NY Giants vs. Chicago Bears @ The New Meadowlands!!

Remember me blogging about getting Touchdown Club tickets for the Giants game earlier last week? Well, the long awaited game day finally came and we headed out to the New Meadowlands Stadium a few hours before kickoff time last Sunday. The weatherman predicted heavy rain starting from about 4pm (the game starts at 8:30pm). Since there is no roof at the New Meadowlands, we were praying real hard that it would hold til after the game. Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter if it rains. People watch football in the middle of snowstorms, so what is a little bit of rain, right?

The club tickets that we got also came with Premium Parking Permits. That's totally awesome cos we get to park at the lots surrounding the stadium. Not only that, we also managed to find a spot really close to the stadium entrance. Very very cool! If we didn't have any parking permits, we would then either have to take the train (which isn't really all that bad) or we would have to buy parking permits off scalpers (the market rate is around $50!). Even with those parking permits, we would have to park like really far away from the stadium. So yeah, yay for us! :D

Since we got there early, we walked around to checkout all the pre game events that were happening around the stadium. Bud Light's Party Plaza was rather cool. They set up an outdoor bar and also stage for a mini pre game concert. Weber Grill also set up a BBQ Pit at the plaza and there were all types of BBQ meats for sale there. Of course, we could also buy beer from the Bud booths. Apart from the Bud Light Party Plaza, there were also all kinds of other booths giving out freebies. Toyota even had a photo booth where we can take a photo 'with' Eli Manning for free! It's more like we stand in front of a green screen and they superimpose Eli beside us :P Still, it's pretty cool!

After walking around for a bit, we decided that it's time to head inside to the Touchdown Club. It's pretty cool actually, not having to line up with the crowds to get into the stadium. We had our very own VIP entrance and stuff.

The Touchdown Club was really impressive. Huge ceiling to floor windows with views of New Jersey, New York City as well as the field. It was really big, with two bars, a wine bar, lounge areas as well as dining areas. Also, there were tons of flat screen TVs showing other live games that were going on in other stadiums around America as well as live feeds from the field. Security was rather tight though and we had to flash our tickets each time we went in and out of the club. I guess they had to make sure that non club seat holders don't make their way into the 'all exclusive' club (rolls eyes). There were all kinds of food vendors too, from NY style pastrami sandwiches to sushi to pasta. I'll have to write a separate post just about the food choices available in the Touchdown Club.

Ahhh, check out our seats. Pretty awesome right? We had a full view of the entire field! Also, club seats were larger, plushier and have more legroom compared to regular seats. We had to chance to check out the regular seats when we went for the Bon Jovi concert earlier this year. Boy, they were small! There was so little legroom that our knees were actually touching the seats in front of us. Ahhh well, I guess that's why club seat tickets cost $400 a piece! Still...I wouldn't pay $400 just to watch a football game, no matter how much legroom they gave us :P

It was totally cool actually, to be so close to the field. I started watching football back in 2002 and since then, it has always been my dream to go watch an actual game (of course, in that dream, it's Heinz Feild, not the Meadowlands! :P). To actually get to watch a live NFL game was just so awesome. Just imagine, I was so excited, just watching the Giants and Bears play. I wonder what would actually happen if I were to be given the chance to watch my beloved Steelers play at Heinz Field? Hmmmm, I think I would just pass out in excitement! LOL!

After eating dinner at the club (will blog about that later), we headed out to our seats, just in time to watch them introduce the teams. Those guys really know how to put on a show. Smoke, fireworks...the whole deal. That really got the crowd all pumped up! You can actually feel the energy flowing through the entire stadium. It's really hard to explain, you have to be there yourself. Definitely different from watching the game on TV, I must say!

After the coin toss, Kelly Rowland (from Destiny's Child) sang the national anthem and was joined on the field by 125 breast cancer survivors. It was part of NFL's effort to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The whole campaign was to educate people that early detection saves lives. All women above 40 should obtain an annual mammogram. It was especially meaningful for me, since one of my favorite aunts is also a breast cancer survivor.

After the ladies left the field, it was time for the game to begin! Woohoo! With the Bears going into the game 3-0 and the Giants coming in with a string of loses, we were all geared up for an explosive game. The Giants needed to win at home! Guess what? The Giants didn't disappoint. Nine sacks at half time, how awesome was that??? I really felt sorry for the Bear's QB, poor guy. The Bears really didn't play all that well. I was surprised, considering that they have yet to lose this season. Lindsay (Kevin's boss gf) is a super huge Bears fan and I sort of feel sorry for her. It must be really tough to see your team sux so bad. Ah well, a true fan sticks by their team, no matter how bad they are playing.

