ThisNext Blog

That’s not to say that we should snack indiscriminately. Not all junk food was created equal. Make sure that at your Super Bowl party, you’re putting your best chip forward.

You gotta start with the basics. Let’s talk chips. “Good chips are important,” effuses RallyMatt. “Tim’s are THE BEST.” He goes so far as to include them in his list of the top ten things you need to live. If, however, you want to gourmet it up a bit, and just maybe have something that appeals to the ladies as well, then break out the gold card, head down to Needless Markup and pick up a can of chocolate-covered potato chips for a whopping $15. But Andrea Sharfin still endorses them. “Believe it or not, these are worth the money.”

But man does not live on potato chips alone. Personally, I’m way more into tortilla chips and salsa, myself, and for those of us here in the Bay Area, Casa Sanchez is the way to go.  Their thick and crunchy “gruesos” chips and pleasantly piquant hot salsa are perfectly palate-pleasing any day of the year. And if you don’t live here in NorCal, you can buy their wares online. Be sure to cute it up with some crafty chip-and-dip dishes, like these way cool snack trays and bowls made from recycled vinyl records. Now those are some super bowls.

Gotta have ‘za. But getting pizza delivered on Super Bowl Sunday is like trying to buy flowers at 5 pm on Valentine’s Day. Plan ahead and have a few slabs of Mystic Pizza Food Co.’s in the chill chest, like Jaina does. “It is cheap, the crust is thin and chewy, and the cheese quality is amazing. This is as good as getting takeout!”

Don’t forget the popcorn! But before you throw that bag of Orville in the nuker, consider a few options. Pinrat discovered a savory treat from Hawaii with a Japanese twist: Popcorn with mochi crunch and nori. “The resulting treat is sweet, salty and a bit greasy but oh so good!” And ThisNexter Psykik7 finds the salty-sweet combo of Ma & Pa Kettlecorn addictive. “When you do bite down into a sweet chunk it is so good. It is mixed perfectly with a salty bite which keeps me digging and munching.”

Speaking of sweet, you gotta have some sweet treats around to complement the salty snacks. Pick up a bunch of tins of Sweetriot’s  chocolate-covered cacao “peaces”; each snacker gets his or her own tin of earth-friendly, flavonoid-filled (not to mention flavorful) nummy nibs. And if there’s a flat of fabulous Ferrero-Rocher, laid out like golden nuggets of crunchy Nutella goodness, I think few will complain.

That covers the basics, but there’s so much more. For further snack ideas from spicy peas to … um … bugs, check out my Super Bowl Snackin’ list on ThisNext.