IDOTN!

To those who say that there are no good nachos (or Mexican food for that matter) on the East Coast (specifically Boston), and in honor of the International Day of the Nacho 2011, I humbly present the following:

Atlantic Beer Garden

Game On!

Also some IDOTN 2011 Recipes:
Turkey
Vegan(?!?!?!?!)

The First Nachos of 2010

With all this talk about resolutions, books, and random lunches I almost forgot about THE FIRST NACHOS OF 2010! First let me set the scene:

My good friend Tannaz, of All Kinds of Yum fame, decided a couple years ago to hold a bake sale, No Cookie Left behind. This is gained a huge following of not only ardent cookie eating supporters but an entire bake sale organizing network. So after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Heather Taylor of Taylor de Cordoba thought that a fund-raising bakesale for Doctor's Without Borders was a good idea.

Now you might be asking yourself what the heck this has to do with nachos. Never fear, it will become clear in a moment. On the day of the event my sister and a friend made the sojurn from SouthBay up to Scoops to drop off some Ranger Cookies and see of the workers needed any tacos. Because there's a taco stand near scoops. A very delicious taco stand by the name of Tacos El Pastor. Where we got nachos. Very delicious nachos.



It's hard to tell from the picture but the chips are really strange. They are round with the fake nacho-cheese flavoring. Kind of old school - definitely not what I expect at a taco stand that looks super authentic. I definitely wouldn't want those kind of chips on very many orders of nachos but because they were so unusual it turned out to be pretty good. My only other complaint was that the 'chos were a little beany. But the carne was good, the avocado slices were a nice touch (the guac with the tacos was REALLY good), and who doesn't love the ketchup squirt bottle filled with crema? Seriously, WHO DOESN'T LOVE IT?

International Day of the Nacho update

Turns out I got nachos for dinner too. My sister and I went to the Tavern on Main in El Segundo (yelp), which is a sports bar near our respective places of residence. The nachos were a lot better than what I had for lunch. The chips were crispier, there was more cheese. Black beans instead of pinto (and not nearly as many) and sour cream instead of crema. Plus olives, jalapenos, and guac. And giant beers.



And then a friend sent along this comic from XKCD which is tangentially related to nachos. And super funny.

International Day of the Nacho is here!

Today's razón para celebrar is the Official Best Holiday of NachoLoversAnonymous: The International Day of the Nacho. As you might remember from last month's post, this is a holiday we can all get excited about. For lunch I went to Taqueria Guerrero Style in Westminster, CA.


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The pastor nachos are a brick of chips, beans, cheese, crema, tomatoes, guac, and pastor. Unfortunately the 'chos were just okay. It seemed like a slow day and the chips were a little stale, the meat a little under-seasoned (it's pastor for crying out loud!), and at the risk of eating a gift horse in the mouth (what?), there was just too much food.


My co-conspirator and I also shared a chicken quesadilla, which although greasier, was probably better than the nachos (heresy I know!). Fortunately the price was right. About $15 with two fountain drinks (alas we did not get any delicious jarritos).


Taqueria Guerrero Style
5966 Westminster Blvd
Westminster, CA 92683
(818) 800-9309
www.bestmexcater.com

T-Minus One Month....

Until the BEST HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR is back. Last year you might remember that I went with several friends (including famous food blogger Tannazie who took pictures) to Loteria Grill in Hollywood. This year I'm thinking of going to Loteria at the 3rd Street Farmer's Market. Here are some other links from last year.

And because no post would be complete without a map, here is Piedras Negras, Mexico. Supposedly they have the International Nacho Fest there. Although there are few links and it doesn't take place on 10/21. And it seems ass hard to get to. But I digress



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Nacho Pizza? Yes Please...

From MSN came an article with different pizza and beer pairings. Being a sucker for both beer and pizza (I might have had it for lunch and dinner yesterday) AND the combination fo the two, I obviously had to click on the link. And it doesn't even have to be good pizza (or good beer for that matter). Yesterday I had pizza from the cafeteria at work for lunch and a slice from Costco for dinner. And both definitely satisfied the craving.

Back to the issue at hand: the MSN article had pizza and beer pairings. That's all well and good but the article went one step further and the 3rd pizza featured was a Black Bean Nacho Pizza. The beer reccomendation was an India Pale Ale (Red Hook perhaps?) to match the spiciness or a brown ale (like Newcastle?) to bring out the sweetness. I'm sure those go great but I'm also sure that Bud Light would also help bring out some other flavors (like the watery-ness of the pizza maybe?). Maybe I need to go to Costco again today.

It's tough to Americanize when you first have to Mexicanize

I saw an interesting article in the LA Times today about El Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Often the immigrants are forced to adopt the language and customs of Mexico in order to gain employment and avoid harassment or discrimination. There was a little bit about food but unfortunately I saw no mention of nachos. I'm not sure how delicious El Salvadoran nachos would be since it seems like they go light on the spicy but I would sure love to find out.