During half time, 30 of the greatest and most influential men in the Giants 86-year history were installed into the Giants' Ring of Honor. They were selected by the Giants organization based on their contributions to the success and history of the franchise, whether they were players on the field, coaches on the sideline, executives in the front office or owners. All the recipients of this award were cheered on by the crowds, all except for Tiki Barber. The crowd went wild booing him. I guess the Giants fans were doesn't like the way he criticized their QB and coach after his retirement.

The rain started to come down pretty hard right before half time, stopped for a little and started to come down again at the end of the 3rd quarter. It wasn't really that bad, considering that it was supposed to start pouring at 4pm. We were prepared though. Kevin and I went out to Walmart earlier that day and bought four disposable ponchos for $0.88 each! Are we smart or what? :P As you can see from the picture, despite the rain, Kevin, Brian and Lindsay were still in very high spirits! :D

The final score...Giants 17 Bears 3!! Wow! The Giants really trashed the Bears this time around. I guess you always play better when you are at home, especially when you are so hungry for a win. The game ended really late and by the time we got home, it was midnight. We were actually really glad that we didn't take the train to the game. Brian and Lindsay took the train (took them only 20 mins to get there from Hoboken but more than an hour to get home!) and they didn't get home til after 1am! I guess there were just too many people taking the train at the same time.

We are really blessed to be given the opportunity to actually attend a live NFL game, let alone getting a chance to watch the game from club seats! We had a great time hanging out with Brian and Lindsay too. Thanks APL and McAllister for the awesome tickets. Maybe we can get a chance to watch the Steelers play the Giants next season! :D

* If you want to see more photos from the game, just head over to my Facebook album at : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=523807&id=842365095&l=39e77df9ad

Guess who is goin' to the Giants game this weekend?

Kevin and I are huge football fans. Sure, we like soccer. Baseball as well as hockey is cool too. However, we looveeeee football. Seriously, nothing comes close to football. Whenever football season comes around, you know where we will be every Sunday afternoon. That's right, in front of our TV, watching the game. We have always wanted to go watch a live Steelers game but getting tickets to a Steelers game is close to impossible (unless you are willing to pay really jacked up prices). Kevin's boss asked him a couple of weeks ago if we would like tickets to go watch a Giants game with him and his girlfriend at the new Meadowlands stadium. Like doh! Of course we would. Granted, it's not a Steelers game but the idea of getting to watch a live NFL game was just out of this world.
Look what Kevin brought home today! Yup, two tickets to the Giants vs Bears game for this weekend!! They are not just any tickets. They are Touchdown Club seats tickets. This babies cost $400 a piece! It comes with access to the club level lounge as well as premium parking. Boy, we are so excited. Not only do we get to go watch a live NFL game but we scored some really awesome tickets. Section 217, row 10. I went to the Giants stadium website and checked out the location of our seats. Wanna see how close we will be to the field?
Yup, that's pretty close!! I also love how we are right at the 10 yard line, so we can see all those touchdowns up close. So so so exciting. We will be meeting Brian and Lindsay (Kevin's boss and his gf) at the game. Since they are huge fans of the Chicago Bears, I bet it will be an interesting night. Six more days to the game....ohhhh, I can't wait!!!

Puma City NY @ The Seaport

After walking around the Great 4th of July Festival on Water St for what seemed like forever, we decided that enough is enough. It was wayyyy too hot to be walking around under the blazing sun. It was so humid and hot, I actually felt physically sick. Kevin suggested that we should head over to the South Street Seaport area to hangout. With it being on the waterfront, the breeze might help us feel a little cooler. If all else fails, we could walk around the Pier 17 mall and enjoy the air con for a bit. Also, he remembered that Puma is having some sort of World Cup event all month long at the Seaport and said that we could check that out too. Air con at the mall? World Cup stuff? Sounds good to me..let's go!From the moment we walked into the South Street Seaport area, we saw red colored themed tents everywhere. I went up to the site map and found out that it was a pretty big event and that there were quite a number of things going. The whole event is sponsored by Puma and it's on daily from June 11 to July 11, in conjunction with the World Cup. Apart from being able to watch live World Cup matches on big screens, there are also other things that you could do.

