Bagels.

Pretty simple basic stuff, right?

So why is that the absolute best bagel in the world can only be found here in New York City?

“They say it’s in the water” says Pete’s Aunt Karen, who showed up this morning with a fresh bag of bagels from Island Bagels in Lawrence, along with all the toppings - whipped butter, cream cheese, veggie cheese and lox spread. Best breakfast evah!!!

Ask anyone at Coca Cola Park what the “must have” item on the menu is, and most will say it’s the Nacho Porker.

Basically the Nacho Porker is a heaping pile of nachos, covered with melted cheese and barbecue sauce, then crowned with a generous helping of pulled pork. Not as good as the stuff we had at Autozone Park in Memphis (Rendezvous Restaurants’ barbecue in Memphis is just too tough to beat!)… nonetheless, the Nacho Porker was very satisfying and filling. Pete and I had a tough time polishing an order off.

You’ll find this treat in Lehigh Valley’s ballpark on the first base side near section 107.

-Andrew Kulyk

One of the best pleasures of visiting Rogers Centre and attending a Blue Jays game is what we call a “Shopsy’s Run”… getting to the ballpark early enough to stop at one of the many vending carts located outside the stadium, ordering up a sausage (Polish for the mild, and Italian for the spicy), and just hanging out and enjoying it all while soaking in the baseball atmosphere and people watching.

A Shopsy’s sausage is monster sized, grilled and sliced into ridges right in front of your eyes, served on a fresh egg roll. But ahhh… the toppings! At the side of each cart comes a delectable display of everything you want to put on your Shopsy’s… ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, onions, sweet peppers, sauerkraut, hot peppers among the choices.

Cost? $4 Canadian, which these days is like $3.9788 in US. Still a bargain!

Alrighty…another dreaded chain. But no trip to New York City is complete without a visit to Nathan’s for one of their great all beef hot dogs (or two or three) with a side of crinkle cuts and a cold lemonade.

The original Nathan’s is out on Coney Island, and each year on July 4th is the host venue for their nationally televised hot dog eating contest, beamed on ESPN, and yes, Takeru Kobayashi was finally dethroned in 2007. Jon Splett at our sister site here at WNY Media is the guy to talk to when it comes to binge eating competitions.

After doing a dreary and depressing post game interview stint in the Sabres locker room at the Garden, we joined up with our road trip buds Mike Casiano (aka The King) and Gary Herman to share some dogs at a Nathans in mid town Manhattan. A chance to catch up on sports roadtripping, and a chance to enjoy one of NYC’s great culinary fast food delights!

Pete was waxing poetic about Pudgies in the Day 1 recap, so I thought I would chime in with my .02…

The locals here in the Twin Tiers are very ambivalent about Pudgies… just one of the local chains, and Pete says when he was growing up his friends called the place “Sludgies”.

But here’s a little bit o’ news…this is one of the best pizzas around! Thick crust, a great tomato-ey sauce and generous toppings. The funny thing about Pudgies is that visitors to these parts absolutely rave about the product. Add me to the list!

You can only find Pudgies down here in the Elmira area and a few other places in Central New York. They’ve got a Pudgies in Rochester, and a couple of times they were serving up the pizza and wings in the Rochester Red Wings media room on our visits there. Otherwise, my only Pudgies fix comes when we are doing a USRT through Elmira, and Pete’s parents put in the order. Always piping hot and ready when we pull into Casa Di Farrell on Crane Road!

This afternoon we drove down the hill to downtown Elmira and did lunch at the original Pudgies location on Main Street. Check out the pic… Great stuff!

As long as we’re on the topic of food…

Kevin at our sister site Bfloblog is right. Of all the great places in Buffalo that one could get a really good plate of chicken wings, why oh why would Richard Zednik and crew pick Picasso’s? And to top it all off, the Sabres trump this all up in a press release. Blecchhh!

Next… I hung with Channel 2 sports guru Matt Pearl in the pressbox for pretty much all of Wednesday’s Sabres/Leafs game, and he pointed out that he had just done an article on one of the most epic food faceoffs of them all - IHOP v Waffle House. Check out the piece on WGRZ-TV’s 2 On Your Side Blogs. It’s a great read.

But one quote jumped out at us and we really wanna know the story behind this pop off…

Actually we went to White Castle first, but it was an experience I’d prefer not to relive…

So what’s up with that??? Hey Mr. Pearl…. WE LOVE WHITE CASTLE!