admitted as much on here before but it bears repeating - I care more about gross ballpark food than I do about baseball. We were thrilled when Citizens Bank Park offered up some amazing vegetarian options last year. But when Hans FV went to a game to investigate, he was let down. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hans wrote some emails and was assurred that vegan/vegetarian options would be available at games ASAP.
That’s when I decided to investigate for myself why Citizens Bank Park was rated the #1 Vegetarian Ballpark by wingnut pals PETA. Investigate I did - to the tune of 3 vegan dogs, 1 vegan steak, 1 cup of fries, 1 cup of crab fries.
With that in mind, we are completely excited about heading to the Night Opener next week to gorge on some brand new vegetarian ballpark food
Yes! Phils press release shows that, in addition to the stuff they offered last year (veggie dogs, veggie steaks, veggie Schmitter etc), Citizens Bank Park is going to offer up:
Self-Service Kiosks for Built-to-Order Hoagies & Salads: Ordering is a cinch with the new self-service kiosks at Planet Hoagie. Just enter the built-to-order hoagie, salad or specialty food item just the way you like it - and Planet Hoagie will do the rest!
More veggies! Rated the #1 Vegetarian Ballpark by PETA, Citizens Bank Park continues to add to its vegetarian and vegan offerings. Highlights include crab free crab cakes (Planet Hoagie), as well as vegan hot dogs (behind Section 128), garden burgers (behind Sections 128, 206, 318), and vegetarian “cheesesteaks” and “chicken cheesesteaks” (Rick’s Steaks in Ashburn Alley). Vegetarian sandwiches are also featured (Planet Hoagie).
Mitch Williams’ Wild Thing Salsa with Nachos: Fans can now enjoy the wild thing’s salsa when ordering nachos at the ballpark. The salsa is also sold at the Majestic Clubhouse Store.
More crab fries than ever before! Due to the popularity of crab fries, Chickie’s & Pete’s has expanded for the second time in three years - and has doubled in size.
Expect a complete play-by-play on what vegetarian food is available and how it tastes next Thursday. Expect a vegetarian ballpark food eat off / puke-a-thon with Team Fun Vampires VS. Team Choketown sometime later in the season.
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Tags: sports · veganism · philadelphia · South Philly · addiction · fanboyism · Phillies · vampire food · Baseball · stadium · south philadelphia
3 responses so far ↓
gillian // Mar 25, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I am soooooooo jeal! I am going to come to a game down there just to eat the foodz.
Hans // Mar 31, 2008 at 7:28 pm
btw the mitch williams salsa sucked! it’s just ketchup with some spices in it.
Bill Neilson // Apr 2, 2008 at 6:59 am
Article: Verified Vegans: SOI Foodservice Awards — November 2007
by William A. Roberts, Jr.
November 1, 2007
Foodservice operators are challenged to provide tasty new offerings for their vegetarian patrons, and the winner of the 2007 Spirit of Innovation Award: Foodservice worked with eateries to introduce a vegetarian crab-style cake.
“I have yet to feed the Vegan Crab Style Cake to people and have them suspect it is not crab cake,” notes Bill Neilson, president of Multy Grain Foods.
Vegetarian foods at the primary and secondary education levels around the country comprise a fairly substantial portion of offered items. According to the School Nutrition Association (SNA), 25% of elementary, 30% of middle schools and 36% of high schools offer daily vegetarian meals (they include eggs and dairy products). When it comes to meals with no meat, dairy or animal products (so-called vegan options), the number is a bit less: 5% of elementary, 6% of middle and 10% of high schools.
For students entering college life, vegan options become a much greater issue. According to a 2006 study by foodservice provider Aramark, 24% of college students report that vegan options on campus are important to them. Unfortunately, many of the personnel at these campus dining services are inexperienced with vegan foodstuffs, and frequently, the challenge for companies seeking to place their products in these locations is simply communicating the proper means of preparation, explains Bill Neilson, executive chef and president of Multy Grain Foods, winner of Prepared Foods’ 2007 Spirit of Innovation Award: Foodservice.
According to Neilson, several proteins are used in Multy Grain’s Vegan Crab Style Cake: wheat, soy and pea. He reasons that his early foodservice clients did not understand the product. “They thought they were working with chicken. This does not work like that. You need to over-season it a little bit, but just to the right point where the product is not over-flavored.
“If you are starting with the raw ingredient, you need to cook it to a certain temperature, in order to [clean it and cool it and bring it down to a certain temperature], so that you can further process it and work with the product,” he notes. “A lot of [campus dining personnel] couldn’t. Even though I had given them the product, they were not able to flavor it. I told them, ‘Take your crab cake recipe, and you’ll have a crab cake,’ and they couldn’t do it.” To help his customers, Neilson says he frequently demonstrates the proper way to use the product.
Such devotion to working with the end user and explaining the nuances of flavor creation is one of the many aspects of the Vegan Crab Style Cake that helped the company garner this year’s Spirit of Innovation Award.
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