Regional Foods for the Big Game

This weekend, the New England Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks for the big showdown in Arizona. From coast to coast, people will be pledging their allegiance to each city — regardless of how they feel about football, challenges abound in many forms. For some, it will be in the kitchen. We love food from every corner of the country — and, while salmon and clam chowder are great to eat, they’re not suited for a game day party. However, we’ve put together a list of football party favorites with regional flair to honor the top two teams. Here are some regional foods for the Big Game.

Chili The perfect accompaniment to a football game on Sunday is chili — every region has their favorite way of serving it, and Seattle and New England are not exceptions.

Seattle In Seattle, a favorite bowl of chili is found at Geraldine’s Counter. They call it the Kick Butt — a fitting name for a super bowl of chili! It has three meats, red beans and plenty of spice to be tempered with a topping if shredded cheddar and sour cream.

New England In New England, their go-to chili is found at the All Star Sandwich Bar. The “Texas State Penn Chili” is different from Seattle’s favorite is that it contains no beans — it’s all meat and spices. And, of course, the meat is shredded beef brisket. As a garnish, the use sour cream, jack cheese and a slice of lime.

Sandwiches As far as food for football goes, you can’t go wrong with a sandwich. They’re easy, compact and you don’t need utensils to eat them. For both Seattle and New England, seafood dominates favorite sandwich fillings.

Seattle Salmon is one of the most popular foods in Seattle — the industry churns out some of the best in the world, so it’s not a surprise people in Seattle like to put it between two slices of bread. At Market Grill at the famous Pike Place Public Market, they serve it blackened on French bread.

New England New England is known for their “chowdah” and all eats sea-related. In the form of a sandwich, the lobster roll, hands down, is a local favorite. The Lobster Pool in Rockport, Massachusetts serves fresh lumps of lobster mixed with mayo on a bed of lettuce wrapped in a buttered, split-top bun. It’s simple, but what makes it really fabulous is that the lobsters are handpicked from neighboring Gloucester every day.

Beer Beer and football go hand-in-hand. Both Seattle and New England have a healthy amount of local suds to sip on.

Seattle A safe bet for Seattle-brewed beer is anything from Elysian Brewing Company. It’s been pleasing Seattle beer drinkers for almost two decades — they have a brew pub that’s been rated one of the best in the country by ratebeer.com. If you’re looking for something a little more tame than craft beer, Washington’s Rainier Beer is still on the market.

New England The craft beer industry is thriving in New England — Farmhouse Ale is a New England favorite, but local beers don’t tend to be available to the entire country. If you want to serve New England beer at your party, Sam Adams is still a favorite among New Englanders and it’s available across the United States.

Even if we can’t be in Arizona for the big game or host a party in our favorite team’s town, we can bring a little of it home. A little taste of Seattle or a big bite of New England, give your party for the big game some local flavor with hometown favorites this weekend.