Both sports fans and foodies will soon be able to eat together with the new menu items coming to Toronto’s Air Canada Centre concession stands. Event attendees will go beyond the traditional burgers and fries thanks to items such as the sumo hot dog, a peanut butter and jelly panzerotti, and fries filled with the taste of cheeseburgers – all a few of the 18 new concession stand items that hockey and basketball fans can look forward to starting Sept. 21, just in time for the preseason games. On Thursday, The Globe and Mail had the chance to try some of the new dishes: some savoury, some sweet and all definitely filling. Here are 10 dishes that you can order and where to find them in the ACC, starting Monday. Taxes are included in the prices.
Story by Michael Chen and photography by Fred Lum
Sumo dog (The Dog House, $9) This Asian take on the traditional hot dog has a Japanese-style sausage, tempura bits, topped with bean sprouts and drizzled with wasabi mayo.
Cheeseburger fries (concession stands outside sections 106 and 311, $9 for four pieces) The invention includes ground corned beef, cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard – all moulded, deep fried and served with a secret dipping sauce on the side. Chef Zielinski would not reveal the savoury sauce’s ingredients and thus, it remains a secret.
Mushroom bacon dog (The Dog House, $9) A special treat is the beef sausage wrapped in bacon, topped with sautéed mushrooms and green onions. The Swiss cheese and mozzarella makes this a well-rounded and hearty meal.
Buffalo chicken grilled cheese (MacCheesy’s, $12) The grilled cheese sandwich goes south of the border with Buffalo sauce, chicken and cheese, served on sweet Hawaiian bread. It comes with kettle chips on the side.
Guacamole and spinach grilled cheese (MacCheesy’s, $12) Fans wanted a vegetarian option and the chefs listened. Who can go wrong with some good ol’ guac’ at the games? It is served with kettle chips on the side.
Tex Mex mac and cheese (MacCheesy’s, $9) Chef Zielinski warns fans that this dish is for those with “serious hunger.” The concoction has jalapeno peppers sitting on top of a bed of mac and cheese with house-made chili throughout.
Sushirito (Edo Sushi, price not available at time of publication) The sushirito looks like your traditional Japanese futomaki, a thick sushi rolls with the fillings – salmon, tuna, lettuce, cucumber, crab meat and roe – on the outside and conveniently wrapped with seaweed for you to hold with your hands as you cheer on your favourite teams.
PB and J panzerotti (Sweet Wally’s, $6.25) After one bite into the deep-fried panzerotti, the peanut butter and jelly oozes out allowing you to see the sliced strawberries and bananas inside. Topped with icing sugar, it is a generously-packed dessert.
Sweet Wally’s dessert taco (Sweet Wally’s, $5) A crunchy hard shell envelops an apple pie filling, whipped cream with pralines and salted caramel sauce on top. It’s sweet and not too heavy, despite the numerous ingredients in its presentation.
S’mores, Oreo and Turtles popcorn (Sweet Wally’s, $6 each) Fragrant popcorn turns sweet with these delightful additions. A nice North American twist goes on the s’mores popcorn in particular, with graham cracker bits, marshmallow stick to the crunchy popcorn which is drizzled with chocolate.