First things first, rest in peace and muchas gracias to Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya Garcia. As you can tell by his nickname (which is common in Spanish-speaking countries), he is the godfather of the nachos we know and love today. Garcia was the maître d’ of the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Wives of soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan, six miles across the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, would frequent the club to dine. On one fateful day, thought to be between 1940 and 1943, Garcia was trying to appease the ladies’ hankering for a snack and forever changed the history of food.
I often think about Garcia and how lame a baseball game or Super Bowl party be would be had he not cut and fried those corn tortillas and covered them with grated cheddar cheese and sliced jalapenos.
Secondly, rest in peace and thank you to Jim Parker. Michael Russell of The Oregonian described him as “a friendly, bearded fixture of Oregon’s craft beer scene.” Before he succumbed to stroke, it was at Oaks Bottom Public House in Portland where Parker created totchos (nachos made with tater tots instead of tortilla chips). Initially shunned as “stoner food,” it quickly became a wildly popular bestseller. Eleven years later I found myself 3,000 miles away at the Recovery Room Tavern in Charleston, South Carolina, devouring totchos, whilst helping the infamous dive bar become the worldwide leader of Pabst Blue Ribbon consumption.
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I know I’m going to come off as the biggest gringo ever, but I actually prefer totchos over traditional nachos. What the tots lack in surface area, they make up for with that crispy outside/fluffy inside combination.