Pinstripe Alley vs. Yankee Stadium Food: Adobo Bao & Tater Keg

With another season of Yankee baseball underway, it seems like the right time to bring back a PSA classic: Pinstripe Alley vs. Yankee Stadium food. As they’ve done every year for the past few years, Yankee Stadium introduced new food options just before the start of the season. As I generally do, I went through the menu offerings and picked the items that intrigued me the most and add them to my “must try” list.

Last Sunday, I decided to go watch Gleyber Torres’ long-anticipated major league debut. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity to see Torres’ debut stop me in my quest to try the new food options. One of the items I tried last year were the Chinese Buns or Baos.

The stadium offered four different varieties: Chicken, Bacon (Pork), Beef, Cauliflower. Jason Cohen had already given his insight on the chicken buns at the time, I reviewed the bacon and beef buns. When the Yankees announced their new food options, I noticed that they added a new bao so I just had to try it.

Adobo Bao

The Adobo Bao came into the bao menu and replaced the Charbroiled Chicken Bao as the chicken option. The Charbroiled Chicken came with marinated chicken, Sriracha ranch dressing, and crushed kettle chips on top. The Adobo Bao follows a similar formula, with a vastly different flavor profile. The Adobo Bao comes with “Filipino pulled chicken, garlic aioli, and crispy pork cracklins” on top.

The Adobo Bao was overall a win in my book. As pictured above, you can see they don’t skimp out on anything and they actually stuff the bao as much as they can. It made for a messy snack, but thanks to my Yankee Stadium-branded napkin I was up for the challenge.

The garlic aioli really stood out and took over the flavor, but if you’re like me there’s no such thing as too much garlic so I didn’t really mind that. The downside came with the chicken, which I personally found a little dry. Perhaps a little less chicken or a little more sauce would’ve helped balance out the dryness. The pork “cracklins” made for a nice touch because I’m of the opinion that foods are more satisfying with a crunch.

If you won’t take my word for it, watch Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman of Cespedes Family BBQ fame try the Adobo Bao at MLB Food Fest this past weekend, which I’m still upset I couldn’t attend.

As far as price is concerned, the cost for two buns is a total of $7.39 (comes out to $8.05 with tax), which is a decent deal. The only problem, like I mentioned in last year’s review, is that two buns is not enough as a meal. It’s a solid snack, but that’s as far as this goes. If you want to make a meal out of the baos, I’d suggest going with four. All the Baos are available exclusively in the Toyota Terrace (pictured above) which is on the right field side of the Pepsi Lounge/1893 Club/Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

Since I just had the two buns before the game, I started to get hungry again around the sixth inning. Because it was already the sixth inning and I had dinner plans, I decided that I shouldn’t go and get anything too heavy. I needed something that would hold me over but still allow me to eat dinner later. Luckily the next item on my list was just the thing.

Tater Keg

Listeners of the Pinstripe Alley Podcast aka the Pahsahp will know that I’ve had my eyes on the Tater Keg since it was announced. What’s not to like about this concept? It’s “jumbo tater tots, adorned with sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon bits, scallions, served on a skewer.” I was drooling before I even got to try it.

Anyone who has ever had loaded tater tots or something similar before know exactly what they’re getting into with this. It tastes exactly how you’d imagine the combination of tater tot, bacon, sour cream, and scallions would taste like. The lack of a surprising flavor profile isn’t a bad thing, however, as I did enjoy this. There’s no need to mess with a working formula. What they did change, was the way to consume it.

I tried just biting into it like I would normally do with any food on a stick, but that wasn’t really working for me. I ended up just picking out individual tots and eating those and with a fork by my side, I was able to leave no survivors behind. When I came to write this, I did notice that the official menu does list this as having cheddar cheese which mine did not come with, not sure what happened there. I’d say hopefully next time but there won’t be a next time even though it tasted good.

Unlike the Baos, the Tater Keg is fortunately available in multiple locations. You can purchase them in Sections 107, 331, and the Masterpass Batter’s Eye Deck. Since I was in my preferred place to sit at the Stadium, the Grandstand Infield, I went to Section 331 to get my keg.

When I got to Section 331, all I saw was the famous Garlic Fries concession. I looked around but couldn’t see a Tater Keg stand or line anywhere. Then I zeroed in on the Garlic Fries concession’s menu. There it was. So I, slightly regrettably, got on line. Let’s rewind a bit. I decided to start this adventure in the break between the bottom of the fifth and the top of the sixth. I didn’t get back to my seat until there were two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Almost two full innings just wasted in line. But at that point, I was committed.

Problem number one, was the time it took. Problem number two? The size. A keg is essentially a smaller barrel. While it’s smaller, it’s still a hefty size and can be counted on to deliver large quantities. This was a lot smaller than expected for something called a keg. At least if the cost wasn’t that high, it wouldn’t have been too bad. I know to expect insanely high prices for anything when attending a sporting event, but at $8.09 ($8.80 with tax) it was just too high a price for my liking for something that small. At least it did hold me over until I got to dinner.

Final Verdicts: The Adobo Bao adds to an already impressive collection of Baos at the Stadium and makes for a great snack at a decent cost. While the Tater Keg was delicious, the effort and cost likely make this a one-time experience for me.