I was going to start this out with a little baseball anecdote, but I don't actually know much about the rules of the sport so it would have read something like this:
Number 8 on the green team hit the ball and then a bunch of kids ran around, then someone on the red team caught the ball and the umpire yelled something and everyone cheered. Meanwhile I looked wistfully in the direction of the snowcone stand.
I really don't like baseball, nor do I like events where there's a heavy concentration of children. (Why do you think I spend so much of my time at bars?) But I am nothing if not a dutiful aunt, so it was mostly without reservation that I trudged out to Winfrey Point at White Rock Lake this week to spectate my nephew's first All-Star Little League game of the summer.
My stomach was pleased to see the newish Free Wheel'n Cafe food truck parked next to the baseball field, and after three innings of the other team showing absolutely no mercy I headed over to check out the goods and buy my niece a Tiger's Blood snow cone from the Kona Ice truck that was also there. (Tiger's Blood is, in fact, a blend of coconut and strawberry flavors and not what fueled Charlie Sheen's winning spree. That was cocaine and the media.)
Free Wheel'n offers a variety of cheese steaks, hotdogs and burgers -- including a burger topped with all the components of a cheese steak, for you fence-sitters out there. I opted for the original, with white American and grilled onions. The roll was nice and crusty with a bit of chew, similar to a proper New Orleans-style po'boy roll; the steak was tender, the onions were deeply caramelized and sweet, and the cheese was melted into an appropriately lava-like goo. I've never been to Philadelphia so I can't comment on its authenticity, but it was delicious, and kept me entertained well into the fifth inning. (They're called innings, right?)
When it comes to baseball game fare, I suppose the hot dog still reigns supreme -- but anything that keeps me happy through two hours of kids, mosquitoes and a weird mishmash of music that included Elton John's "Rocket Man" and the Black-Eyed Peas is clearly worth the price of admission, which in this case was a mere seven bucks.
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