#126 - nacho party.

...so it's been some fifteen months since i first launched eat!drink!snack!, my first serious venture into the big, bad, highly trendy world of food blogging. during that time, i've also become a huge google reader junkie. it began harmlessly enough with a few news blogs & those of a few friends, but after a while, i added a bunch of random blogs & eventually, i became enthralled with the number of food blogs out there. when i first started eat!drink!snack!, i hadn't even considered that there were a ton of folks out there who were just as obsessed with food as i am. there were the newspaper & magazine based food blogs (the village voice's "fork in the road." ny magazine's "grub street," the l.a. times' "daily dish"). there were a handful of blogs from random peeps like myself (taquitos.net, the ethicurean, not eating out in ny), each featuring a uniquely different take on why food is totally friggin awesome.

nachos ny quickly became one of my favorites among the food blogs. it's based out of brooklyn & stands as a testimony to their undying love of nachos. in the main columns, they take you to different spots in nyc as part of a quest for the perfect nachos. they do it so you don't have to. i mean, who has time to eat that many nachos? they do! that's who. that's not all they do though. they take nachos & apply it to all aspects of life. there's the chos & shows series, where they grab some chos & see a show. they ran a contest back in may where they gave away a sweet handmade nacho ring. there are occasionally inspiring nacho quotes. they even have nacho t-shirts. why do i tell you all this? because it's a site that embraces the (somewhat attempted) eat!drink!snack! philosophy: "food is part of everything." that's right. i have a philosophy. i'm like marx or something.

back in june, they made a guest appearance here on eat!drink!snack! as part of my "snack away" column, with a column about brooklyn summer rooftop fun with nachos. i promised to return the favor at some point with a guest piece for them & even came up with what i consider the most hilarious idea ever, but as of right now, due to a combination of my slacking & my desire for perfection, that piece is still in a holding pattern over the nachos ny airport. i'm hoping i can land the plane before the guvment passes this health care bill i keep hearing about. in fact, i promise i will. i know, you're all "you lie!" but you're just wrong & should probably apologize to me. the race is on!

get this though: the nachos ny people aren't just pasty-skinned schlubs hiding behind their computer monitors punching away at their keyboards. they actually get out & have nacho parties, events where lovers of nachos congregate & drink beers & eat nachos & probably make out or something. i say "probably" because i've missed the last two nacho parties, once because i was in chicago & once because i was lame. next wednesday's where i redeem myself though, as they're holding their el grito de delores fiesta party at bell house, a few blocks away from my apartment. there's the requisite beer & food, but if you hate those things, you can't hate the other thing--a grito contest. what, you're so uncultured that you don't know what a grito is? well, johnny/sally backwoods, a grito is a mexican mating call...& it's friggin crazy! i tell you what. ladies, if you see me there & say the code word ("swine flu"), i promise to make out with you. don't say "swine flu" to me if you don't mean it! see you wednesday!

#126 - nacho party.
snack: eat!drink!snack! experimental nachos
drink: modelo especial



recently, i haven't exactly been doing my part to further the nacho cause here at eat!drink!snack! in fact, the only nacho-related post in the history of the site is that guest blog from nachos ny. it's not like i dislike nachos or something. it's actually quite the opposite. it's just that making them takes a lot of effort if you don't want them to suck & most of the time, i hate effort. last night though, i had a change of heart & decided to whip up a plate of eat!drink!snack! experimental nachos. i didn't want to make any run of the mill nachos though. i wanted something weird but tasty. that's just how i roll.

let me break down the experimental nachos for you...instead of using your basic corn chips, i went with a bag of those fritoesque wise bar-b-que flavored corn chips. for my toppings, i started by taking some chicken & baking it in some bbq sauce for a spell. i heated up some black beans & corn, chopped up a mix of red onions, tomatoes & jalapeno & sprinkled what i later learned was an insufficient amount of jalapeno monterey jack cheese on top. oops. total price of ingredients = $7.67. BAM! overall, except for the fact that the corn chips got a bit soggy in areas, i think the experiment was a success. in the interest of full disclosure, i must admit that after finishing about a quarter of them, i switched to using a fork. i'm pretty sure that's some form of nacho blasphemy, but it just helped get them in my mouth that much faster, so i hope the nacho gods will forgive me.

since i was filling up on nachos, i obviously had to pair it with a mexican beer, so i went with the modelo especial. you can get one of these 24 oz cervezas at the third string corner store near my apartment for a buck seventy-five. that's just over eight cents an ounce, which is a total bargain. the modelo especial firmly says "poo poo" to those snooty american microbreweries, with their "exceptional flavors" & fifty cents per ounce prices & whatnot. they don't need to use terms like "mouthfeel" & "fine lacing" to describe their beer. poo poo indeed.

...so the modelo especial comes from grupo modelo, the same enormously large mexican company (63% of the total mexican market share) that makes negra modelo, which i actually sort of enjoy, especially as far as mexican beers go. as for the especial, i think they may have misnamed it, because it's nothing special by a long shot. let me provide you with the names of a few comparable beers. bud light. coors light. miller lite. it's better than the beast or natty light. i'll at least give it that, but only that. it's no corona though. it's more like water than that. i guess it's more designed to get you drunk to the point where you bellow mexican mating calls at the top of your lungs. maybe i should think about drinking a few before heading to wednesday's nacho party. it'd probably help my make out skills too. remember, ladies..."swine flu!"