I guess the one thing that really stood out was the Puma Football Pitch. They have tournaments and football clinics going on daily through out the whole month. In between those 'official' events, everybody is invited to just go in and kick the ball around. They have short matches where you can just team up with strangers, form teams and play a game. I think that is an absolutely brilliant idea, since football is a game that brings people from all over the world together.

There wasn't any tournament or clinics going on while we were there. However, there were kids in the Puma Football Pitch, playing a game. It was really fun to watch how this game just brings everybody together. Those kids didn't know each other before they stepped into the pitch but once they started playing, they all became friends. I could gage from their accents that they were probably tourist, hailing from different parts of the world, but because of this event, they had the chance to play football with total strangers, right in the heart of NYC. How cool is that? Good job Puma for coming up with this idea!

There were also small stalls all over that sold supporter jerseys/t shirts for the various World Cup teams and other World Cup souvenirs too. I tried looking for a vuvuzela but I couldn't find any. Hmmm, maybe you can only get it in Africa :P

If you are not looking for a particular team jersey, you could also go to one of the two Puma Retail Containers to pick up some Puma merchandise. I didn't go in to check the retail outlets out (I'm not really a big Puma fan, sorry...) but I saw many people coming out of those containers with bags and bags of merchandise. I guess they must have some sort of good deals in there.

Here is another cool thing you could do at Puma City NY. If you were to buy a jersey or t shirt at the event, you could bring it over to this booth and they will personalized it for you there and then! You could also add in Puma graphics to make it a one of a kind souvenirs. For those of you who doesn't really want to spend a lot of money for a souvenir, Puma has a free Photo Booth, where you can enter and get a souvenir photo for FREE! We were too lazy to line up just to get our photos taken, so we decided to pass up on that.

From Puma City, we headed over to the Mall at Pier 17 to hang out. It felt so good to escape the heat for a bit and we enjoyed ourselves just walking around in the nice air con mall. We knew that we could get a great view of the East River, Brooklyn Heights and the bridges from the top floor of the mall, so we headed outside to check it out. Look at all the comfortable deck chairs! Too bad they were all taken. If not, it would have been pretty relaxing to just sit there in the breeze and shade, just enjoying the view of the waterfront.

Check out the awesome view! No, not of my sun burnt face! :P I was referring to the view of the East River as well as the three bridges that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn. The one closest to me is the famous Brooklyn Bridge, followed by the Manhattan Bridge and the furthest one of all is the Williamsburg Bridge. You can also see the ever so popular Water Taxi Beach in the foreground. We initially wanted to head down there for a drink and maybe some snacks but it was just way too hot. The best time to go hangout at the Water Taxi Beach is after sunset. That's right...when the sun goes down, things begin to heat up at the Water Taxi Beach! From what I hear, it's an awesome place to party - with reasonably priced drinks and pub food.
Here is another photo of the 'BMW' bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg) and the East River. You can also see the Circle Line River Cruise ferry just under the Brooklyn Bridge. Jumping on the Circle Line Cruise is one of the best ways to see Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. You can buy the tickets and board the ferry right here on Pier 17. After all the walking and stuff, it was already time for dinner. We decided to hail a cab and head over to Little Italy to search for a yummy 'road side' restaurant. More about that in my next post!!

A Date With The Devils

Looks like Christmas came early for us this year. A couple of days ago, Kevin's boss asked him if he likes hockey and if he would like to go watch a NJ Devils home game? Of course Kevin said yes! We've been meaning to go catch one of the home games at the Prudential Center, but we never got around to it (since every time we checked, the cheap tickets would be sold out :P). Yes, I know...we are still Pittsburgh Penguin fans, but a chance to watch a live NHL game was an offer too good to give up!

So, Kevin's boss passed him this two tickets for the Devils vs Thrashers game (28th Dec). Woohoo! They are actually a Christmas gift from a tug boat company to Kevin's company. When we took a closer look at the tickets, boy, we were excited. Those were not regular seats but club seat tickets! Man, those tickets cost $250 a piece!! Club seats are situated right on center ice, basically the best seats in the house. Not only is there a good view, the seats are also wider and have way more legroom than regular seats. Also, we have access to the Fire and Ice Lounge before, during and after the game. There we can help ourselves to free food (carving stations, sushi, finger food...ect) and drinks throughout the game. Club seat ticket holders also have access to the Goal Bar, where Steve Cangialosi and Ken Daneyko do intermission and post-game analysis for Devils' telecasts. How cool is that?

