WHAT IT IS: Super Bowl 50. The Golden Matchup on February 7, 2016. Denver Broncos versus Carolina Patriots at Levi’s Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers). Location: 40 miles outside San Francisco in Santa Clara, California.
Hippy-dippy mountain smokers will be facing off against NASCAR-rooted pig-pickers… in the heart of America’s northern California wine country.
Could we get three more disparate cultures together in one stadium?
We thought it might be fun to take a quick look at the food cultures of the competitors and their host city. After all, fans of both teams need to make informed choices when prepping tailgate-style munchies and beverages for their upcoming armchair viewing.
DENVER BRONCOS:
Denver is known as one of the best NFL tailgate cities. Mile High Stadium offers a variety of vegan and gluten-free offerings, plus the usual concession fare, albeit organic, fresh and natural – including hand-tossed artisanal flatbreads and made-to-order pasta. Some of the iconic foods of Denver that might be found at Sports
Authority Field tailgates include the following:
- Green Chili (consumed as a main dish or added as a condiment or sauce on everything)
- Mexican food of all types, especially chili-sauce-smothered burritos, hotdogs and hamburgers
- Grilled and barbecued meat of all types, ranging from elk, venison and bison to lamb, chicken and brats
- Rocky Mountain Oysters (fried baby bull testicles, not the sea deal)
- Banana Cream Pie
- Fried Chicken (especially chicken and waffles)
But the most iconic comestible product in Denver is BEER. Colorado is the nation’s Number 1 beer producer per capita, ranking third in overall volume of beer pubs and craft breweries. There are 92 breweries in the state. And Colorado looms large in American beer history. Who over the age of 60 can forget the days when folks east of the Mississippi made semi-annual beer runs to the Centennial State for cases of Coors Beer?
CAROLINA PANTHERS:
Carolinians of both the North and South sort are serious foodies, but their roots are sweet and simple:
- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
- Cheerwine (headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina)
- Pepsi (founded in New Bern, North Carolina)
- Barbecue pork – with all its numerous iterations and sauces and accouterments, acknowledged internationally as one of the great all-American food groups
- Pimento Cheese (slathered on or stuffed into everything; SC Palmetto Cheese is the preferred high end brand)
- Calabash-style fried fish and shrimp (SC beach food at its most iconic)
- Shrimp and Grits (Charleston started the national craze)
Tailgates outside the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, located just six miles north of the SC border, include serious soul food such as Price’s Chicken Coop fried chicken and Mert’s Heart and Soul greens and beans with biscuits. They pair well with the Upcountry merlot, Touchdown Brownies and local craft beers.
LEVI’S STADIUM:
The new stadium touts itself as being the most vegan-friendly in the entire NFL franchise. The Asian Pacific Rim cuisine is divine, and even football staples such as burgers and dogs are seriously health conscious. But for Super Bowl 50, it’s all about the wines. This, after all, is the heart of America’s most serious wine country. NOTE: California has more than 4,000 bonded wineries. About a thousand wineries are within an hour’s drive of Santa Clara, including some owned by retired NFL players such as Charles Woodson.
- The stadium will serve 16 wines in concessions, and more than 100 California wines in the suites
- Taste of Sonoma Wines Lounge will be a feature at the Super Bowl City venue
Laurie Triplette is a writer, historian and accredited appraiser of fine arts, dedicated to preserving Southern culture and foodways. Author of the award-winning community family cookbook GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’, and editor of ZEBRA TALES (Tailgating Recipes from the Ladies of the NFLRA), Triplette is a member of the Association of Food Journalists, Southern Foodways Alliance and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Check out the GIMME SOME SUGAR, DARLIN’ website and follow Laurie’s food adventures on Facebook and Twitter.
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