Classic Nacho Scenes: Saving Silverman

Today's classic nacho scene comes from the movie Saving Silverman (2001). Although this scene may be short, Jack Black's character, J.D. McNugent, reminds us of one of the most important rules when eating nachos with other people.

Wayne: Hey! What are you doing?

J.D.: Dude, if you get the nachos stuck together, that's one nacho.

J.D. is so right! If you go and grab a nacho, and there are three chips fused together by hot nacho cheese sauce, that counts as ONE nacho! If the people around you complain, punch them in the face and send them to this site.

Nachos Now With 100% More Botulism!

We'd like to think we would try any nacho out there at least once for the sake of review. But after careful discussion, we decided against Mexican Express' Nachos to Go product. Call us crazy, but we're not really "down" with botulism. Simply put: Contaminated nachos just aren't cool.

Last month the Nachos to Go product was linked to the botulism infection of a 26-year-old Melbourne man. The company immediately recalled the product with a best before date of April 19, and since then decided to withdraw all remaining batches from sale and stop production. Mexican Express managing director Ian Young defended his company by saying, "All of our systems are impeccable - we've done nothing wrong but that's not the point. My kids actually ate this batch - that's how good our records are." He went on to express that his first priority was the health and welfare of consumers by stating, "We are putting the public first."

[SOURCE: Austalia Herald Sun]

n. na·cho (nä'chō')

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Ever wonder about the word "nacho" and what its origin may be? Adriana P. Orr, former U.S. library researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary, wrote an article back in 1999 that tackled that very question. She recalls a day back in September of 1988 when a slip of paper with the word "nacho" was given to her from one of the editors. It was her job to research its etymology.

Was it back in 1978 when it appeared in an issue of the Tucson (Arizona) Magazine? Was it in 1969 when it was published in Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary? Or does it go back even further? Ultimately, Adriana's search took her as far back as 1949 when she found a quote in a book titled A Taste of Texas:

"Sometime later he returned carrying a large dish of Nachos Especiales. 'These Nachos,' said Pedro, 'will help El Capitan - he will soon forget his troubles for nachos make one romantic.''

However fascinating this magical quote was, she was never able to conclusively find the true origin.

Taco Bell’s New Zesty Nachos

Taco Bell has recently released a new item on their menu: Zesty Nachos. These nachos consist of chips, “zesty sauce with a kick and nacho cheese sauce”, seasoned beef, cool sour cream, and tomatoes. According to our standards, this is pushing the limit of too much.

Last night my brother took them for a whirl. So how did they measure up?

NCAA Basketball and Nacho Cheese. A Winning Combination

The Alamodome situatated in San Antonio, Texas has already seen some exciting NCAA Basketball. But today's game against Ohio State and Memphis will determine which team from The South will advance to The Final Four. And while the fans will be cheering on their favorite team, nacho lovers around the country will be cheering for the fans.

Why?

The Alamodome food service providers expect that during the course of the two days they're hosting the tournament, fans will consume 350 gallons of nacho cheese! That's enough cheese to fill this 5-6 person ThermoSpa Park Ave Hot Tub!

[SOURCE: KSAT]

Ding! Your nachos are done

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Inventors are cool. But inventors that invent nacho related inventions are cooler. An email recently hit our inbox with a list of various nacho patents. One particular patent, however, rose to the top as the most practical. Inventor, Kim Y. Edomwonyi, created packaging that enables microwavable nachos to be sold that will evenly distribute cheese sauce and prevent soggy chips. Genious! All we need now is to wait for someone to actually start manufacturing and using this breakthrough in nacho packaging.

Click here to read more about this patent.

Not Your Nacho Record Holder

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If you recently searched for Sgt. Cam Woolley in Wikipedia, you may have been excited to learn that he presently holds the British Commonwealth title for most nachos eaten by a law enforcement officer. As a nacho lover, this would be an achievement worth praise. Unfortunately, Sgt. Woolley's Wiki was the target of vandalism. In fact, when asked about this non-fact, Woolley replied, “I don’t even like nachos.”

Could've fooled me. No offense, but one look at Woolley would lead one to believe otherwise. Regardless of whether or not the good Sergeant (if he really IS a sergeant) is being truthful about his snacking habits, one must wonder: If he doesn't hold that record, who does?

[SOURCE: cnews]

Wild Nacho Tamed

Shopping at my local supermarket, I came across a Doritos flavor I'd never seen before -- Wild White Nacho. Already having an opinion on pre-packaged "nacho cheese flavored" chips, the correct choice would've been to walk away. Instead, I was compelled to try this wild new flavor and report my findings to the NCLC (Nacho Cheese Loving Community).

