Old el Paso

Five things you never knew about nachos!

1. Did you know that nachos were created by accident and are a relatively recent creation? Invented in 1943 by a hotel restaurant owner by the name of Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, it originally comprised of fried tortillas, cheddar cheese and jalapenos – the only ingredients he had on hand to feed the wives of US soldiers near the Mexican border when his hotel restaurant was about to close for the day.

2. Get out your diaries amigos, because October 21st is the International Day of the Nacho! The International Nacho Festival is held between October 13th and 15th in Ignacio Anaya’s hometown of Piedras Negra, to honour Anaya’s contribution to Tex-Mex cuisine after his death in 1975. Seems like a passion for nachos runs in the family - his son, Ignacio Anaya Jr. serves as the judge of the nachos competition in this event.
  
Old el Paso

3. The largest serving of nachos was achieved by Centerplate catering at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in Kansas, USA on the 21st of April, 2012. This gigantic creation weighed an astounding 14,689 pounds – that’s around 2,165 kilos for us Aussies! The nacho cheese alone weighed 997 kilos. You could potentially bathe in those nachos…

Old el Paso

4. Nachos are in fact, not called nachos in Mexico. The Mexican version is called totopos instead, and is more similar to tortillas. These typically come in flat, round or triangular forms, and are served toasted, fried or baked.

Old el Paso

5. Nachos are not wholly a Mexican food either! They’re actually a Tex-Mex dish due their conception so close to the US-Mexican border. Nachos spread like wildfire through Texas and the Southwest of the US, thus the Tex-Mex label.

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