In anticipation of this year’s Super Bowl, we interviewed a few sports fanatics about their favorite game day eats — and which team they’re rooting for.
What do you usually do on game day?
What foods are typically part of your Super Bowl spread?
Are your game day eats homemade, or do you order takeout?
Who do you want to win this year’s Super Bowl?
Chad Owens
Former UH, NFL and CFL Player, and Host of “The Co2 Run Dwn”
Super Bowl has become another holiday, and we love having friends and family over. It’s a typical, local-style potluck where everyone brings their respective dishes.
Staples include homemade mac salad (I refer to it as world famous) by my father-in-law, Dwayne Keomaka; guacamole by my friend Richard Cooper; furikake salmon by my wife, Rena Owens; and blueberry cheesecake by my step mother-in-law, Jenny Keomaka.
This year, I want the Rams to win, but I have a feeling the Bengals are going to do it.
Oh, and we don’t play the famous “squares or blocks” game.
Ryan Kalei Tsuji
Media Personality and Co-Host of “Spotlight Hawaii”
Before COVID-19, I would normally attend a Super Bowl party at a friend’s house with the tradition of filming our reactions in the final moments of the game. This proves to be especially entertaining when it’s a close game like Super Bowl XLIX.
Since I usually attend other Super Bowl parties, I usually bring food to share. I often bring something healthy or non-meat items (for the other non-meat eaters like myself), which includes everything from veggie platters and Beyond Burgers to meatless chicken wings. Some other takeout options I enjoy sharing include lemon crunch cake from Diamond Head Market & Grill, vegetarian tofu platter from One Plus One Drive Inn, and Hawaiian Chip Co.’s Chip Box (warm chips right out of the fryer served in a box and perfect for parties).
An easy homemade recipe I enjoy sharing is a tuna and nori mix I developed. It’s a mixture of canned tuna, brown rice, balsamic vinegar and a small scoop of avocado mayo. Mix that up and serve alongside small, individual nori packages for simple — yet tasty — open-faced sushi.
For this year’s Super Bowl, I gotta go for the Cincinnati Bengals. I’m a sucker for the underdog and they’ve made the quickest turnaround from worst record to the Super Bowl in league history.
Laura Beeman
University of Hawaii Women’s Basketball Head Coach
If I’m in town, we usually have people over to watch the game. Often times, I’m on the road and we have a game the weekend of the Super Bowl. Our game day spread usually features different types of snack foods like veggies, onion dip, homemade guacamole and salsa, hot wings, and malasadas. We also have to have Side Street Inn’s signature garlic chicken and famous pan-fried pork chops.
If the team is on the road, we will project the game and anyone that wants to watch it, does. I want the Bengals to win because our media relations director is a diehard Bengals fan.
Stephen Tsai
Sports Reporter, Honolulu Star-Advertiser
If I’m not working, I’ll head over to my daughter’s house to watch the game. All forms of chicken — barbecue, Korean-style, shoyu — are the centerpiece of our game day spread. There’s a niece who’s in the fish-supply business, and she usually brings over a pan of poke. Unfortunately, my cardiologist forced me to become a vegetarian, so my son-in-law’s mother makes me a vegetarian palusami.
Our feast is mostly homemade foods, but my son figured out how to make Moscow Mules — is that considered homemade?
This year, I’m rooting for the Bengals because: 1) It’s the Year of the Tiger, 2) I like underdogs, and 3) ‘Bengals’ sounds like Bangles, the most awesome female band of the 1990s.
Jimmy “Da Geek” Bender
Radio and Tv Personality With Kssk and Spectrum oc16
What I do on game day varies from year to year. I don’t mind just doing pupus with my family, but this year, we’ll be at Giovanni Pastrami doing a pre-game broadcast and then watching the game.
If I’m watching the game at home, I love eating my wife’s bacon-wrapped Lil’ Smokies and some queso. This year, at Giovanni Pastrami’s, I’m all about the Round Table pizza and a wagyu burger. We usually do homemade stuff for our game day feast, but I think I might be getting fancy enough to order a charcuterie board next year!
I definitely did not see Cincinnati getting to the Super Bowl, but props to them for making it there. That being said, I like the L.A. defense, so I’ll go with the Rams by a score of 35-21.
As excited as I am for the Super Bowl, I’m even more excited for baseball season to start — go, Cubs, go!
