Celebrating The Birth Of The Nacho At The International Nacho Festival In Piedras Negras Mexico

I did not know there was an International Nacho Festival til this past August when I got invited to the International Nacho Festival.

My Eyes on Texas website causes me to fairly regularly get invited to various events that I fairly regularly do not get around to attending.

Like the International Nacho Festival.

I probably would have needed to renew my passport to go to the International Nacho Festival because it takes place in another country.

Mexico.

I am guessing that you, like me, did not know the nacho was born in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras. Piedras Negras is across the Rio Grande from the Texas town of Eagle Pass. Eagle Pass is known for Fort Duncan, among other things, like the Kickapoo Indian's Lucky Eagle Casino, one of the few casinos in Texas on one of the few Indian Reservations in Texas.

The nacho was born in Piedras Negras way back in the lat 1940s. Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya was the maitre d' of the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, just across the border from Eagle Pass.

Americans have had fun crossing the border to Piedras Negras going way back to the days after the Mexican War, during which Camp Eagle Pass was founded. By the 1940s an air force base was based near Eagle Pass.

One day Nacho found himself alone in the restaurant, with no chefs in the house, when 12 American military officer's wives arrived. Nacho frantically searched the kitchen for something he could prepare. He grabbed some homemade tostados, grated the only cheese he could find, which happened to be Wisconsin Sharp Cheddar, on top of the tostados, then shoved the platter under a broiler, then added some jalapeno slices when he pulled the platter out of the broiler.

Nacho's guests were delighted and asked for the name of the strange dish they'd never seen before. Nacho could not think of a name, so one of the officer's wives, Mimam Finan named the dish "Nacho's Especiales."

The name stuck. The Nachos part.

A few years later Nacho went to work at the Moderno restaurant in Piedras Negras, taking his Nacho recipe with him. The Moderno is still in business and has won the "Best Nacho" title several times at the International Nacho Festival.

Eventually Nacho opened his own restaurant and in 1975 tried to patent the name. But, by then, it was too late. Nacho was in the public domain.

The International Nacho Festival takes place every year on the second weekend of October.