Snacktacular Super Bowl Search Patterns

The Super Bowl is over and we already know what makes a recipe “Super Bowl Worthy” but now we’re taking a look at what people actually snacked on in different regions of the country.

Using the same methods we described in our last post, we looked for dishes, ingredients, and other modifiers that were much more likely to appear in searches from particular regions. Then, we selected a subset of the regions and generated maps for them. Darker blue states had a higher percentage of searches for a particular dish or ingredient.

Click here to open the interactive maps.

The interactive maps will not work for IE8 and Android 2.x users, but you can still view the map images below. 

Here are a few things that we found interesting about these maps….

Taco Dip

Taco dip is typically a layered dip with ingredients often found in Mexican-American cuisine, including salsa, beans, cheese, shredded lettuce, and sour cream. What’s interesting is that the phrase taco dip appeared in searches much more frequently in the North and East, where people may not have access to authentic Mexican cuisine. Authentic Mexican tacos typically do not have beans and dairy products.

Ro-Tel Dip

This dip appeared frequently in searches from the South, but never appeared in searches from much of the rest of the country. The key ingredients are Ro-Tel canned tomatoes with chiles and Velveeta or cream cheese. Here’s an example recipe.

Spicing It Up

How did we spice up our game day food? Jalapeños were popular in searches across the country (they appeared in at least 0.262% of searches in each state), but were more frequent in searches from the West.

In parts of the Southwest, especially New Mexico, green chiles were especially common. Green chiles are a key ingredient in New Mexican cuisine.

Buffalo, NY is the home of the chicken wing, and the original cayenne-pepper-based sauce is often referred to as buffalo sauce. The term buffalo was used in searches throughout the country, but much more frequently in the Northeast, closer to Buffalo.

Representing Baltimore

Finally, the cuisine of Baltimore was represented by searches for crab dip, and Old Bay, a seasoning mix often used for crabs. Baltimore is located on the Chesapeake Bay, known for its blue crabs.

Explore the maps and tell us what you find interesting!