Shrimp Nachos? Whoa.....

I was perusing the internets today and was pointed to a recipe for shrimp nachos. The picture looks really freaking good. And I can attest to the skills of the cook, who also has mean recipe for Asian BBQ sauce.

My only potential consternation is the mixing of the cheese and shellfish. It's not usually done but I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because I'm like Garth and fear change. But I do know that I love cheese and I love shrimp so maybe this change will be delicious. Plus the fried wantons sound amazing. Back Home in Lahaina in Manhattan Beach has Hawaiian nachos that substitute friend wantons for tortilla chips. They are unbelievably light and crispy and hold a surprising amount of toppings.

More International Day of the Nacho

I'm too lazy to write about what I did yesterday for the International Day of the Nacho but my good friend All Kinds of Yum saved my ass.

Suffice it to say that Loteria Grill in Hollywood is good. Reeeeeeeaaaaaaal good.

Happy International Day of the Nacho!

Just wanted to wish everybody a happy International Day of the Nacho!

I'm working on getting it declared a national holiday but until then the best way to celebrate is to eat, drink, and be merry.

In doing so, however, please remember Carmen Rocha who recently passed away. Raise your cheese covered chip, margarita glass, or salt dusted Tecate and give a toast to a great lady.

British Nachos? More like British Crappos

Language is an incredibly interesting concept that I do not claim to understand one whit of. I looked up comparative linguistics on Wikipedia and the article verified my basic concepts of langauge - it can be used to study history, geography, and culture. Unfortunately it did not give me any additional insight into a linguistic curiosity I have been attempting to learn more about. It did make me really want to use the word lexicon in game of Scrabble.

As I am wont to do, I was perusing the internet the other day. I looked up "organic nachos" in Google and came across this site. It took me several minutes of reading before I realized that I was reading a blog from England (the spelling of 'colours' gave it away), and that he wasn't really talking about the kind of nachos that I am accustomed to.

I came to the following realization: In England, because chips are fries, then British nachos are the equivalent of American chips. WTF?!?!?!?!?! A truly egregious and insulting error, I wanted to find out just how pervasive this mislabeling was. I found a snack food company that sells "organic nachos". I also found an encyclopedia entry, dictionary definition, and a couple Wikipedia articles on French Fried Potatoes and Potato Crisps (which appear to be the bastardized version of American chips). I also found a couple of blogs from a temporary expat and a traveler in search of a taste of home.

This gets more interesting within the context of nacho history. In a border town in Texas (long a source of Mexican-American irritation), a Mexican nickname is ascribed to a dish that we would now say was "inspired by traditional Mexican cuisine". The shit proved to be delicious and spread like the proverbial wildfire. Spread so far that it went back across the Atlantic. Once back across the pond, there was a vacuum in the snack product hierarchy and a name was needed to describe a tasty snack. Fortunately the key ingredient of nachos are tortilla chips, which would now bear a new moniker. When did this first happen? Where the expats not savvy or strong enough to set the record straight? Where they too obliterated from Guinness and Bass that the couldn't tell the difference? So many questions and very few resources to investigate this history. Fortunately my trip to London will provide me ample opportunity to research this vast gulf in human knowledge and perhaps correct England's woefully unrefined lexicon.

Loteria and Stick and Stein

The past week was dominated by anonymous nacho loving. On Friday, All Kinds of Yum and I went to Loteria Grill at the Farmer’s market. AKOY sent me a chat earlier in the day expressing how cold our Los Angeles was and only nachos could save her. She was right, it was cold and rainy and windy and not at all like we remember from the Best Summer Ever of years past. The only way to break the doldrums was by totally stuffing ourselves with vegetarian nachos, a carnitas taco for me, and followed by a delicious banana-strawberry-nutella crepe from the stand next door. I tried to take a picture except the camera immediately disintegrated, leaving only the pale imprint on these poor eyes. The nachos were everything I love – lots of jack cheese, melted in the oven, covered with black beans and green salsa. The full-size order comes on a huge plate. We did not measure the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the oval and cannot give you an exact area but it was about the size of a football field. The only gripe was that they could have left the plate in for just a smidge longer to melt all the cheese.

Upping the ante, on Tuesday I ventured to the Stick and Stein in El Segundo accompanied by my faithful sister and two college seniors (one being my cousin). I played coy with my sister, contemplating a salad, but when the server came I threw down the chicken-nacho gauntlet. Fortunately my cousin’s friend doesn’t like all the stuff so the triumvirate went to town on a plate full of chips, cheese, beans, chicken, guacamole, jalapenos, sour cream, tomatoes, olives, and salsa. It was a full frontal assault that left my mouth on fire, fingers sticky, and belly full (and the schooners of Bud Light helped put out any remaining fires). To put it another way, Success!

If the nachos from Loteria evoke thoughts of a simple yet beautiful day spent drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, then the Stick was like going to see a demolition derby at the Menard County Fair. Each has its place, and that place is my stomach.