Easy, cheesy and guaranteed to leave you queasy if you’re lactose intolerant, nachos belong in the playbook for any Super Bowl party worth its queso. Despite tracing their roots to the border city of Piedras Negras in Mexico, they are a bonafide American favorite.
As the story from 1943 goes, a group of American women who had ventured into town during the day to shop stopped at the Victory Club outside of business hours and asked the maître d’hôtel for food and drink. With no cooks in the kitchen, Ignacio Anaya tried to oblige with the ingredients that were available, and he ended up melting Colby cheese on top of fried corn tortilla chips and topping them with slices of pickled jalapeños. The women asked for seconds, and the dish ended up as a special on the restaurant’s menu named after its creator Nacho, the traditional nickname in Spanish-speaking countries for anyone named Ignacio.
It sounds like a tall tale, but the yummy yarn checks out, as the original Nacho man was honored with a Google Doodle on what would have been his 124th birthday in August of 2015. A Nacho Festival is also held every October in Piedras Negras.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member