As Opening Day approaches, the Seattle Mariners have announced their new eats for this baseball season and invited local media to try out some new tasty options.
A couple of our reporters headed to T-Mobile Park to see if the Mariners’ food budget was as tight as their player free agency budget — and the trip did not disappoint.
We started off with some Seattle ballpark classics like the Ultimate Seattle Dog from Hempler’s Sausage, which included a footlong frank loaded with cream cheese, caramelized onions, bacon and jalapenos on a freshly baked roll. The sausage had a tender bite, smoky heat and a delicious creaminess that makes the Seattle classic so good.
We grabbed some bites from Holy Smoke BBQ, which included their deliciously tender House Smoked Pork Ribs, and their smoked salt and pepper wings that nearly fell off the bone. This location also has BBQ Pork Belly Sliders, which include two house smoked pork belly sliders tossed in signature barbecue sauce and topped with a jalapeno slaw and butter dill pickles.
This year, Edgar’s Cantina is serving Birria Torta, a sandwich with slow cooked birria, spicy pico de gallo, mama mia peppers, diced jalapeno, cilantro crema, asadero cheese and torta bread. They also have a selection of tacos named Tacos del Barrio, in which one order includes three white corn tortilla tacos with your choice of chicken tinga, barbacoa pulled pork or birria topped with fresh diced onions, cilantro and radishes.
One of favorites from Edgar’s Cantina was the Shrimp Quesadilla stuffed with Pacific Northwest shrimp, chihuahua cheeses, roasted peppers and onions, cilantro and a side of chipotle crema.
This year, Tamari Bar is serving their Area 206 Curry Rice with Tamari Bar’s signature Area 206 curry sauce, rice, dried seaweed Japanese pickles, and house made “Ra-Yu” chili oil, as well as their Katsu Curry Rice with a Katsu-style fired pork cutlet. We also enjoyed the Curry Donuts Dip, which included a savory donut that reminded me of the Chinese Youtiao donut I have had at dim sum restaurants. It was light, crispy and a perfect vessel to dip into their savory curry sauce.
For me, the star of the show was MOTO Pizza’s Crab Pizza, which was topped with fresh Dungeness crab, a splash of warm butter, dill, thyme and parmesan finished with a “liquid sunshine” mix of fresh squeezed lemon and herbs on a what they described as century-old sourdough starter. It was well-balanced, multi-dimensional and simply incredible.
The Mariners’ home opener is at 7:10 p.m. March 28 against the Boston Red Sox.