Aside from home, the place I eat most often, especially during hockey season, is the San Jose Arena, aka the Tank, or the HP Pavillion, or Compaq Pavillion or Center or HUGE ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITY or whatever else they are calling it now. About the worst thing about corporate sponsorship is that the the name of the place you love keeps changing. Also, what if you don’t like the company, or the company doesn’t like you? I can understand the prohibition against bringing outside food and drink to 525 Santa Clara Street, they make a lot of money selling food, but… If I buy a Dell computer, will the guy with the bar code sensor who scans the tickets sense that I am a DEll owner somhow it and ban me from the building? If it WAS the Shark Tank, and now it’s a Pavillion, how are the poor Sharkies breathing?

Achhh, never mind. I am here to go over the food options for a hockey fan who did not get dinner before the game.. There are a lot of things to eat available on the Councourse level, where the majority of the people sit. I counted 12 places to have something that might be called dinner, one place for soft serve ice cream, 2 popcorn stands, 1 nut stand, 1 frozen lemonade stand, 1 dippin’ dots, and six places to buy beer. Now, about half the places that serve food serve beer, too, and there are 4 places that serve hard liquor, but I don’t drink, so suffice to say the alcholics out there are well serviced and should be content…

So what is thre to eat? Mexican, at Uno Mas (2 counters at opposite ends of the arena), fried chicken and fish and shrimp at Fowl Play (also 2 counters) hamburgers, grilled hot dogs, chili dogs and philly cheesesteaks at Grillworks (2 counters) , of course regular style hotdogs at the Favorites counters (2) , and BBQ from Smoke Tiki Lounge at an upstairs counter, Sushi and Bento from Tengu Sushi, Chicago hotdogs & baked potatoes which are served with similar toppings, and two kinds of sandwiches (meatball and carved) at 2 different locations. A place where you can get paninis and wraps and lattes just opened upstairs, across from Section 221. I see a lot of dating couples there. Oh, and there is pizza from Round Table, too.