My sister informed me there was one sacred requirement during my first visit to Safeco Field in Seattle for a Mariners game. It had nothing to do with Mariners memorabilia. Nothing to do with the stadium or even baseball. I had to order (and eat) the “world famous” garlic fries.
Typically when I eat garlic I know I will be sleeping in the basement, but Karen wasn’t along on this particular Seattle junket so garlic fries it was. That would be RAW GARLIC fries for those of you not yet among the Safeco Field initiates.
Each order came… somewhat curiously… with two thin slices of fresh apple. I pointed this out to the woman in the concession stand and asked her what the slices were for. She looked at me with a crooked smile and gestured to her mouth before saying “You know… your breath.” I appreciated the thought, but one glance at the garlic on the fries told me that an apple slice or two would be woefully inadequate. Bingo. I don’t know if it was the garlic fry effect or the fact that the Mariners were playing poorly, but by the 7th inning most of the people around me were gone.
If you are a garlic fiend, one order might be enough to convince you to buy Mariners season tickets. If you are not, the very fact that the fries are a signature item for the stadium might make you decide to never set foot in Safeco. The reality for the rest of us is probably somewhere in the middle, but I confess my favorite description of the fries came from a friend, Peter Tobin, here in Spokane when he caught wind of my stadium dining choice. He called the fries “goopy, greasy, smelly, morsels of love.”
Thanks Peter. I’m betting you sleep in the basement a lot.
