...but you can have some too.

Film & Nachos

Cha Chas - 7 o/o 10

Me and many others (f r i e n d s) participate in the annual 48 Hour Film Project. We won for #RVA last summer and by doing so our team was invited to compete in the next round of the competition.  Big deal stuff!  This second film had to be shot over the first weekend of December.  Our genre was “End Of The World”.  We love the way it turned out and look forward to seeing how it fairs in the competition.

You may be asking what the hell that has to do with nachos.  Well, everything!  Ok, maybe just one thing.  When we had the screening for the crew, Cha Cha’s Cantina was kind enough to close their doors & let us take over their establishment for a little bit.  They even gave us some free drinks.  And what goes better with beer than Nachos? Nothing. So we ordered some.

These nachos were awesome!  Totally reccomend them as a post-work happy-hour with-booze snack.  Lots of watery lettuce to cut through the salt.  Tons of shredded cheese.  Fresh tomatos.  And, the protein kick, black beans.  I love black beans on my nachos (unless they’re really soggy - but these weren’t!)  Travis reviewed Cha Chas back in September and wasn’t happy.  The only difference between then and now was the “to go” factor.  Therefore I’m making an executive decision that Cha Cha’s nachos are good in house but don’t stick them in a box.

PS- that’s me on the left blocking a full view of the plate. But I’m wearing a leather coat, so obviously I’m bad-fucking-ass and don’t give a shit that you can’t see the whole pile.

Am I healthy?

In case you’re wondering about my basic bill of health given my draw to junk food, here you go:

5’4” 125lb 152/101 blood pressure

That last thing is really bad. Like, stage 2 hypertension bad. Nurses always check it 3 times because they can’t believe it’s that bad. I’m supposed to cut salt.

Philly Cheese Steak Nachos

Yes. You read that correctly.  Two salty, heart sweating, choleric nightmare inducing foods combined. 

I made these nachos awhile back.  Travis (t) and I had some left over grilled steak.  It wasn’t going to be enough for a second meal, so I decided to saute it up with some peppers and onions.  Then, I took that delicious mix and put it into a classic nacho.  I decided to go with just cheese/sour cream/tomato so that the steak/onion/pepper flavor would stand out. 

The result: the exact taste combination of a philly & ‘chos.  Think about that.  If I had a penis, this would give me a boner.

Once again, the picture is ugly (that sour cream is all over the place). I’m not a good foodtographer.

Late Night-chos

It actually wasn’t that late last night when I ate these, maybe only 10:30, but after my long & hellacious day it felt like I was eating dinner at 2am. 

These chos are from Honey Whytes (ps, I’m getting really sick of RVA restaurants not having their own websites.  It’s pathetic).  But what wasn’t pathetic were these nachos!  I literally stopped talking to everyone around me in order to focus on the task at hand.

One thing I noticed about these was that instead of shredded cheddar, they used thick slices of cheddar.  This was a nice change.  It allowed for some excellent chip coverage and had a (welcomed) side effect of burnt-onto-the-plate goodness.  Standard accoutres: tomato, jalap, red onion, sour cream.  It was supposed to come with chili, but I said NO.

ps - I very nearly didn’t get these.  I’d first ordered jalapeno poppers and had specificly said that if they were cheddar instead of cream cheese filled I didn’t want them. (I like the hot/cold effect)  I was told they were cream cheese.  Turned out to be cheddar.  Sent back!

Sidewalk Nachos

A long ass time ago, me and my friend Katy went to Sidewalk Cafe for nachos.  Like everything else on the 5 pg 10pt font Sidewalk menu, there were at least half a dozen nacho options.  We went with the EXTREME ones (ok, that wasn’t the name of the dish, but that’s what I’m saying b/c I can’t remember what it actually was).  They just had tons of stuff on them.

What’s that adage about insanity? “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”?  That’s how I feel about chili on my nachos.  I keep ordering it and keep disliking it.

Despite having lots of chili, these nachos were delicious.  Tons of cheese, tomatos, and my fave - jalapenos.  Next time I’ll do the veg option.

[bar was too dark for a picture]

Gaming Nach

My buddy Jeremy went to Dave&Busters awhile back for a little wholesome fun.  While there, he did what any reasonable person would do and decided to order bar food.  These nachos weren’t like most however.  They were assembled as individual, neatly layered chips.  Side of salsa.

Jeremy was not to thrilled with this plate.  I don’t think he was opposed to organized nachos, he was a bit peeved that they only got 7 chips.  I’d lament as well. 

Nachos or no nachos, D&B is still ripe for a good time.  Any place filled with people on first dates who ran out of ideas and kids who are trying to score an underage drink is fun to me.  I actually made a video invite once to convince my friends to go there: link! (any chance to plug this I will)

Nacho Tats

I have zero tattoos.  I know, weird right?  I’ve lived in RVA for 7 years and have somehow skirted past getting “inked”.  And I do believe that using a lame word like “inked” is proof enough that my body is artworkless.

Regardless of not having any of my own, I can still appreciate other people’s tattoos.  Last week I met a girl named Katy and, totally unprovoked by me, she straight out of left field stated “I have a nacho tattoo”.  To which I replied, “whaaaaaa?  I have a nacho blog!”.

As you can see in the pic, its a single chip.  I imagine that its being pulled by an invisible hand from a plate of deliciously piled up gooey melted nachos.  Covered, in this case, by salsa and guac…

No Work-Chos

Today is a no work holiday.  Which pretty much means that Travis and I have been hungover all day due to last night’s “second saturday” celebrating.  We’ve spent the greater part of the afternoon watching Venture Brothers and Party Down.  All in all, a perfect nacho making scenario.  I apologize for the somewhat crappy picture.  I’m unbelievably bad at photographing food.

Made these nachos at home.  Normally I melt the cheese via baking and broiling for that classic nacho taste.  This time, just for funsies, I decided to prepare a cheesy sauce.  Essentially, I created a simple mornay sauce using different cheddars.  To jazz it up a bit, I added diced jalapenos to the roux for some subtle heat.  Then, I poured the sauce over a thin layer of chips, added some shredded cheese to the top and did a quick boil of the whole shebang to toast up the chips.  Then added some standard accoutrements: sour cream and diced tomatoes, jalapenos and green onions.

I prefer my nachos to have some protein, so I usually make a spicy black bean and veg base.  However, yesterday I made a cannellini chili for football watching, so I was feeling a little beaned-out and opted for cheese only chos.