For starters, I think I liked these chips better when they were called "ranch." And as for being "wild," they were anything but. I was expecting a chip that would tickle my tastebuds with some zest, or have a little spicy kick and bite back. But alas, I was left with a relatively boring chip that didn't have any sort of lasting impression.

To read more about this chip, click here.

Know Thy Enemy

Everyone loves nacho cheese, right? Wrong! We live in a crazy mixed up world where there are actually people out there trying to spread propaganda against the beauty that is nacho cheese. We have found one such individual and feel an obligation to the nacho cheese community to identify the enemy.

In an article entitled, "Behold the Evils of Cheese" posted on Visionary Darkness, a cheese-hater going by the alias Killing Joke entertains the notion that cheese is an evil force that's taking over America. Don't let this writer's name full you. He is anything but joking. Make no mistake, Killing Joke is on a mission to rid the world of this wonderfully delicious gooey elixir.

Click here to read an excerpt from the article.

Eat Nachos, Lose Weight

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Considering the diet industry is big business and pulls in billions of dollars each year, it's not surprising that there are so many out there. From Atkins, to The Zone, to South Beach, choosing the right diet and sticking with it is something many people struggle with each day. Needless to say, being a nacho lover doesn't really help the cause.

Or does it?

The Watley Review posted a parody article about a research study that proposed the effectiveness of the Tourette's diet, also known as the "nacho diet." (Is it just me, or does anyone else have a strong urge to cuss right now?) The study, funded by Frito-Lay's, was conducted over a two-year period and is the first to document a positive affect on the American physique by a snack food.

Participants consumed one serving of nachos in place of breakfast and lunch, had a normal dinner, and were allowed snacks consisting of fruit. Participants lost up to 8 pounds in two weeks! And while The Watley Review may be a parody site, and this "diet" may not be a good idea to actually undertake, we believe in a perfect world, the "nacho diet" would be A-Okay!

Children are our Future

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Students at Oak Trace Elementary School in Westfield, IN recently participated in Kidstown, a hands-on program that teaches kids about business and money by having them create and run businesses. What set Oak Trace apart from the rest or the participating schools was what these students decided to base their business on -- nachos.

“We voted on it, and nachos are something everybody wants,” said group member Zander Tidwell.

Zander, we couldn't have said it any better ourselves.

[SOURCE: Noblesville Daily Times]

Nacho Sighting at GDC2007

GDC2007 has come and gone. Overall, it was a decent show...albeit, one without nachos conveniently available in the convention center. However, in response to this post, Michael Fahey over at the gaming mega-blog Kotaku generously wrote us with this report.

According to Fahey, Telltale Games held a small party to promote their upcoming Sam and Max game. The shindig was held at a little speakeasy in a Union Square alleyway and was home to many drunk members of the press as well as Steve Purcell, the creator of Sam and Max.

But the big news of the night was that they were serving up nachos. Fahey described them as being "slightly thicker than your normal variety, with some of them bordering on the chewy side for some odd reason." He added that, "while the other finger foods were down at the other end of the darkened bar, the nachos sat alone upon a pedestal, piled high...piled proudly." He admitted to spending a fair amount of time standing next to the pedestal, scooping up copious amounts of goodness onto the slightly sweet chips before eventually breaking down, grabbing a plate, and shoveling a large chunk out of the diminishing pile and carrying them over to a table where his Kotaku cohorts and friends waited.

We salute you, Michael Fahey, for keepin' it real and being a proud nacho cheese lover!

Nacho Report: GDC 2007

I've spent the last three days in San Francisco, CA attending the Game Developers Conference. In fact, I'm at the conference right now typing up this post. Not only is this a celebration of the game industry and a place to reconnect and network, it's also a place to bond with fellow nacho cheese lovers. However, to my dismay, I couldn't find a single food vendor in Moscone Center selling nachos! Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked (and I checked earlier today) being a gamer goes hand-in-hand with being a nacho cheese lover.

I walked the show floor and asked a number of attendies their opinion on the matter. "Do you like nachos?" and "Did you know that there aren't nachos available here?" The response was overwhelming, but not surprising. 100% of the people polled loved nachos, and 100% of the people polled were shocked that nachos weren't available. Fortunately...one angel in disguise by the name of Shannon lead me in the right direction. She said that one block away, Luna Azul in the Sony Metreon served nachos.

I know where I'm going for lunch today!

Dogs Love Nachos Too

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You know those times when you are in the kitchen making nachos, and your dog is staring back at you with this "can I hump your leg" "feed me some of those cheesy morsels" look on his face?

Well now you can!

Nachews are made from all natural rawhide ingredients and are good for your dog's gums and teeth.  They taste great too!

