Monday was opening day for baseball - the start of the season when many fans flock to their favorite stadium. But a day at the ballpark can get pricey, especially if you include the cost of food and drink to get through nine innings.

Classic baseball refreshments like hot dogs and beer can vary widely in price depending on the ballpark, CNNMoney found when it surveyed the 30 major league teams.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

As much as I try to have an invincible bracket, I’ve never even placed high enough to win any cash. (Thanks a lot, Gonzaga.)

So, I’m resigned to my fate again this year. Still, I have devised a plan that’s win-win, or at least win-while-losing. I’m going to support a random bunch of my picks by consuming some of the awesome food and drinks they might be associated with - and name check some places that do a particularly good job of serving them.

On to the tourney. Go Louisville!

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Some days are better than others. Nominees for the James Beard Awards (a.k.a. the "Oscars of the food world") were announced today and we were delighted to find some of our work on it.

This collection of Eatocracy and CNN videos (along with host Tom Foreman and producers Jeremy Harlan, Kat Kinsman, Eric Marrapodi and Dan Lothian) is in the finals for the Television Segment award. Please enjoy.
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The average person might associate the word "pig" with bacon, pork chops, ham, crown roasts or even Miss Piggy. To me, it's all about the lechón, which is a Spanish term for roasted suckling pig.

Cue blaring salsa music, the intoxicating smell of roasted pork and a salivating crowd ready to pounce on smoky, salty, juicy meat. In my Cuban-American family and culture, a lechón means it’s time to party. Every Cuban family has their own lechón recipe. The Italians have their marinara sauce, we have our dry rub.

I recently survived Goya Foods' Swine and Wine, a South Beach Wine and Food Festival event, where I experienced hog heaven.
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Talk about your Fat Tuesday!

We've sunk our teeth pretty deeply into Mardi Gras already, but New Orleans isn't the only float in the food parade.

Across the U.K., royals and hoi polloi alike flip pancakes in celebration of Shrove Tuesday. The Pennsylvania Dutch fry up fastnachts (a raised doughnut). Folks of Polish descent (and apparently, residents of Michigan) polish off plenty of pączki (extra-rich jelly or cream-filled doughnuts) with great, greasy abandon.
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In honor of Mardi Gras, the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates the unique food of New Orleans. Today's story comes courtesy of Sara Roahen, author of "Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table." It should also be noted that many sno-ball stands are closed at this time of year, but that's not stopping anyone from dreaming about them.

First things first: a New Orleans sno-ball is not a snow cone - a pre-frozen, rock-hard concoction like those sold from ice cream trucks and concession stands elsewhere. As each of our New Orleans Sno-Balls oral history subjects attest, New Orleans sno is a product of locally made, carefully stored, and expertly shaved-to-order ice.

The sugary syrups that color and flavor a New Orleans sno-ball are equally important to the final product, and each sno-ball maker protects his own syrup recipes. In fact, a majority of the recipes at Hansen’s Sno-Bliz in Uptown, Williams Plum Street Snowballs near Riverbend, and Sal’s Sno-Balls in Old Metairie have survived several generations of ownership.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

It’s Super Bowl time, and chicken wing statistics from the The National Chicken Council are flying around fast and furious.

• America will eat 1.23 billion chicken wings on Sunday, February 3.

• If you’re determined to lay 1.23 billion chicken wings end-to-end, you’ll find that they stretch from the Niners' Candlestick Park in San Francisco to Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium 27 times.

• In a poll, more wings fans preferred ranch dressing on the side than blue cheese. Ranch gets 57 percent of the vote; blue cheese is at a shockingly low 35 percent.

But, it’s time to stop talking about chicken wings and start eating. Here are six places to find some excellent ones.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Finally, we’re down to two teams for Super Bowl XLVII, to be held February 3 in New Orleans. It’s the Baltimore Ravens up against the San Francisco 49ers. It’s the Harbaugh Bowl: Ravens coach John Harbaugh versus his brother, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.
 
Do you know what I want to know about Harbaugh v Harbaugh? Nothing. I’ve already heard enough. I also have more info than I can handle on Ravens superstar linebacker Ray Lewis playing his last NFL game.
 
I do have some questions about both Super Bowl-bound teams, though. Namely, what are they eating? Who has the most outrageous diet? I did a little research so I could pick my Super Bowl diet winner.
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From the moment the ancient Greeks held the first Olympics 2,700 years ago, our picture perfect image of elite sportsmen has revolved around the oiled, ripped, macho body.

But not all our leading sports stars fit the stereotypical bill of chest-thumping demigods.

Some, such as jockeys, instead go to extreme lengths to stunt their growth - sometimes down to the size of a pre-pubescent child.

In an industry where just a few extra pounds can rule you out of a multi-million dollar race, jockeys are put under enormous pressure to meet miniature weight requirements.
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Editor's note: The Southern Foodways Alliance delves deep in the history, tradition, heroes and plain old deliciousness of barbecue across the United States. We'll be sharing dispatches live from their 15th annual Symposium "Barbecue: An Exploration of Pitmaster, Places, Smoke, and Sauce" in Oxford, Mississippi, over the next few days. Dig in.

This year's Saturday Viking Range Luncheon was prepared by chef Ashley Christensen of Poole's Diner in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ashley prepared a "Piedmont Root-to-Stem Harvest Feast," shaking up the weekend's theme by applying barbecue-inspired techniques to an all-vegetable meal. Of course, not everything was baptized in smoke, but the lunch did include coal-roasted sweet potatoes and beets. (Ashley picked up the coal-roasting technique on a recent trip even further south, in Uruguay, where she and the Fatback Collective schooled themselves on the asado.)

The lunch - from pimento cheese and homemade crackers to pumpkin hummingbird cake with peanut custard - was served family style, fostering the sense of a common table and opening up a space for conversation around the food.
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