Tag Archives: Specialty nachos

Spoon in Lenox, MA: ‘Chos After Doze

19 Jul

Second only to (duh) nachos, breakfast/brunch is one of our most favorite food groups (as you may have guessed, we aren’t exactly strict adherents to the US FDA nutrition guidelines…).  We have long aspired to combine these two great loves into one mythical dish, the breakfast nachos (also possibly known as breakchos, brachos, nachfast, and/or fastchos). The Friendly Toast has something resembling breakfast nachos on their menu, which we have been eyeing for some time, but are always tempted away by other items on their delicious menu.

On vacation in Lenox, MA (Official Motto: Are you a rich middle aged woman? Then you’ll love it here!), we had practically given up hope on finding nachos amongst the bevy of overpriced Italian restaurants and wine bars.  Then serendipity struck at Spoon, a cute little breakfast/lunch/ice cream cafe in the heart of town.  Our bleary eyes widened in surprise and delight at the description of Chilaquiles on their menu: “Basically, nachos with eggs. Salsa verde, queso fresco, crema, jalapeno.” Nachos AND breakfast? Sign us up!

Aren’t those egg yolks just begging to be popped??

  • Appearance: (7) We found these to be much less colorful than the description. But it turned out that the salsa verde and crema had been combine into one.  +1 for excellent use of garnish.
  • Quality of Ingredients: (10) The chips were thick and hearty, almost like pita chips, and definitely homemade.  The crema/salsa verde combination was at once spicy, tangy, smooth and creamy– and the queso fresco added a nice salty kick.  The poached eggs were a little on the runny side (perhaps their only fault, and it can be a personal preference).  We loved the clearly house-made pickled jalapenos and carrots on the side– definitely a nacho patrol first!
  • Distribution of Toppings: (8) We could have used a little more of the chili/crema concoction, as it was sad to get a chip without.  Other than that, the distribution is up to the user: how early do you break the eggs?  A warning, once you do break the yolks you need to eat fast– runny egg soaks into a chip far faster than most nacho ingredients.
  • Price: (9) At $9, these were a hearty and original breakfast dish, something that is often hard to come by, especially in tourist traps such as this!
  • Overall: 34/40.  Other breakfast nachos, if you’re out there, take notice and get your game face on.  These were simple, fresh, authentic tasting, memorable nachos that we would re-eat in a heartbeat.  We wonder, will they ever be topped?

Redbones: Hidden Gem

17 May

Redbones, we are forever in your debt. When, after seven hours of plodding, we finished our first annual Walk (Amble) for Hunger, crawled back to Nacho Patrol World Headquarters and found ourselves in dire need of some hearty BBQ, you delivered…for free, and on a bike. The ample array of meat you provided that night gave us the strength to carry on (to the shower and then to bed). We’ve been craving you ever since.  We’ve known for a long time that you had nachos, but the description wasn’t hurrying us out of the house: two kinds of cheese, guac, salsa, jalapenos and sour cream. The bartender Mike (or Eric, we’re not sure) must have agreed with us because he clued us in to the off-menu nachoption with all the above toppings and a heaping pile of pulled pork. From now on, we will always ask, “who can we talk to about nachos?” before we order.

  • Appearance: (8) You wouldn’t see these on Top Chef Masters, but these nachos demanded our gastronomic attention. Don’t you just want to dive in and cover yourself in all that perfectly smoked pulled pork? The burnt chips and sour cream waterfall pulled down the rating a few points, but the guac, tomato, and moist mountain of meat all but makes up for any shortcomings.
  • Quality of Ingredients: (9) We recorded our thoughts mid-nacho patrol, but we couldn’t hear anything over the sound of reckless crunching. The chips were thick–almost pita chip-like–and we could easily ignore the burntness (though they were a little under-salted). The tomatoes were fresh, and we enjoyed the guac, though we doubt it was homemade. As you could probably predict, the meat was the real stand-out of these chos. Oh-so-moist, oh-so-succulent, oh-so-flavorful! We were torn over whether or not we wanted a sauce…Oh, the selection of sauces! In our experience, BBQ sauce doesn’t go well with the overall palate of ‘chos, and it would probably be a shame to cover up the perfectly seasoned pork.
  • Distribution of Toppings: (7) New restaurant, same distribution problems. Naked chips, sparse cheese, and a sour cream avalanche that smothers everything toward the bottom of the plate. Dare we say it, but there were perhaps too many toppings and not enough chips!
  • Price: (7.5) The one flaw of off-menu-Groupon-nachos is that you have no idea what they cost. After some shaky math, we estimate they were about $13, which is a lot by Nacho Patrol standards, but cheap in the grand scheme of BBQ.
  • Overall: 31.5/40.

You should never order off the “American”menu at a Chinese restaurant, and you should never order anything but BBQ at Redbones.  So, while we wholeheartedly endorse these nachos, we implore you, don’t even bother unless you get them with the off-menu pulled pork.   It’s shocking and disappointing that Redbones doesn’t even list pork nachos as an option.  So for now, we are classifying these as “specialty nachos”, separate from the Best of Boston list.  Redbones, if you want to be a contender, put these on the menu!

Thanksgiving Leftover Nachos: A Nacho Patrol Original

26 Nov

Thanksgiving is over and, like many Americans, you might be starting to wonder what you are going to do with all those leftovers. We, unlike most Americans, bypassed the turkey noodle soup and went directly to nachos.  And really, it couldn’t have been a better choice. With a bag of chips and a little ingenuity, the old turkey day standards transformed into some novel nachos.

First step: what kind of chips to use?  We considered both pita chips and sweet potato chips but found something even better in the grocery store’s natural food section: Food Should Taste Good‘s sweet potato tortilla chips.

These hearty, stone-ground tortilla chips had a lovely orange color and just enough of the vegetable’s delicate sweetness to support but not overwhelm the other ingredients.  And as opposed to regular sweet potato chips, they a little less deadly should you happen to eat the whole bag.

We selected a few hunks of turkey (mixing light and dark meat) and chopped them into bite-size pieces, the heated in the microwave:

Last night’s sage, sausage and wild rice stuffing had gotten a little dried out, so we reheated it slowly in a small pot with a few spoonfuls of broth (made from the turkey carcass, of course!):

Finally, the cranberry sauce.  We felt that these needed a little bit of zing (being nachos, after all) and added chopped jalapeno, red onion, and a splash of lime juice to our cranberry sauce to turn it into a salsa.  If you want more spice, let it sit for a while before serving to let the flavors combine:

Assembly: lay down a layer of chips, sprinkle with turkey and stuffing, and cover the whole plate with a drizzle of reheated gravy.  If you’re craving sour cream, a spoonful of mashed potatoes on the side will work in a pinch:

The verdict? With the spicy cranberry salsa on the side, these nachos were near perfection.  We had debated long and hard over including cheese but in the end vetoed it, since cheese has a minimal presence in a traditional Thanksgiving feast. It was the right decision– the salty gravy served as the cheese sauce on these nachos, and anything more would have overwhelmed some of the wonderful fall flavors at play. The chips were the perfect vehicle for the moist stuffing and turkey, and the cranberry salsa was good enough that we are already planning other nacho dishes around it.  If you’re getting sick of your leftovers (and even if you aren’t) these are definitely worth a try!

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