By Kate Krader, Restaurant Editor, Food & Wine
Follow Kate on Twitter: @kkrader
It's about time someone broke the world record for the largest serving of nachos. The honors went to Ninety Nine restaurant group, in Billerica, Massachusetts: The nachos they assembled on a 70-foot table required four teams to layer the chips, cheeses, chili, salsa and sour cream, with one team wielding giant torch guns to melt the Monterey jack and cheddar. The nachos weighed in at 3,999 pounds. (Seriously? With a few extra jalapeños, they could have gotten to an even two tons.) Here's a look at some other amazing efforts in the world of nachos.
Do or Dine, Brooklyn. Co-owner Justin Warner embraces an elemental theory on food: Everything is either a nacho or a sandwich. (Specifically, nachos are food piled on top of food; sandwiches are food between two pieces of food. We had a long debate about which category soup falls into.) No surprise, DorD pushes the nacho envelope with their version: The Nippon nachos are made with your choice of deep-fried dumplings (pork, beef or vegetarian), topped with cheddar, pico de gallo and sour cream.
US 75 Café, Bartlesville, Oklahama. There's a whole nacho section on the menu (also, their definition of a nacho: a snack, an appetizer or a meal). The offerings include Kansas nachos, topped simply with cheese and sunflower seeds, and pizza nachos, with their special sauce and mozzarella. Interestingly, US 75 also has a nacho pizza, made with salsa, Mexican cheese and refried beans, but that's over in the menu's pizza section.
SOL Mexican Cocina, Newport Beach, California. If you're sad that you never get to eat nachos for dessert, then you're thinking like me. And like the people at SOL, who offer nachos dulces. They're made by topping warm tortilla chips with dulce de leche, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, crushed Ibarra chocolate and toasted almonds. Another good thing about SOL; it's right on the water so you can dock and dine.
Taco Bell. Of course Taco Bell sells nachos, like the Volcano, boasting both warm nacho cheese sauce and cheesy molten hot lava sauce. But just recently the fast food chain went outside the chip, and began using nacho-cheese flavored Doritos to make the shells for their Doritos Locos Taco. The appropriately orange-colored tacos are unfortunately, only available in a few test markets right now, namely Fresno, California and Toledo, Ohio.
Slideshow: Awesome Mexican Recipes