I’ve had the Double Down itself from KFC (twice) and I must tell you it is as good as advertised.  It’s not messy at all and it’s not as heavy as you would think by looking at it.  It’s also delicious.  Combine that with a neatly sliced Krispy Kreme donut and you have a masterpiece.  I’m also intrigued by the orange-colored sauce that appears to be on this delightful sandwich.  Is it sweet?  Is it savory?  I don’t know for sure, but I do know I want one.  Anyone know where I can get one of these heart-stoppers?

h/t: HHJH

The pretzel itself is a new thing offered by Levys Restaurants at Wrigley.  It is dubbed “the Northside Twist”.  The pretzel itself was huge and very soft.  It was a bit on the salty side but in general it wasn’t bad.  The problem came with the dipping sauces.  There were 3 sauces and each sucked for a different reason.  The first sauce was a sweet sauce that was thick and way too sweet.  The second sauce was a spicy mustard.  Now I feel like mustard is a traditional dipping sauce for pretzels, but this sauce was extremely spicy and didn’t even taste that good.  The last sauce was the only one that was bearable, but it had its own issues.  It was a cheese sauce but it was not like the nacho cheese sauce, which would have been fine.  It was a different kind of cheese with a very thick consistency, almost to the point of being hard.  The cheese itself was so-so tasting, but almost impossible to dip the soft pretzel in because of the consistency.

So overall I give the “North Side Twist” a B-.  This grade can be easily remedied with the introduction of a different sauce selection, but until then, I don’t recommend it.

Well both Chicago ballparks are offering some new food that might be worth a try…if your heart can handle it.  Here’s what’s new on the respective menus:

At the Cell, Illinois Sport Service will unveil build-your-own-burrito (or nacho grande) kiosks on the upper and lower decks; fans will be able to choose a meat (chicken or beef) and select from a wide range of toppings for $7-$8.

At the various grill stations in the park, the menus will be augmented by a half-pound turkey burger on a multigrain roll ($6.25).

…On the North Side, Levy Restaurants will be adding a few new dishes. The Northside Twist (so new it doesn’t have a price yet) is a 4-pound pretzel served in a pizza box with three mustard dipping sauces; it feeds three to five fans. At the Sheffield Grill, there will be chicken and barbecue pork Quasi-dillas ($7), and footlong Buffalo dogs with Buffalo-wing dipping sauce and blue cheese slaw ($6.75).

Wow.  What does a footlong Buffalo dog with Buffalo-wing dipping sauce and blue cheese slaw look like?  What is blue cheese slaw?  I will definitely be trying the 4-pound pretzel as well.  This is making me hungry, I hope the parks have cardiologists on staff.

Well apparently not everyone thinks its fun.  After Tuesday night’s fiasco involving Kirk Hinrich, many people are outraged at fans, the Bulls and even the players for this “poorly thought out” promotion.  The Bulls were sitting on 99, but they were up by double digits with a few seconds to go.  Kirk missed the free throw and the fans booed him so hard he felt the need to apologize to them at the post-game press conference.

Basically the argument goes one of two ways.  The first is that the fans are just ignorant and classless because they cheer or boo louder for a Big Mac then they do the entire game.  The second  argument is that management’s greed has led to the “Love it Live” campaign, which is clearly geared at broadening the fan base to people who are less interested in basketball and more interested in seeing halftime shows and Dunkin Donuts races.

My response: Who cares?  It’s a Big Mac!  Let people cheer for the opportunity to win one.  This is the same garbage argument I hear at Cubs games.  People say “Oh fans just go to Wrigley to have fun and be in the sun, they don’t care about the game.”  I respond to this the same way I would respond to that: Of course there’s a few people like that but let them have fun!  It also doesn’t mean there aren’t real fans just because a few people pay more attention to winning a Big Mac than watching the Bulls stumble through another game.

So if the Bulls are sitting on 99 with the final seconds ticking away, cheer for your 100 points!  It doesn’t make you classless or ignorant, it just means you want a Big Mac.  Mmmmm, a Big Mac…I haven’t had one of those in years.  Sounds delicious.

One of my favorite foods is a good Chicago hot dog, nothing beats it.  Some people say it is strange to put mustard, relish, pickles, tomatoes, raw onions, peppers and celery salt on a hot dog.  While it does sound odd now that I am looking at the ingredients, I know one thing:  It’s delicious.

Well San Francisco apparently has their own special hot dog, and it looks terrible.  I mean terrible.  Take a look at this menu from AT&T Park via Home Run Derby:

Besides having no idea what swish cheese is, that San Francisco dog looks absolutely disgusting.  Thousand Island sauce?  How exactly is this an SF dog?  I’ve never heard of anything like that.  Isn’t everyone there a vegetarian anyways?

Just spread a little BBQ sauce on it at the end, and you’re ready to go!

Watch CBS Videos Online

FanFoodie is for the frequent traveler who makes it a point to attend sporting events when on the road, and has a penchant for local cuisine. We tap some of the premiere locally-based sports bloggers on the web to offer their culinary tips and suggestions when rooting for the home team.

It’s a very interesting and fun site. Also, surprise surprise, the featured article right now is about food at and around Wrigley Field by yours truly. Enjoy!