Veterans Day Thinking About Veterans, The Buffet At The Kickapoo Indian's Double Eagle Casino & Nachos At Black Rock Mexico

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at an outer world chilled to 41 degrees I'm feeling like time is quickly slipping away because a third of the next to last month of 2011 has already passed into history.

Speaking of history, today is Veterans Day.

I probably should go walking at Veterans Park in Arlington today, but I likely won't.

Changing the subject from Veterans to something else.

Last weekend I virtually went south to the Texas/Mexico border to the town of Eagle Pass where I virtually had a really good $4.99 buffet at the Kickapoo Indian's Lucky Eagle Casino. The town of Eagle Pass is situated on a river called the Rio Grande. On the Mexican side of the river is a larger than Eagle Pass town called Piedras Negras.

I believe in English Piedras Negras translates as Black Rock.

Black Rock, Mexico is where the gourmet dish that goes by the name "Nacho" was invented. If I remember right, I blogged about this recently.

Changing the subject from Nachos to swimming.

Yesterday morning it was 41 degrees when I went swimming. The high for that 24 hour time period had been barely 60. I had a very pleasant time in the pool yesterday, followed by a very pleasant hot shower. This morning it is also 41 degrees, but the high in this particular 24 hour time period was higher than yesterday's 24 hour time period. Which means, I think, that the pool will be warmer than yesterday.

I will test this theory in a couple minutes.

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.