Whether or not you've ever enjoyed the dubious pleasure of digging into a snack stadium,
you're bound to have seen these edible arenas all over your social media feed especially
in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday.
Otherwise known as snackadiums, these instantly recognizable, hugely over-the-top snack food
replicas are a curious cultural phenomenon…that basically evolved out of a joke.
But they quickly grew into a genuine phenomenon, one which has since spawned numerous imitators,
how-to videos and DIY guides.
The word "snackadium" is even under investigation for possible future inclusion in the Collins
Dictionary.
As with so many other internet phenomena, the origins of the snack stadium are a little
murky.
According to Google, the first one may have been built sometime in late 2008.
Or at least the first one to start trending because people way back in the 1980s did create
their primitive versions of “snack stadiums.”
By the time Super Bowl 44 rolled around in February 2010, however, snack stadiums were
enough of a thing that the folks at Break.com had built their own three-story, 110,428-calorie
monstrosity.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
"The stadium was an ode to beer bellies and lap bands across America."
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with if they could, they never stopped to ask if
they should."
But the snack stadium that really set the Internet on fire was built back in 2009 by
UC-San Diego student Scott Pham and his roommate.
Pham and his friend built their stadium out of an estimated $50 to $100 worth of snack
foods: guacamole for the field, cheese dip and salsa for the end zones, Cheetos and Doritos
standing in for the fans, players made of Vienna sausages with cheese helmets, hot dogs
and bacon serving as dividers to separate the fans from the field, and Rice Krispies
treats forming the walls of the stadium itself.
Although Pham reported that their party guests mostly chose to pass on his incredible edible
replica, a photo he submitted in July 2010 to a now-defunct website called This Is Why
You're Fat had everybody going crazy for it and soon spawned hordes of imitators.
Once snack stadiums caught on amongst food bloggers, Pinterest queens, and Instagrammers,
the competition ramped up to the point where snackadium creators were attempting to outdo
one another with increasingly elaborate creations.
Fans created snack food homages to their favorite stadiums including a wing-filled, soda-dispensing
version of U.S. Bank Stadium.
Pillsbury issued a snackadium-building challenge to food bloggers and published the best of
their creations, including a truly insane entry from Life Tastes Like Food that came
complete with a retractable bacon dome and a beer can blimp.
Even Andrew Zimmern got in on the act, constructing his own edible U.S. Bank Stadium this time
filled with gourmet treats such as chicken satay, shrimp spring rolls, and his signature
Canteen Dog.
Naturally, snack stadiums also come in all-dessert varieties, usually filled with cookies, cupcakes,
and candies, all glued together with gobs of sweet and sticky frosting.
Once fitness bloggers got hold of the concept, the birth of the healthy snackadium was pretty
much inevitable, too.
These versions feature ingredients like raw broccoli, cherry tomatoes, yogurt dips, and
other trainer-approved snacks.
"No.
Don't like that."
Now, if you're thinking of building your own snack stadium for Super Bowl Sunday this year,
Bon Appétit suggests you do so well in advance of the big game so you'll have plenty of time
to take pictures before the ravenous hordes descend.
But the magazine also warns that your snack stadium probably won't photograph quite as
well as your other cooking creations.
After all, your kitchen isn't a photography studio, and these snacktastic creations are
usually a little too big and unwieldy to photograph easily.
If you don't want to spend hours and hours planning and constructing a snackadium, Amazon
has a wide array of pre-made kits available meaning all you need to do is add the snacks
and you're good to go.
But if you just can't be bothered with anything so cutesy as a snackadium, though, know that
you're in good company.
Chef and self-styled professional tailgater Joe Cahn says he thinks it would be wasteful
to spend hours building something that would be demolished in a fraction of the time it
took to create.
Cahn, instead, opts for flavor over appearance, telling The Daily Dot:
"Give me food a blind man can love."
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