Joe Alt relives NYC street food review, unfortunate chocolate chip, cranberry incident

While he likely has an NFL future ahead of him, Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt might have a pretty solid backup career in television. Food television, that is.

Over the summer, the Notre Dame lineman did a number of New York City food reviews. He relived a number of them, including an infamous moment where he mis-identified a cranberry as a chocolate chip, then a raisin, with On3’s Andy Staples.

In the video of his food tour, posted by Notre Dame, Alt tries an NYC staple: A bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel — just don’t get into it with him on the pronunciation. As Alt digs in, he comments on the filling of his breakfast sandwich before offering a startling tidbit about the bagel: It was a chocolate chip bagel, it seemed. Cut to the next shot, he’s revising that claim, noting it was a raising — or, actually, a cranberry.

“Yeah, it was bad. It was a bad performance by me. I got one excuse, I think it got a little hot out there. It was pretty warm in New York City that day, I think it was about 92. I’m sweating, I’m eating food, and I got something sweet in my mouth right away. And I was like, ‘Hmm, that’s sweet.’ And I was looking at it before and it looked like, brown. I was like, ‘Oh, must be chocolate chip.’ And then after I had taken a couple more bites, I was like ‘That’s not a chocolate chip.’ So I know, it was bad, it had to be done, I had to come back on and be truthful,” Alt said.

Sweet bagels or bagels with fruit are, in their own right, derided by some bagel purists who contend only savory preparations are acceptable. But even the most casual diners among us might question Alt liking the sweetness of a chocolate chip — that was actually cranberry — added to his breakfast sandwich.

But he didn’t stop there with his controversial food takes. He opened up his review with another New York classic: A hot dog.

Topping: Ketchup.

After Staples noted he might be a psychopath for such a condiment choice, Alt defended himself, citing his usual golf course snack/meal as the reason.

“No, there was a reason for that. Big thing for me, I always eat hot dogs when I’m golfing. I always get one brat and one hot dog. And the brat is strictly mustard and the hot dog is strictly ketchup. That’s just how I do it. You can call me a psychopath but that’s how I do it, so that’s why you saw that. I get hated for it, but you can’t put too many condiments on there. You can’t put ketchup and mustard. I felt like I always like ketchup on my hot dog — but then you lose the flavor so I had to keep it somewhat legit,” Alt said.

And the whole experience — eating, thinking, chewing, and trying to say something cogent about the food while not spraying it at the camera — left an impression on Alt. And a newfound respect for the likes of Guy Fieri and his gesticulations and sounds.

Alt understands now how that helps play for time.

“It just gives you a little time. Gives you a little time to chew, gives you a little time to think. It’s a little — what’s the word — filibuster. Keeps a little break in there, you can eat it, you can think about it, you can chew it and then you can go back to what you feel about it,” Alt said.

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