Though true queso lovers don't need a national holiday to celebrate the glorious cheese-chip pairing, we're pleased to announce once again that today is National Nachos Day.
The festive gooey treat was first served 66 years ago by ingenious maitre d' Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya in a Piedras Negras, Mexico, restaurant, located across the Rio Grande from Texas. According to legend, some Americans happened to stumble upon the eatery just as the chef had stepped out, so Nacho cleverly satiated them by piling a platter of tortilla chips high with cheese and topping them with a zesty jalapeno garnish.
And the carb-heavy dish has been improving ever since, with the additions of everything from Rotel to radishes, cilantro to crema, guacamole to Velveeta, pinto beans to pulled pork.
What are your favorite nacho variations? Spill the beans, after the jump!
Now that we've learned how to peel ginger with ease, this ginger juice recipe seems less daunting, especially with its powerful health benefits. Prized for its piquant flavor, ginger is a medicinal treat in addition to being a tasty one -- to list just a few of its talents, it treats stomachaches and indigestion, reduces toxicity and aids mild lung disorders.
Kickstart your day -- and immune system -- with a shot of the stuff by passing diced and peeled pieces of the root through a juicer. If deemed too spicy for more sensitive palates, mix the juice with water, other juices or sweeteners like lemon, sugar or agave.
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Slashfood's sister site Urlesque found this wonderful Internet Meme Cake and others including O Rly? Owl, Snakes on a Plane and even a Rick Roll treat.
Modern Ponce de Leons, take note. The diet of the Sardinian people is the latest to be linked to a longer life.
The island of Sardinia lies 120 miles west of the Italian mainland. It is the second largest island in the western Mediterranean with Sicily only being larger.
The Sardinian diet emphasizes bread, cheese and red wine. Sardinian Cannonau, a very darkly-colored red wine, has the highest level of antioxidants of any known red wine in the world.
"This is so dark that the Italians call it vino nero, which means 'black wine,'" Buettner told "Good Morning America".
No surprise here, Sardinians also eat lots of fruits and vegetables and meat is a once-a-week celebration. Contrary to other Meditteranean diets, not a lot of fish is eaten.
Instead, cheese is used as protein source -- specifically, grass-fed cheeses.
Buettner also reveals one common denominator of healthiest people alive are the consumption of nuts. Buettner recommends the 2-by-4-by-2 rule -- people who eat 2 ounces of nuts four times a week live an average of two years longer.
Despite smoking bans at restaurants in cities across the country, the restaurant matchbook is experiencing a "fragile renaissance" of sorts, the New York Times reports.
"When a state or municipality imposes a ban, we see a hesitation in reordering and a fall-off in new business," Mark Nackman, the owner and president of AdMatch, an importer based in New York City told the Times. "Then the volumes start to creep back up, so that within a year or so we see some resurgence in statewide sales. Matches have universal appeal, and that's the mystery -- that one little package could resonate with familiarity, maybe beauty and a feeling of value."
It helps that they're highly collectible. Do you have a matchbook collection or have a favorite matchbook from your dining travels? Spill it in the comments.
The approach of chilly weather may leave many craving warm libations, but this Vodka Rosemary Lemonade Fizz is truly a drink for all seasons. The bloggers of the Bitten Word tackled this Gourmet recipe, which eschews the usual infusion to instead create a simple syrup with sugar, rosemary and lemon juice subbing for water. The syrup can keep for weeks in the fridge and need only be topped with vodka and a dash of club soda to be served.
Rosemary adds a nice mouthfeel and complexity to the crisp, refreshing drink, but almost any herb will serve well in simple syrup, from lavender to Thai basil. Spill your simple syrup recipes or ideas in the comments.
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Taco Zone customers never sleep. Photo: Alexa Weibel.
While most mobile food trucks have dealt with the animosity of less than enthusiastic local eateries, few are subjected to veritable street-meat turf wars. Yet the revered Los Angeles street vendor, Taco Zone, was set fire to one Friday night this past June, reported the Los Angeles Times. The subject of much debate, the fire's origin was never ascertained -- but motives are surmised to include hate crime, envious competitors, vandals or gang activity.
Regardless, in a city brimming with taco trucks on nearly every corner, Taco Zone reigns supreme in Los Angeles. The no-frills Echo Park truck -- outfitted in a plain metal exterior and typically parked just outside a Von's parking lot -- may be as visually unremarkable as the rest of the fleet of local food trucks, but has garnered a cult following for its zesty authentic Mexican tacos.
More on Taco Zone -- and a photo of their fare -- after the jump.
In ancient times, food was marketed primarily by "hunger." But in the modern era, it's not enough that we eat our food, we must also emotionally bond with it. This partly explains the enduring appeal of food mascots, those bright, colorful, affable characters who beckon us to consume.
In many cases, we choose a product simply because we have a bizarre attachment to the cartoon that represents it. There is no shame in trusting, say, a paranoid Leprechaun with a powerful marshmallow lust more than one's own family. These 10 icons are the awesomest in the pantheon of cheap food branding.
As street cart fare becomes increasingly sophisticated, heralded Los Angeles street cart Kogi BBQ is being commended across the nation for its brilliant adaptation of local cuisine and its reinvention of advertising concepts. Serving succulent Korean BBQ wrapped in freshly made tacos, the truck's empire has successfully spawned a proper fleet of three carts, spanning the vast Los Angeles vicinity in just one year.
