In case you were, oh, out of town this week here's part of a NYTimes story with Scoreboard Gourmet commentary (Japanese Baseball: Root, Root, Root and Buy Me Some Eel, by Ingrid K. Williams):
Concession stands around the stadium offer a dizzying variety of food options — many of which are completely unidentifiable to untrained foreign eyes. One recognizable item, however, is the ubiquitous bento box. Stacked neatly beside photographs of their contents, the boxes can contain pretty much anything — sushi, tofu, grilled eel, rice balls with egg, and pickled vegetables are just some of the possibilities.
Fried mashed-potato balls are a pleasant substitute for French fries, but the more daring will opt for takoyaki, small dough balls filled with octopus. Hot dogs are also for sale, though it’s much more fun to battle a bowl of slippery soba noodles with chopsticks. And if the Baskin-Robbins ice cream stand is familiar, some of its perplexingly named flavors — like the refreshing Popping Shower (it’s minty) — are not.
I have got to get back to Japan. The long lines that are common at concession stands in American ballparks are blissfully absent. Perhaps that is because Japan has beer girls. Running up and down the aisles with pony kegs strapped to their backs, the smiling young girls are easy to spot in their colorful uniforms and matching caps (not to mention their shorts with hemlines as short as sartorially possible).
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