What To Serve At A State Of The Union Party: 'Sour Grapes And Whine'

By Maria Godoy

Published February 12, 2013 at 4:02 PM EST

For your State of the Union address nibbling pleasure, how about some American cheese?

Plenty of people are ready to offer advice on noshing options when it comes to the Super Bowl. But what do you serve when the occasion for gathering in front of our screens is President Obama's State of the Union address?

When NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro posed that question to his 125,000 Facebook followers earlier Tuesday, plenty of people jumped at the chance to toss off a bon mot.* Among our favorites:

Michael Cole What goes with cold austerity?

Sara Farrens Deutsch Baloney and a grain of salt.

Richard Green I'm sure someone has said "crow."

Jen Hough Sour grapes and whine

Jennevieve SchlemmerI'd say a Mardi Gras king cake and whichever reporter gets the piece with the baby in it gets to ask the President any question!

And last but not least, from Michael Bury: "Promise a bunch of stuff only to not deliver."

Of course, you could just skip the edibles and jump right to one of the many drinking games that tend to circulate on the Internet when the president's address rolls around each year. (The rules vary depending on the game, but you can bet that if Obama declares the state of the union is "strong," yep, you'll be drinking.)

But you won't find Ari knocking back those shots — or at any soirees.

"I'm the NPR equivalent of the cabinet member who sits out SOTU in case a catastrophe befalls the capitol," he tells The Salt. "I'll watch the speech from home, waking up early tomorrow to travel with Obama to North Carolina."

*It's Mardi Gras, so we're going French here.