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Tenderloin sandwich, the signature 'wich of Indiana

I’m one of those people who would never watch the Superbowl — or any football game for that matter — if food weren’t involved. For big, fun parties like that it’s always a kick to do “themed” items. Since the game is in Indiana, I took a look at the foods the state has to offer. Yes, Wonder Bread figures in there, but also something that was surprisingly yummy: Sugar Cream Pie. It’s not much to look at. Sugar, cream, flour. Sounds kind of bleech, looks kind of pale. But…oh….my….goodness. SO DELICIOUS. Also try the pork tenderloin sandwich. Confession: in my house we ate this like Japanese katsu, with hot, white rice and a sweet, vinegary dipping sauce. Either way, what’s to hate about something fried (don’t answer that.) Enjoy!

Sugar skulls for Mexico's Day of the Dead

Call me old-fashioned, but do we really have to start thinking about Halloween already? I mean, yes it’s October now, but I was finding candy corns and Hershey miniatures right next to my back-to-school supplies. Pretty soon, they’ll be sold with your Fourth of July firecrackers.

But at least the early warning gives you plenty of time to plan. Americans aren’t alone in their fascination with ghoulish confections. Chocolate coffins, sugary bread shaped like bones, and skulls of molded sugar are traditional fare for Mexico’s Day of the Dead, which comes right after Halloween. Sugar skulls are the most famous of the treats, made or purchased by every household and stacked into colorful mounds on street carts. In Britain, London-based baker Lily Jones, aka: Lily Vanilli, churns out cupcakes with coconut-jelly eyeballs and cakes modeled after human heads, saying that the merger of the sublime (the taste) and the grotesque (the design) is just part of being human.

“There’s a fascination with horror,” she told me in an interview last year. “It’s just imagination, something out of the ordinary. There’s a lot of beauty in it too, in the strange and the unusual.”

Recipes for her grotesque cupcakes are collected in her book “A Zombie Ate My Cupcake.”

But for a less ghoulish, more wholesome cupcake, try Martha Stewart, the never-fail go-to for spiffing up basic recipes. She’s got bats and spiders and brains like the rest of them, but somehow there is merely the suggestion of grossness – not an actual pool of fake blood that puts you off your treat. Her Wicked Witch cupcakes are about as far as I want to go.

Lobster Roll at America Eats Tavern

Though you’d never think of it now, New York was once the oyster capital of the world, with carts on every corner, the dirty water hot dog of the 19^th century.

America Eats Tavern in Washington, DC pays tribute to this legacy with a half-dozen incarnations of the bivalve taken from historical reports and cookbooks. Buttered oysters honor oysterman Thomas Downing, a free African American who stored his shellfish in his basement, which doubled as a haven for slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Pickled oysters – a favorite bar snack in George Washington’s time – go down smooth with an American craft beer and Oysters Rockefeller captures the young country’s fascination with “the richest man in the world.”

And who better than Jose Andres to offer America its history on a plate? An eloquent and passionate ambassador of food, culture and identity in all its forms, Andres created the non-profit pop-up restaurant in conjunction with the National Archives exhibit “What’s Cooking Uncle Sam,” which runs until January 3. All profits go to the Archives.

Crunchy, corny hush puppies salted with American caviar offer a perfect follow to the oysters. A buttery brioche bun filled with sweet lobster makes an elegant lunch. But AET’s menu begs for multiple visits, with Kentucky burgoo of rabbit, squab and lamb, an 1845 recipe for mutton shoulder and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (with foie gras!!) just waiting for a taste.

And coming soon? Pawpaws, aka: American custard apples.

In someone else’s hands, the restaurant would have been a gimmick. But Andres’ passion and the competence of his staff come through in every bite. It’s like eating a little piece of history.

For more insight on the foodways of early America, look to “Food of Younger Land,” author Mark Kurlansky’s extraordinary curation of writings done by icons like Eudora Welty and Zora Neale Hurston as part of a 1930s WPA project.

Crunchy hush puppies get salted with American caviar