The idea dawned upon founder Mark Manguera, 30, in the midst of a boozy, late-night taco snack: Why not transform the Mexican staple by filling it with a distinctly Korean stuffing? It made sense, Kogi creative director Alice Chin told Slashfood: "For some reason, Korean and Mexican chiles play well together with sesame oil, lime and cilantro." So Manguera partnered with RockSugar chef Roy Choi, procured a truck and took to Twitter – and the streets, in November 2008.
Armed with three trucks, sans fancy PR company or organized advertising, Chin humbly notes, "We are but your local L.A. taco truck... times three!" But it works: The trucks thrive strictly on their masterful Internet usage and -- most importantly -- word of mouth. With a Web site promoting the specials and Twitter updates indicating the weekly locations, the Kogi trucks inevitably attract more people than they can even serve, and specials are usually sold out well before the end of each shift, which serves anywhere from 300 to 800 people in a matter of hours.
More on Kogi -- and a photo of their fare -- after the jump.
On Saturday, the Guinness Book of World Records certified a 1,316-pound sweet made by Passion for Sweet in Boca Raton, Fla. The giant cupcake was sponsored by Big Top Cupcakes -- a company that makes giant cupcake molds for home baking -- as part of the Think Pink Rocks breast cancer fundraiser.
Of course, this cupcake knocked off a previous title holder. Check out that photo after the jump.
So how about a nice, steaming hot cup of coffee ... for $10, or more?
Not unlike its more respected buddy made from fermented grapes, exceptional, rare and just plain wacky coffees have begun to fetch higher prices all over the world. Panama's now-famous farm Hacienda la Esmeralda, for instance, has been commanding record prices for its green beans, setting world records for auction sales in 2004 ($21/pound), 2006 ($50.25/pound) and 2007 (a whopping $130/pound).
But is it a matter of simply being impressed by the price tag, or is there something to these top-shelf beans? Read on to find out.
Of course, I'm not talking about the four-leaf kind, though that type's pretty rare, too. No, I mean the Clover coffee maker, a high-tech gadget that dropped jaws all over bean circles a few years ago, with its deeply sophisticated, digital one-cup-at-a-time brewing (not to mention the $11K price tag).
At first, the machines were the pride of the serious coffee lover, with independent cafés snapping them up as a way of showcasing artisanal coffees one by one, instead of losing them to the murky depths of an insulated thermos. But when Starbucks bought the Clover technology last year, the funky-looking little metal boxes were suddenly less and less available to your average café owner, becoming proprietary to the green mermaid.
So why is this lucky? Because it started a revolution. Or, more accurately, a renaissance. Read more about getting lucky with cup-at-a-time coffee after the jump.
Peek inside a vending machine. Photo: salimfadhley, Flickr.
What do AOL's vending machines look like? "White Castle burgers, five different varieties of Hot Pockets, Klondike bars and Oreo ice cream bars next to a sign offering a discount for Weight Watchers. I think it's safe to say that our vending machine area is being used as a Skinner box," reports Kristyn, a fellow AOL employee.
One employee's behavioral experiment is another's paradise. "I'm really, really jealous," says Jon over at MTV Networks, after being informed of AOL's snack excesses. Featuring far more pedestrian fare like Rice Krispies Treats, Nacho Cheese Doritos and Reese's Pieces, MTV's vending options won't turn any heads. Jon laments that the only real stand-out is the 25-cent can of Coke. "I guess that proves that international conglomerates are in cahoots!" he says. Or it's just a ploy to keep people awake and alert for optimum productivity.
Other big companies aren't faring much better. Jen gave us the scoop on IBM's snack selection, which was similarly standard, with plenty of chips, candy bars and the like. Still, they do try to push some healthier options. "There's a green leaf next to anything that is considered a 'balanced choice,' " says Jen. "It shows IBM's effort in trying to bring about some healthy options to a typically unhealthy way to get food." Don't expect to see any quarter Cokes, though. "The prices are really high, almost $2 for a small bag of chips," she notes. "Price alone would be the reason I wouldn't purchase from the vending machines." Maybe this is IBM's way of discouraging vending machine snacks in favor of fresh fruit or brown-bagged options?
So much for putting a wiener on a stick and calling it dinner.
Campground cooking, once the province of anyone who could wrap a potato in tin foil, is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Vicki Loughner, who's coordinating the 2009 South Carolina Campground Cookoff, reports it's not uncommon for campers today to get cracking on a recipe for spinach sausage quiche.
"They are very serious about the cooking they do," Loughner, project manager for the Old 96 District Tourism Commission, says of the teams registered for this weekend's competition. "When you look at their food, you'd never know it was cooked over a campfire."
In pursuit of the $500 prize, some entrants this year have purchased their own Big Green Egg, the fetishized grill with the startling price tag. But Loughner says it's not just the promise of riches that's inspiring outdoorsy gourmands to up their dinner game. According to Loughner, more and more South Carolina campers are applying their "Top Chef" sensibilities to campground menu planning.
If eggs Benedict is what you're after this Sunday morning, you may have to look no further than the nearest Ruby Tuesday.
Based in Maryville, Tenn., the restaurant chain is expanding testing of its brunch menu on Aug. 30 to hundreds of locations across the country in the wake of a successful run in some 50 Ruby Tuesday restaurants this summer, Nation's Restaurant News reports.
Locations offering brunch will open two hours early, at 9 a.m., and offer brunch until noon. The regular menu will be available starting at 11 a.m.
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