Best Recipes For Super Bowl 2013; Football Foodies Delight With San Francisco, Baltimore-Themed Party Meals

Super Bowl festivities are about a lot more than football. When the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers kick off on Feb. 3, Americans will be drinking, laughing and, perhaps most importantly, eating.

Last year the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Easy, right? Along with a stocked fridge, revelers could have eaten a hot bowl of New England clam chowder or having some of the thin crust pizza first made famous in Manhattan.

Not this year. The story of the 49ers/Ravens Super Bowl has been the coaching matchup between the Harbaugh brothers and whether star linebacker Ray Lewis will retire with another Lombardi Trophy. But anyone who’s been able to flip from ESPN to the Food Network will find the possibility of some seriously delicious chow.

The best way to watch Ray Lewis pump up his Ravens teammates is on the couch with a hot plate of Spicy Maryland Crab Dip. The recipe - found on AllRecipes.com -- calls for cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, garlic powder and about two tablespoons of Cheddar cheese mixed with crabmeat and hot sauce.

It takes 45 minutes to cook, but, with the game not scheduled to begin until 6:30 EST, the taste of spicy crab could be too irresistible to ignore.

Chinese immigrants have populated San Francisco since before the Gold Rush drove Americans west. The city’s Chinatown district has been a melting pot of cheap, tasty food and tourists hoping to experience San Francisco in all of its glory.

One of the most popular restaurants there is House of Nanking, and while the 49ers would be advised to steer clear before the big game, Yelp reviewers rave about Nanking’s sesame chicken.

It will be near impossible for home cooks to replicate authentic Chinatown spices, but Food.com offers a version of sesame chicken that’s been praised by recipe mavens and football fans alike. The chicken marinade calls for a tricky combination of dry sherry, cornstarch and light soy sauce, but that’s before the sauce even has hit the burner.

Super Bowl foodies are also lucky this year with the game being played in New Orleans, a food Mecca of the South.

The most popular choice is probably Shrimp Po’ Boy, also available with chicken for the seafood averse. You can read the complete recipe from the Food Network, and while it may not be friendly on a diet, a Po’ Boy will quickly make a disappointed fan forget their team’s loss.