Pretzel #9–Guest blog!

Editor’s Note: While I’m off celebrating National Leif Erikson Day, we bring you a guest post from long-time reader Victor R.

SO IT’S ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM’S PRETZEL

Loyal readers of this blog know that pretzels are available in a variety of locations, including restaurants, brew pubs and food trucks. However, an underappreciated venue for picking up a quality pretzel is your neighborhood sports stadium. Many stadiums offer pretzels at their concession stands, allowing you to enjoy a fine meal while watching a live sporting event, adding an extra dimension to the experience of consuming dough and, of course, an overpriced beer.

Those of you who are fans of the San Francisco Giants may have had the experience of enjoying a truly great pretzel at Oracle Park, which is the home of the Giants. Oracle’s pretzels are very good, meeting all of the quality requirements that one could apply to a pretzel (perfect salt distribution, golden brown color, crispy outside, excellent taste). If you want to enjoy a pretzel during a Giants game in April, all you have to do is head to the ballpark, buy a (pricey) ticket to the game, stand in line at a concession stand, and you’re all set! However, if you want a Giants pretzel and the calendar says it’s October, you know you’re out of luck, because the Giants never play baseball in October (the only Major League teams still playing in October are the good ones, which doesn’t include the Giants). (Editor’s Note: Please direct any hate mail to Vic, and not to this blog.)

Which brought me to UC Davis Health Stadium in Davis California to taste and evaluate the pretzels they serve while also watching the mighty Aggie football team (full disclosure—UCD is my alma mater) play those scoundrels from Eastern Washington University.

First off, the pretzel came in at only $6, which is very affordable. This pretzel is priced to ensure that poor students (along with tuition-paying parents of poor students, or poor
alumni) could afford a meal while at the game. In looking at the photo (above), you will notice the “non-traditional” pretzel “strips” shape, rather than simply using the typical twisted knot shape. I’m not an overly traditional person, but I have to say I prefer the traditional shape.

The color rates well, with the classic pretzel look, having a dark brown color, accented by the cracking, but there is no gloss (which made me wonder if the makers had skipped giving it the baking soda boiling treatment). And you will note that the salt distribution leaves a lot to be desired. The first strip has a generous application of salt (very good), but the other one is very lightly salted (not as good). And the presentation wasn’t the best—how about a paper liner for the tray it comes in?

Now that I’ve been (some would say) overly critical about the cosmetic stuff, let’s get to the most important feature of any pretzel—its taste. In the taste category, this pretzel delivers! It’s crispy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside, delivering a delicious fresh-baked taste. The accompanying beer cheese was not bad—while I didn’t get any hint of beer in the flavor, it did have a sharp cheddar taste and even delivered a little heat. Mustard was not included with the primary pretzel package that came at the concession stand, so that had to be picked up separately (standard procedure for any stadium food). However, the only available mustard was a squeeze jar of standard French’s mustard, with no options for Dijon or other more exotic mustards.

Overall, while not quite up to the Oracle Park pretzel standard, this was a tasty, surprisingly good (and much more affordable) pretzel. On our standard 5-star grading scale, taste and affordability require that I give this pretzel 4 out of 5 possible points!

And (because I know you want to know), the Aggies did take care of business and beat those dastardly Eastern Washington University Eagles, which made this, already very good pretzel taste even better!