Magic Bullet for Nanosecond Nachos

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Can't sleep? Find yourself watching television at 1 o'clock in the morning? Then you've probably seen the commercial for Magic Bullet. This product claims that it's the "personal, versatile, countertop magician that does any job in 10 seconds...or less.®" Strong claim. But can this "magician" make nachos? As a matter of fact, it can! The Magic Bullet comes with a plethora of attachments and also includes the "10 Second Recipe Book." One recipe is called Nanosecond Nachos.

Obviously this recipe is only good if you actually own the Magic Bullet. But if you were thinking about picking one up and was on the fence, perhaps knowing that there's a quick-and-easy 10 second recipe included with purchase will tip the scale.

If you're interested in checking out the recipe, click here.

Breakfast Nachos

We all know that nachos make a great snack, lunch, and even dinner.  But what about breakfast?  Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day.  If this meal is so important, then why can't we eat one of our most favorite foods?  Personally, I'm tired of cereal and fruit.  I want nachos!

Behold the breakfast nacho!

Mr. Breakfast, of mrbreakfast.com, has a recipe which will let us nacho cheese lovers each nachos for three meals a day.  Now I'm not saying that we should be eating nachos three times a day, but I'm sure we all really really like the idea.

Two MIT Students, Cheese, and a Dream

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A reader recently sent in this picture and suggested we write a story about it. Not content with simply commenting on a photo, we were compelled to venture to the source. We wanted to find the person responsible for such a glorious handcrafted piece of cheesy machinery. Our search lead us to Chris Vogt and Schuyler Senft-Grupp - two Electrical Engineering and Environmental Engineering alums from MIT. Chris gives Schuyler credit for coming up with the idea after watching the movie Talladega Nights and recounts that, after it was suggested, they were both "on a mission from the Nacho Gods" to create "the beast."

The next four hours were spent at Home Depot looking for supplies. 4 gallons of water, 6 feet of copper tube, 1 plumbers torch, 4 hose clamps, 4 plastic bowls, 1 aluminum water heater drip pan, 1 emergency drill pump, 1 power drill, various PVC bits, some string, 2 heating plates, a wooden spoon, several bags of chips, and 6 gallons of cheese later, they were ready to begin. If you think this is beginning to sound like a MasterCard commercial, you're absolutely right. Because after 6 hours over 3 days, what these two visionaries created was "priceless."

Carnivores Also Eat Nachos

This weekend I made a trip to Valley Fair, the local mall.  For those of you who are not familiar with this mall, Valley Fair has always had a decent food court.  Their offerings include a wide variety of foods from around the world.

Being a steak-and-potatoes kind of guy, I decided to order from the Steak Escape.  This turned out to be my best decision of the day.

After ordering my food, I walked down to the pickup area where I was greeted by a nacho machine!  I snapped a photo for us to drool on.

Since it's almost guaranteed that Steak Escape does market research to find out what types of food their customers are interested in, we can conclude one thing: steak eaters love nacho cheese.  Now that we know they offer the cheesy nectar, our next task is to find out if Steak Escape will add nacho cheese to any item on the menu.

The Valley Fair food court just gained a bunch points in our book, since it is now a place that can fulfill our nacho cheese fix.

Nachos Bring Families Together

I'm sure we can all agree that nachos, on a personal level, can turn a bad day into a good one. But do nachos have the power to reach more than just the individual? Can nachos bring people together? Richard Tait believes just that. In an article he's written for ModernMom titled "Minutes to Memories: The Science of Nachos", Richard shares his experience and explains how nachos have "transform an often stress-filled moment -- making dinner -- into a family sport."

First of all. Dude, Richard, seriously... I appreciate the article and everything, but ModernMom? In your defense, I guess the ModernDad Web site pales in comparison.

Aaanywho! Richard confesses that "eight years ago, if you told [him] happiness could be found in a messy mound of nachos, [he] would have smiled politely and looked for the nearest exit. Bliss in a pile of tortilla chips, melted cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and onions? Unlikely." But now, every Sunday night, Nacho Night, he and his family make nachos, laugh, talk, and connect.

Conclusion: Let's send some nachos to Iraq.

Spicy Asian Defeats Gooey Nacho

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers recently held a contest to give kids the opportunity to create their own unique gourmet burgers. More than 16,000 kids, 10 and under, from across the country submitted a burger creation and a 100-word statement describing why their burger deserved to be America’s next gourmet burger.

The nacho loving community was pulling for Caressa Morris from Portland, OR, to rise as champion. Caressa's Ooey Gooey Nacho Burger was a favorite and a finalist among three others. However, when the dust settled, Adrianna Montgomery’s Spicy Asian Burger beat out the rest and was the grand prize winner of “The Next Gourmet Burger Kids Contest.”