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Friday, January 31, 2020

Tip Jar

Florida's favorite Super Bowl snack is gross. Here are some better ideas

Posted By Jessica Bryce Young on Fri, Jan 31, 2020 at 4:36 PM

click to enlarge

Buffalo chicken dip - PHOTO VIA ADOBE STOCK

Photo via Adobe Stock
Buffalo chicken dip

Among the dozens of email come-ons we get daily, this one popped out at us:

"[Study] The most popular Super Bowl snack in Florida."

So, OK, we bit. We were informed by Third Coast Digital, an SEO optimization company, that they'd "researched Google Trends" to determine the most popular Super Bowl snacks by state. The study was posted on (and, we assume, sent at the behest of) a company called Bid On Equipment which obviously has nothing to do with sports or food but has money to spend on SEO! They told us ...

Average amount spent hosting a watch party: $174
43% watch at home, 36% go to a party
1 in 4 only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials
43% think the Super Bowl should be moved to Saturday (1 in 5 skip work on Monday)

And then they told us that the most popular Super Bowl snack in Florida is ... Buffalo chicken dip.

Really?

So that's, what, ground-up chicken? Chicken puree? With hot sauce? Karen, don't pour Frank's RedHot into a can of cat food and tell me it's "dip."

click to enlarge

Image via Third Coast Digital

Only three states had sui generis answers (see map, above; see list, below); most of the "favorites" are repeated throughout several states. Of those three, we stan Iowa (Irish stew) — who the hell eats a bowl of stew at a party? FARMERS, THAT'S WHO. As for Washington State (lobster dip) and Ohio (party pinwheels), both of those things are gross, but congrats on thinking for yourself.

I couldn't let this pathetic list of "weenies" and dips stand. So here's a list of better choices. Please don't eat Vienna sausages this Sunday.

Ham and honey-butter biscuits
Hostess cherry pies (or homemade equivalent fruit hand pie)
Shrimp cocktail
Scallion pancakes
Publix fried chicken
Cacio e pepe potato chips
Brownies
Corn dogs (or any food on a stick)
Tater tots
Pizza, or, even better for the germophobes, Bagel Bites
Hot soft pretzels (Trader Joe's sells 'em cheap!)
Grapes
Spanikopita
Fried boiled peanuts (or deep-fried whole peanuts)
Radishes with salted butter
Quick spicy pickles (cut cukes into spears, marinate in rice vinegar, salt, sugar and red pepper flakes for 4 hours, sprinkle with lemon juice and dill)
Cheese straws
A bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, like God intended

click to enlarge

Image via Third Coast Digital

So many restaurants, so little time. Find out the latest dining news every Friday morning with our weekly Food + Drink newsletter.

Tags: super bowl snacks, football, florida, dips and weenies, Image

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