Emirates Stadium [London]

I recently had the opportunity to explore two of London's legendary arenas: Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal Football Club, and Brixton Academy, one of the city's most heralded concert venues.

With the suicidal fervor of any true fan, I treated myself to lunch at the former and dinner at the latter. Both of which meals, just to allay any suspicions about my sanity, were absolutely dire. The question, however, remains - which was worse?

The stadium of the future! The food of the distant past!

Arsenal are about to conclude their first season at Emirates. I'd attended a dozen or so matches at their previous home - the cosy and venerable Highbury - and quickly learned that, however bad the street vendors were, the food inside was worse. Microwaved, plastic-swaddled pies and bagels seemed to be the meals of choice. Outdoors, my companion showed me, there were at least a few hamburger vendors of some dubious distinction (shockingly, one of which sold a vegetarian burger, which might have been the best option around).

Emirates is such a beautiful and modern that it raised my hopes of culinary adequecy. Seating almost 70,000, it's possibly the best-designed 'American-style' (read: 'not brick') stadium I've ever seen. There's a great view of the pitch from any angle, the corridors and staircases are broad, the chairs are comfortable and there are bathrooms every five feet (a necessity).

Even the food vendors flogged their wares out of gleaming new service areas - gone were the plastic bags of yesterday, replaced by shiny red cardboard boxes, the envy of any McDonalds.

Patiently waiting our turn in the queue, Lebowski and I treated ourselves to 'foot long' hot dogs and tea (worry not, we had our pints before and after the match)(and it was cold out)(I'm not sure why I'm so defensive about this...).

Lebowski preferred ketchup on his.

The hot dog, I'm afraid to say, was definitely not the equal of those I've had in American-Style Stadiums in America. Although it still had that distinctive, pasteurised texture that comes from any event-based sausage-product, it didn't have any of the 'meaty'(tm) flavor that you get at the finer North American ballparks. The lukewarm temperature of the meat certainly didn't help.

Also, perhaps most damningly, the bun was stale. This is always particularly frustrating - it's not difficult to keep fresh bread about, even when (or especially when) it's produced and delivered in stadium volumes. Stale bread inevitably undermines its contents.

To be fair, the tea was pretty good. I imagine it would difficult to find it's equal at any North American sports venue.

The Bite: Go for the football, not the foot long.

Comments

[Anne]

Obviously, I'm not that familiar with stadiums of any stripe in any country, but the only brick stadium I know is in San Francisco: AT&T Park, (nee SBC Park, nee Pac Bell Park), which is only a few years old and features surprisingly good food. There are hamburgers and hotdogs, of course, but one can also procure wurst and kraut, sushi (not so good, but exciting in its being relatively unique ballpark food) and, best of all, heaps of garlic fries, piled high with garlic. And to top it all off, one of my favorite breweries, Sierra Nevada, is available in Pale Ale. Many's the night I've gotten happily blotto at a Giants game with a pound of garlic fries and a pint of beer in either hand.

[Lebowski]

Am I allowed to say that my hot dog was better than my expectations of what it would be like?

[Jared]

Only because I was there, and recognized how low your expectations were.

I'm still stunned by the idea of ball park sushi. Ball park sushi.

[Anne]

There's edemame, too.

[Julia]

I think you felt defensive about having tea with your hot dog because you knew I'd come along, read about it, and promptly become loud, obnoxious, and red-blooded.

[Dan]

There's so much wrong with this. Firstly, what was Lebowski doing at a football stadium? Secondly, don't call it Emirates, call it Ashburton Grove: it has a name that didn't cost £20m, and it's better. Thirdly (and perhaps a little pedantically), Arsenal's first season at Ashburton won't finish til August.

Most importantly though, given the crux of this blog, is the fact that you went to a UK sports stadium, ordered American food, and complained that it didn't taste like what it did in America. Be pissed off that football has bowed to the Hollywood-induced pressure, not that the foot-longs weren't exactly how you remembered them. You were watching football, not football, if you know what I mean.

The pies at Ashburton are fantastic: when you go and watch football, have a pie, it's what you're supposed to do.

Oh, and there's also nothing wrong with having a cup of tea, as long as it's December or January. I'm with you there, Carnivore.

Happy Christmas, one and all...

x

[Jared]

Julia - I did fear scandal over the tea - less because of my slow descent into Anglophile madness, but more because a sporting event without beer is shameful thing.

Dan - I'm not calling Emirates 'Ashburton Grove' because that lets Arsenal off the hook for selling the stadium rights for cash. Why should I pretend they didn't just prostitute their new home?

The American-ness of the stadium is fantastic. Highbury had a great deal of character, but there's a LOT going for the shiny new stadium, and I'm certainly not going to berate them for nicking most of the 'innovations' from North American venues. The food, however, sucked.

You're definitely right on the pies though - the particular queue we wound up in didn't have any, and I was disappointed. They looked slightly grim, but still better than what we wound up with. I avoided the bagels by choice - I'm assuming they're just as dire as they were at Highbury?

That said, next time, I'm finding the veggie burger guy on the street...

Merry Christmas all!

[affa danfodio]

its soo beautiful