Eat Like a Steeler: Show Your Support for the Black and Gold with Pittsburgh Delicacies

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The Super Bowl XLV Pep Rally on January 28, 2011 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Jared Wickerham / Getty Images

Steel City’s hungry, hard-working immigrants have cooked up some historic dishes over the centuries.  Here’s what should be on your dinner table tonight while you cheer on the Steelers.

As the Steelers look for their seventh Super Bowl title tonight, you’ll have to party like it were the first time. Pittsburgh’s European influence – from Germany and Eastern Europe especially – comes out in the city’s popular dishes.

(More on TIME.com: See the top 10 things you didn’t know about the Steelers.)

Local favorites start with pierogies, the potato dumplings hailing from Eastern Europe. Filling, delicious, and customizable with sauces and toppings of all sorts – butter, onions, salsa – whatever you’re in the mood for.

If you’re feeling adventurous, another Pitt staple is halushki, buttery egg noodles and fried cabbage, a cheap and filling meal, and great for vegetarians. If you’re looking to add a bit of meat, try slicing your ham Pittsburgh-style: chipped. It’s a very thin, flavorful and tender addition to a sandwich or just straight off the plate.

But for the truly hungry this evening, put together your own Primanti Brothers sandwich, a Steel City staple. It’s the equivalent of the Philly cheesesteak. Legend holds that the serious sandwich was created for truckers to hold with one hand, so they could drive with the other. But you’ll definitely need two hands for this monster, which includes the side dish – French fries – between the bread.

(More on TIME.com: See how Pittsburgh rebuilt itself in the economic crisis.)

The sandwich, simply put, from FOOD.com:

  • 2 slices of Italian bread
  • 6 slices of ham
  • 2 slices of provolone cheese
  • Coleslaw
  • Tomatoes
  • French fries
  • Mayonnaise

For an in-depth recipe of the coleslaw and toppings, check out MilSpouse’s look at the Primanti Bros. sandwich.

Wash it all down with an Iron City or Yuengling beer, and you’ll feel like a veritable Pittsburgher.