By: Nick Handley
We’re all set. The Cincinnati Bengals will take on the Los Angeles Rams for the big game on Sunday, February 13th. You now have almost two weeks to prepare for the ultimate day of serious grub. Let’s see, you probably include the gameday favorites such as wings, chips-and-dip, pizza, meat trays etc. Good news is Hy-Vee has everything you need to either make those items, or have them made for you. But what if you want to be creative with what you consume or provide for your guests? How about making the menu matchup specific. Take each team city’s food staple and give it a go. Again, Hy-Vee will have everything you need.
Let’s start with the underdog, Cincinnati. We all love chili and chances are you have had that option for your gameday party. You probably even know someone who prides themselves in the chili they create. How about Cincinnati chili?
Cincinnati style-chili is a spiced meat sauce used as a topping for spaghetti or hot dogs (“coneys”); both dishes were developed by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s. In 2013, Smithsonian named it one of the “20 Most Iconic Foods in America”. Cincinnati chili more closely resembles Greek pasta sauces and spiced-meat hot dog topping sauces seen in other parts of the United States. Essentially you’re pouring chili without beans, over spaghetti and adding a heap of shredded cheese on top. This next part is fun. It’s called the “way” system.
Ordering Cincinnati chili is based on a specific ingredient series: chili, spaghetti, shredded cheddar cheese, diced onions, and kidney beans. The number before the “way” of the chili determines which ingredients are included in each chili order. Customers order a:
- Two-way: spaghetti topped with chili (also called “chili spaghetti”)
- Three-way: spaghetti, chili, and cheese
- Four-way onion: spaghetti, chili, onions, and cheese
- Four-way bean: spaghetti, chili, beans, and cheese
- Five-way: spaghetti, chili, beans, onions, and cheese
Los Angeles is known to have some of the best Mexican street tacos you’ll ever have. There are over 4,000 registered taco trucks in the greater Los Angeles area alone. Traditional Mexican tacos are called street tacos. They are typically served on corn tortillas and are stuffed with meat. Traditional toppings include onions, cilantro, and salsa. There is no lettuce, tomatoes, or cheese in traditional street tacos. Those toppings have been added so that they more closely resemble the tacos that most Americans are now familiar with.
Tacos do come in a wide variety of meats. Sorry everyone, ground beef is not one of the meat options that is typically used in street tacos. Here are the most common types of filling that is used in street tacos.
• Barbacoa: Traditional barbacoa is actually lamb meat. It is wrapped in banana leaves and then cooked in a hole in the ground. Today barbacoa pork is also frequently used as a taco filling.
• Carnitas: Carnitas tacos are some of the most popular tacos around. They are made from pork. The pork is seasoned with herbs, orange juice, and salt. They are put in water on a copper dish and fried with lard.
• Al Pastor: Al Pastor is sometimes a mixture of pork and beef but typically it is only beef. The meat is seasoned with axiote and red peppers. The meat is seasoned and then put on a metal stick that slowly rotates so that the meat cooks evenly. The meat is sliced right off of the stick and put directly into your taco. Al Pastor tacos are the probably undeniably the single most popular type of taco served in Mexico City.
• Carne Asada: The literal translation of carne asada is grilled meat. Carne asada is steak that is marinated in citrus juices, cumin, and other spices. Once the meat is cooked it is thinly sliced.
So find a simple recipe for these two dishes, or put your own spin on it. Either way it’s a fun way to make your gameday feast stand out and pay tribute to the teams playing for it all.
Enjoy!
