6 November: National Nachos Day

Today is National Nachos Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about this popular snack.

1. Nachos date back to 1943 when Ignacio Anaya, the maître d' of a restaurant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, was forced to think on his feet. The restaurant was about to close and the chef had already gone home when a group of customers arrived hoping for something to eat. They were the wives of officers stationed at Fort Duncan in Texas, who'd crossed over the border for a shopping trip. Anaya didn't want to disappoint them, so he went into the kitchen to see what he could rustle up. He found tortilla chips, Cheese and sliced jalapeños.
2. The women loved it and asked what the dish was called. Anaya told them, “Nacho Especiales”, Nacho being his nickname - short for Ignacio.
3. His recipe first appeared in print in 1949 in a book called A Taste of Texas. He is credited for it in the book.
4. Nacho himself didn't bother to patent the dish. His son tried in 1960, but his lawyers told him too much time had passed, so the recipe remains in the public domain.
5. While the original Nacho dish was invented in Mexico, not all the components are Mexican in origin. Tortilla chips were invented in America when someone at a tortilla factory in America came up with the bright idea of frying up rejected, misshapen tortillas and selling them as chips. The liquid cheese they often come with at stadiums and similar venues is also an American invention. The recipe for cheese goo is a closely guarded secret.
6. The original recipe is fairly rigid – tortilla chips, melted cheese and jalapeños. Nachos with other things added, like beef, barbecue sauce and sour cream, are considered spin-offs.
7. You can get nacho Lasagne, Chocolate nachos, and even nacho-flavoured Beer.
8. In Mexico nachos are called ‘totopos’.
9. As well as National Nachos Day on November 6, Piedras Negras holds an International Nacho Festival between October 13 and 15 which includes a World's biggest Nacho contest. They also observe the Day of the Nacho on October 21.
10. The  Guinness World Record for the biggest Nacho, however, isn't held by Piedras Negras, but by the University of Kansas. The University produced a plate of Nachos that was 80-foot long, 2-foot wide, 10-inch deep and weighed 4,689 pounds, of which 2,200 were nacho cheese.

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