Texas Rangers ballpark food mostly on base with bacon

Bacon was the word. Bacon bacon bacon. Bacon beer, bacon quesadillas, bacon — make that chicken-fried bacon — on a stick.

It wasn’t the only word Thursday as the Texas Rangers and Sportservice, the Globe Life Park concessionaire, unveiled more than 30 food items — many available for sampling by curious media members — in the new Cholula Hot Sauce Porch at the ballpark. The area was formerly known as the All You Can Eat Porch, and although that name’s gone, Thursday’s event still had an all-you-can-eat-before-you-fall-over tone.

The menu represented food available at general concession stands, as well as items offered in suites and in the Captain Morgan Club. One of the concession stands is called Just Bacon, so bacon was one of the overriding themes. Eight items have bacon in their names, and that’s not counting the prepackaged bacon cotton candy. But there’s also a concession stand called “State Fare,” a play on state-fair food.

Here, think “fried”: fried Twinkies, fried s’mores with cream-filled cookies, chicken-fried corn on the cob. And a mashup of the two themes is the chicken-fried bacon on a stick.

Not everything was available for sampling.

One of the bigger deals (in all senses of bigger) is the Holland Hot Tot’chos ($17.50), named for Rangers pitcher Derek Holland. They consist of tater tots tossed in buffalo sauce, with chicken or steak, sauteed red and green bell peppers, pickled jalapeños and spicy queso hollandaise — all served in a portable mini-Dutch oven. Although we weren’t able to try it, Holland and his father, Richie, sampled a few bites of the namesake dish.

“The question is, Is this a finger food or what, because there’s all kinds of meat and stuff in there?” Holland said. “Can’t wait to see little kids with it all over their face.”

Here’s a quick roundup of what we tried.

The home runs

Chicken-fried bacon on a stick ($7): Although it was a little salty and a lot chewy, this was a big hit. The bacon is so thick-cut that it’s more like a slice of ham, and the house-made batter had nice flavor and crunch. And it was served on a stick — always a plus as long as you don’t poke someone’s eye out.

Grilled cheeseburger ($15; available at the Captain Morgan Club): Perhaps this would be more accurately described as the grilled-cheese burger — two patties between two old-school grilled-cheese sandwiches. It was a little unwieldy in its sample size, but the American cheese had an appealing melty gooiness and the burger patties were perfectly cooked. The bread was toasted to the point of dryness, making for lots of crumbs, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker.

The Triple Play Sampler (available in suites): Featured a miniature corn dog, Southwest egg roll and sausage “en croute” (think pig in a blanket, but fancier) with a choice of dips. The sausage had a spicy kick, and the egg roll had a burst of Tex-Mex flavors. The corn dog was unmemorable.

The base hits

Bread pudding (available in suites): Had good texture from the moist, toasted sweet bread, sweetness from custard and an extra bit of pizazz from the whiskey cream sauce. What it lacked was originality, giving it a chain-restaurant feel: You might like it, but you can get the same thing in a lot of other places.

The walks

A walk doesn’t count as an official at-bat, so it’s the designation we’re giving to the bacon quesadilla ($8; Just Bacon stand), the Philly cheesesteak burger ($15) and the nacho burger ($15. Both available at the Captain Morgan club). By the time we got to these samples, which were served buffet-style, they’d cooled too much for accurate judging — although the nacho burger did have some pleasant spiciness.

The whiffs

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale ($12): A table of current and former Star-Telegram staffers was divided on this, and by “divided,” I mean that most of them hated it but I kind of liked it. But erase any thoughts of doughnuts and especially of the vaunted Voodoo Doughnuts of Portland, Ore. This has more of a smoky flavor. But it got a big thumbs down from the table.

Bacon cotton candy: This item, which came in a chips-style bag, wasn’t part of the buffet, but someone disliked it so much that he just left a bag on the bar for people to sample. Imagine licking an ashtray filled with fiberglass and you kind of get the idea.

A few other items besides the Holland Hot Tot’chos weren’t available for sampling. We were disappointed that we couldn’t try the fried s’mores with cream-filled cookies ($8) but understood the absence of the Tanaco “Nacho Average Taco.” When you break a 24-inch, $26 loaded taco into sample sizes, it kind of loses its impact.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Texas Rangers ballpark food mostly on base with bacon."