In just over a week people everywhere will gather for Super Bowl parties. Some people love watching the game, some people love the commercials, and others just like getting together and hanging out. But one thing everyone loves? FOOD!!!
Of course standard party food like chips, cheese and crackers, and veggie trays will be gracing the tables of Super Bowl parties everywhere but I like to match the food with the teams that are playing. Here are a few criteria I try to adhere to when planning a Super Bowl menu
- The food must be iconic for the cities or regions of the teams playing
- It must be good party food (easy to eat, plastic utensils and paper plates, etc.)
- You need to be able to easily feed a crowd.
Getting all these criteria to match up can be difficult for some of the teams. With New England playing the Los Angeles Rams this year there are some pretty clear cut winners when it comes to food though. Here are the foods I am planning for this years big game:
Disclosure: This post is monetized with affiliate links. If you buy something through them I earn a commission which helps support this site and lets me buy more meat so I can write about it.
New England Patriots – There are a few good options you could go with here. New England clam chowder, Boston baked beans, or Boston cream pie would all be good options but for this game I would pick lobster rolls.
There are two basic schools of thought when it comes to lobster rolls: Maine lobster rolls which are cold and have mayonnaise and Connecticut lobster rolls which are hot and are pretty much just lobster and butter.
If you are in New England it is pretty easy to come by lobster and the special rolls you need to make a proper lobster roll. If you aren’t in New England it can be hard to come by lobster meat or the special rolls. There are online shops like Lobster Anywhere that sell full lobster roll kits. They ship for free as well and the kit is enough to make 8 big lobster rolls.
Los Angeles Rams – If the Rams were still in St. Louis this would be a cinch and St. Louis style ribs would be perfect. Los Angeles is a bit tougher but there are still some good options.
Los Angeles has a ton of good donut shops. And sushi is pretty popular there. There aren’t a lot of iconic foods for Los Angeles but if we expand our range a bit we have an awesome California staple: Tri-Tip.
Tri-Tip is an awesome cut of beef located on the bottom of the sirloin. It first rose to popularity in the central California coast but it is now a very common cut of beef all across the West. Last year I wrote up 4 reasons tri-tip is a great Super Bowl food and that still holds true.
Most tri-tip weigh around 2 pounds so you can probably easily feed 4 people per roast assuming you have other snacks on the spread as well. Reverse sear the tri-tip and slice it thin against the grain and you will have a great game time treat. Slice it really thin and it will make great sandwiches.
If you live anywhere West of the Rockies you can probably find tri-tip at your local grocery store or Costco. But they are a bit harder to find in other parts of the country. When I lived in Florida it was hard to find tri-tips anywhere. Occasionally the local supermarket would have them but not often enough to count on getting one. When they did get some in stock I would usually buy 4 or 5 at a time knowing it could be months before I saw them again.
There are, however some excellent places to order tri-tip online:
Porter Road – At just $21 a piece Porter Road has the best price on tri-tip I have seen online. I have cooked their tri-tip before and it is excellent. Their beef is raised on small farms in Kentucky and all their beef is dry aged for a minimum of 14 days. Porter Road is also currently offering free chili grind beef on orders over $50 and free shipping on orders over $100. So pick up 5 tri-tips and they ship for free.
They are constantly butchering their cattle so if you don’t see them in stock check again the next day. Porter Road also ships their beef fresh, not frozen which is unique to all the other online meat merchants I have tried. Order your tri-tip from Porter Road today.
Snake River Farms – I am a huge Snake River Farms fan and have always loved their beef. They have two different grades of of tri-tip available. The “regular” tri tip runs $55 but they also have their American Wagyu tri-tip if you really want to step up your Super Bowl party. They run $79 but the marbling on these will be beyond anything else you will find.
Market House – I just placed my first order with Market House yesterday (should arrive tomorrow) and I am really looking forward to giving them a shot. Market House has a grass fed tri-tip for $59 and all orders over $49 ship for free. Also if you order over $125 they have a coupon code MH50 that will get you $50 off.
Load up your table with some lobster rolls and tri tip and you are sure to have a great Super Bowl party. I don’t have high hopes for the game this year but do have high hopes for the food.
And for future years here are some ideas for the rest of the NFL teams. I won’t take the time to explain these right now but all these are iconic foods for their respective cities and would make for a great Super Bowl meal:
- Arizona Cardinals – Fry bread tacos
- Atlanta Falcons – Peach Pie
- Baltimore Ravens – Crab Cakes
- Buffalo Bills – Buffalo Wings
- Carolina Panthers – Pulled Pork
- Chicago Bears – Italian Beef, Chicago Dogs, Deep Dish pizza
- Cincinnati Bengals – Skyline Chili
- Cleveland Browns – Polish Boy
- Dallas Cowboys – Texas Chili
- Denver Broncos – Green Chili
- Detroit Lions – Coney Dogs
- Green Bay Packers – Cheese Curds, Bratwurst
- Houston Texans – Brisket
- Indianapolis Colts – Fried Tenderloin Sandwich
- Jacksonville Jaguars – Cubano
- Kansas City Chiefs – Burnt Ends
- LA Chargers – Sushi
- Miami Dolphins – Cuban pork
- Minnesota Vikings – Jucy Lucy
- New Orleans Saints – Jambalya, Po Boy
- New York Giants – NY Pizza
- New York Jets – NY Dogs
- Oakland Raiders – Meth
- Philadelphia Eagles – Cheesesteaks, pretzels
- Pittsburgh Steelers – PierogiesSan Francisco 49ers – Sourdough
- Seattle Seahawks – Fish and Chips
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Cigars
- Tennessee Titans – Hot Chicken, Memphis ribs
- Washington Redskins – Chili Dogs