Here is a seating chart of the Prudential Center and the location of our seats! Section 7, row 7, seats 17 & 18. That's right, way up front, on center ice! It's the first time I will be going for a live NHL game and we are blessed with such great seats. I would have been happy with nosebleed seats but this, this is so great!

Not only did we get free tickets, they even took care of the parking :D A Premium Pre-paid Parking Ticket came along with the tickets. We would have to park really far and walk in the cold or pay really exorbitant prices to even get a parking space near Prudential Center. Now, all we need to do is drive up to the parking lot which is just NEXT to Prudential Center and not have to worry about a single thing. Boy, this is so exciting. We can't wait for Monday. Will blog more about the game after that! :D

Pens Takes The Cup Home!

Pittsburgh Penguins

are the new

Stanley Cup Champions!!

(first the Superbowl, now the Stanley Cup..what next?)

Pepperoni Pinwheels

We made some Pepperoni Pinwheels for a late evening snack yesterday. Pepperoni Pinwheels are so easy to make. They are especially great when you have company over for a big game or just for munching in front of the TV.

All you need is a can of crescent dough, butter, pepperoni, cheese, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. The marinara sauce can be used as a dip. I have here a can of Recipe Creations. It's the same dough as the crescent rolls dough but it's in one big piece. If you cannot find the recipe creations dough, you can also use the crescent rolls dough too. All you need to do is press the pre cut lines together before use.

First, unroll the crescent dough out from the can.

Then, brush on some melted butter.

Sprinkle on some garlic powder and some Italian seasoning. I bought my Italian seasoning premixed. If you would like to mix your own, it's a combination of dried basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage and marjoram.

Arrange the thinly cut pepperoni pieces in a single layer on top of the dough.

Sprinkle some shredded Italian cheese over the pepperoni pieces. The Italian cheese that I bought is a combination of Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina and Ramano cheese. If you cannot find an Italian cheese blend, Mozzarella cheese will do just fine.

Starting from the long side, carefully roll the dough up into a tube like shape. Remember to roll it tight. Pinch the sides to seal it.

Using a serrated knife, cut the rolled up dough into smaller pieces. Depending on the thickness of each piece, a roll should be able to make about 14-16 pieces of pinwheels.

Arrange the small pieces of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Put it in a preheated oven (375F) for about 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool for a bit before serving. You can serve the Pepperoni Pinwheels with Marinara sauce as a dip.

Superbowl XLIII

It's here at last..the long awaited Superbowl XLIII! Tomorrow, the Steelers will face the Cardinals in Tampa Bay. The Steelers have played well and hard all season and without a doubt, the Steelers will bring back their 6th Superbowl ring to Pittsburgh!!

So, bring out the terrible towel and wave it high in the air. Pittsburgh's gonna win the Superbowl!

Double Delight!

Today is "Sports Super Sunday" here at the Podany household :D The weather was still bad out, so we stayed in to lounge in front of the TV all day! We ordered in some Chinese food and soda, and we were all set for our sports marathon.

Two of my favorite teams had big matches today. The day started with a soccer match from the English Premier League. Man Utd was playing Chelsea at home in Old Trafford! What a big game. I have been waiting all week for this match. Since I moved to America, I don't really have a chance to watch many Man Utd matches, so it was really good. What made it better? The Red Devils trashed Chelsea 3-0!!! What a match! What a day so far!! Glory Glory Man Utd!!

That was followed by the Eagles visiting the Giants at Meadowlands for the NFC playoffs. I don't really care who wins, we were just watching that while waiting for the Steelers game. The Philadelphia Eagles won, which was pretty cool. I'm hoping for an all Pennsylvania Superbowl now! :D

At last, the time has arrived. We were all excited and decked in our Steelers jerseys. The Terrible Towel was flying high and proud. I can just imagine how charged up Heinz Field was on game day!

The temperature was reported to be around 12F! Yeah..it was freezing cold but nothing can stop the Steelers, not when you have all those Steeler fans backing you up. So what if there is some snow? The Steelers play well in any weather. They are not like the wussy West Coast Chargers who are not used to the cold!

The game started and what a great game it was! We were so pumped up and shouting like there was no tomorrow. Final score? 35-24! The Steeler's whooped the Chargers big time!!! No West Coast boys can bring the Steel Curtain down. I am not talking smack, this is the real deal. The Steelers played well and hard today. Go home San Diego Chargers!

Now, we shall wait for the Baltimore Raven's to come to Heinz Field next week for the AFC Championship! We are waiting...