New York Times ... Taste of the NFL

Food for Thought at One Super Bowl Party

By Alan Schwarz: February 1, 2009, 12:31 pm

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Most on-site Super Bowl parties — which is to say, about 74 of the 78 — make you wonder if it’s actually the Narcissistic Football League. But some reassure you that the Super Bowl is more than a competition for who can have the longest black limo.

The 18th annual Taste of the N.F.L. party took place Saturday night at Tropicana Field, bringing together 3,000 fans, more than 40 players and vittles from the top restaurants from cities of all 32 N.F.L. teams in a heartfelt effort to combat hunger.

Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Grill served braised short rib meatballs, with the former Giant Bill Ard chatting up fans and signing autographs. The Seastar Restaurant from Seattle, with the current Seahawks fullback Leonard Weaver, ladled out sublime crab and sweet corn bisque. From smoked trout salad sandwiches (St. Louis) and pork belly with collard green risotto (Tennessee) to
chocolate cherry tamales (Minnesota) to orange phyllo napoleons
(Cincinnati), fans anted up $500 apiece to various hunger charities, with their temporary reward being the chance to stuff their face so that they never wanted to eat again.

“Of the 18 years this has been around, this is probably the most
significant year for us to do this because of the economy,” said the former Cowboys lineman Chad Hennings, who received fans soon after they downed citrus glazed pork with parsnip-chive puree from the noted Dallas restaurant Abacus. “There’s going to be more homelessness and hunger. I think there’s a lot riding on this.”

Taste of the N.F.L. has distributed more than $8 million in its 17
years and is known as one of the few truly wholesome events at the Super Bowl. Saturday’s fest, in which fans milled around the Tropicana Field artificial turf from station to station, sold out easily and was expected to raise more than $400,000 for multiple hunger organizations, primarily “Feeding America.”

Players appeared sincerely delighted to do their part for charity. And they certainly turned into players when sufficiently provoked.

All 340 pounds of Jets tackle Kris Jenkins looked longingly at the
guava-glazed duck breast tostadas with green mango relish and sighed, “I want to turn around and stop signing and eat the rest of them.” Perona Farms from New Jersey was serving seared viking scallops, which perked up the ears of Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway.

The best moment was some trash talking between the former Eagle Jerry Sisemore and the Giants’ Ard. Sisemore’s dish was a chocolate-pecan toffee torte (from Jack’s Firehouse in North Philly) while Ard’s was the Tribeca Grill meatballs.

I asked each guy a simple question — if 11 of Sisemore’s tortes went up against 11 of Ard’s meatballs at a neutral site, who would win?

“Torte? What the hell is a torte?” Ard barked tauntingly. “Tell Jerry
five of my meatballs could take 11 of his tortes.”

To which Sisemore responded, “Anyone can eat meat. Big deal. Chocolate always wins – it’s like paper covers rock.”

Anyone who actually tried all 32 dishes — I shouldn’t have asked for extra spaetzle from Detroit’s veal goulash station — needed some Pepto Bismol to cover their insides. I stopped at about 15 and was afraid I’d spaetzle right there on the turf.

But you could see the sincerity in the fans’ and players’ eyes — even though the night was about gorging oneself, it was all done so that thousands of strangers across the nation could eat at all. As cloying as Super Bowl events can get, this one filled you with more than just20food.