New Season at Cardiff City

Hear we go again: A new season, new manager (Malky Mackay) and a new set of players (about 8 home debuts), but the same old stadium food.

Juliet and I enjoyed Cardiff City’s first home game of the season this afternoon, in which they demolished Bristol City 3-1. Expectations are high. Cardiff had won their first three competitive games of the season. The first half today was like watching Brazil (soccer cliché alert!): fluid passing and movement, and 3-0 up in 36 minutes. It was a game of two halves though, and they took their foot off the accelerator after the break. Impressive performances all round.

Before the game we perused the stadium menu, although we know it already: chips, pies, hot dogs, burgers and pasty. Today Juliet decided against starters and opted for the portion of fried potatoes with a drizzle of tomato sauce. I had corned beef pasty done in the Cornish style (micro-waved). Juliet pronounced the chips to be as good as last season. I thought them thinner, crisper and better than the last portion of rather soggy fried potato I last sampled here, but I suspect they can vary week to week (or even hour to hour). Gordon Ramsey it isn’t. Pie of the day, for those interested, was the chicken and mushroom. Ketchup and mustard on tap, but I saw no brown sauce.

There are no prawn sandwiches at Cardiff City. In fact there are no sandwiches at all (although I suspect the hospitality boxes have a better selection of food). Mind you, I am not sure you would want to risk a prawn sandwich at most football grounds (I've seen much worse than at Cardiff). Unless, of course, it’s somewhere like Norwich, where Delia Smith personally makes the sandwiches and Stephen Fry is at hand to serve them.

A band (Tiger Please) played before the game. Social media suggested they would be playing at 2pm, but we arrived in the stadium a little after 2pm and they had already finished - the players were out warming up. Pre-match live music is a great idea, but may be difficult to pull off. It would probably need a bigger name act to boost the sparse crowd inside the ground over an hour before kick-off.

Previous post on Cardiff City Stadium food:
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2011/01/football-and-chips.html

Football and Chips

Pêl-droed a sglodion. Today we’re talking football and chips. Up early for a Dinas Wolves vs. Cowbridge U-8s game, on a frosty Bryn-y-Don pitch here in Dinas Powys. Juliet scored in a close-fought draw. Then, this afternoon, Juliet and I went to see Cardiff City play Watford at the Cardiff City Stadium. We have season tickets behind the goal in the Family Stand.

The new stadium is well served by snack bars under the stands. Today we sampled the chips (portion £2.60, with unlimited ketchup from large dispensers). Juliet pronounced them very good. Not greasy, nice and thick - floury inside and crisp outside as they should be. They would have benefited by being cooked a little longer. However, they are decent chips. We prefer getting food before the game (the queues are much shorter than at half-time) and, after a previous hot dog experience, don't eat after half-time. I hear the food in corporate hospitality is good - a pity food other than burgers and chips doesn't filter down below the stands.

The sponsorship and advertising is less food-related than at Ninian Park (with its Brace's Bread logo on the roof) and more geared to Internet betting (Sbobet on the City shirts), financial services and, since the new Malaysian owners arrived, Visit Malaysia signage. However, there’s still old-school hoardings (none of this annoying electronic scrolling stuff) advertising regional food and drink: Peter’s Pies, Talgarth Bakery, and Brecon mineral water.

It was a good game today. Cardiff City won 4-2. Goals for Bellamy, Chopra, Bothroyd and Gyepes, together with a very promising debut by Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (on loan from Arsenal).