Cuban Nachos

I like the atmosphere and some of the food at Cafe Laguardia. I was shocked, however, to find nacho cheese sauce as part of their Cuban Nachos.

I just think that stuff is gross. It's far from any cheese I want to know...It has the a very weird consistency--could be cheez whiz, don't know.

I tried to find a recipe for Cuban Nachos on the net to no avail (I didn't look that hard).

Where did this dish originate....any ideas? Other places that serve them?

Food Nut wrote:I like the atmosphere and some of the food at Cafe Laguardia. I was shocked, however, to find nacho cheese sauce as part of their Cuban Nachos.

I just think that stuff is gross. It's far from any cheese I want to know...It has the a very weird consistency--could be cheez whiz, don't know.

I tried to find a recipe for Cuban Nachos on the net to no avail (I didn't look that hard).

Where did this dish originate....any ideas? Other places that serve them?

Food Nut, I would hazard that "cuban nachos" are the invention of a marketing genius and not indigenous to Cuban cuisine; however, I have found other references to this food item: (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/185023_rest06.html) that mention cheese (though "white" cheese, not whiz).

Hammond

For those who are interested, the Cuban Nachos at Cafe Laguardia start with a smooshed, fried green plantain chip. Each chip has a dollop of sour cream, cheese, guacamole, and salsa. I really liked the texture of the plantain chip, crisp, but a little gooey inside. Like a perfectly executed sope masa cake. I just can't figure the fake cheese.

After, to save some bucks, Mr. Food Nut and I hit Arturo's for a chicken taco, queso fundido, and sopes, plus orchata. A much better deal than Laguardia, but a different thing altogether.

Thanks for the link, Hammond. I think the concept is travelling from East to West, which so many things are want to do.

Bon Appetit!

Sorry to join in so late, but I can't let the Cuban nachos go without comment.

In Cuba, or Florida for that matter, "nacho" has one meaning: the diminutive of the name Ignacio. When I was a kid in 80's Tampa, the bad, short-lived SoCal chain Nogales opened up some shops there (this was pre-Taco Bell for most of Florida, BTW). Some marketing genius thought that SoFla was the perfect place to start east coast expansion because of the many "hispanics." They didn't realize that fast food Mexican would have zero resonance with the notoriously culturally conservative Florida Cubans who wouldn't know a taco from a chapulin.

Anyway, to his credit or discredit, the LaGuardias may well have invented this "Latin Fusion" item, as it has been on the menu as long as the restaurant has been around. The fusion of Cuban and Mexican, in my experience, is a particularly Chicago phenomenon and one that usually does a disservice to both cuisines. Cafe 28, the most obviously Mexican/Cuban restaurant, mostly keeps the foods separate.

There is a lot of pressure on non-Mexican Latin restaurants to provide familiar Mexican dishes to the mostly non-Mexican patrons who "expect" to see certain things on the menu. (In my experience, Mexicans generally don't go looking for Mexican at Cuban, Argentine or Colombian restos; why would they?) Thus, many Cuban, Colombian, Ecuadoran, and Guatemalan places here include explicitly Mexican menu items, sometimes under headings like "Platillos Mexicanos," sometimes not. In the latter case, this can lead to confusion and misinformation. This happens between other cuisines as well. (A major newspaper food critic last year described arepas as typically Cuban.)

The best example of this trend, for me, is the much-loved Irazu. This Costa Rican restaurant serves mostly Americanized Mexican food that is more like something from San Francisco, CA than San Jose, CR. In this case, that's for the better, as CR food is notoriously boring, esp. compared to that of its Central American neighbors. But I assure you, veggie burritos as big as your head are not Costa Rican staples.

Similarly, I was at the underappreciated Venezuelan place, Caracas, when a non-Latin customer just wanted a burrito. The owner, sadly in my opinion, sent someone out to fetch some big tortillas to keep the guest.

Finally, I have noticed that HP Puerto Rican places are the exception to the creeping gringo-Mex problem. You almost never see any non-Puerto Rican menu items there. This is likely a result of the large, compact and culturally proud PR community that has always maintained a distinct profile in Chicago, and has achieved a disproportionate (in terms of population numbers vis a vis Mexican and other distinct ethnic groups) share of the political pie here.

But I digress. The "nachos" made with tostones (poor examples of tostones at that) are probably not a concession so much as an attempt at something new. But I think they are awful.

PS, since I mentioned my dissatisfaction with the tostones (fried green platanos) at LaGuardia (to be fair, they stink most everywhere in Chicago), I figured I should provide a recipe. As with many simple starches, these are a pain to make well. Because they are cheap, folks take shortcuts. Many restaurants in Chicago will simply smash a round of green plantain and fry it. Some people like this; they have never had a properly made toston.

Peel platano and cut into diagonal slices 1-inch thick.
Soak 15 minutes in tepid salt water.
Drain well, pat dry
Fry 5 min (deep fry or in a black pan with lots of oil)
Remove and pat dry
Smash with a meat tenderizer, a tortilla press, two sections of 1X4 connected with a hinge (traditional), etc.
Dip in the salted water, remove immediately, pat dry.
Fry until golden.
Salt, and possibly pour on mojo criollo.

(Optional) place Velveeta on tostones and microvawe 1 min high, add Old El Paso brand jalapeno slices and black olives (just kidding).

JeffB wrote:Finally, I have noticed that HP Puerto Rican places are the exception to the creeping gringo-Mex problem. You almost never see any non-Puerto Rican menu items there.

Alas, even in Humboldt Park this trend is creeping in. At the bottom of Papa's Cache Sabroso menu, below all the listings for pollo chon and yuca and tostones and jibaritos and gandules, there's "Tacos, Steak or Chicken, $1.50". One can only imagine that they list tacos as a response to (some) customers' requests...

when the Colombian restaurant La Fonda opened a couple of years back, my husband and I headed over with the in-laws. The waitress came to take our drink order and my FiL asked for "some chips and guacamole." The waitress apologized and said that she was sorry that they were a Colombian restaurant and didn't serve chips or salsa, although they had avocadoes. "No chips? No salsa? Hurummph," was the FiL's reply. He having it in his mind that all Latin restaurants must serve the same fare mas o menos. We proceeded to have a really lovely meal. I especially enjoyed the little empanditas we ended up starting with. We enjoyed it enough that a month or so later we decided to return, it's only a few blocks from our apt. We sat down and within seconds a busboy appeared with water and a basket of chips and a wee bowl of watery salsa. On the menu was now a listing for tostones with guac, beans, cheese, salsa . . . at least they didn't go so far as to call them Colombian Nachos. But the chip chomping cheese gloppin' crowds had apprently been asking.
oh I thought, they caved, what a bummer. But the thing I suppose we have to remember is that restaurants, especially family-owned neighborhood restaurants walk the fine line between pleasing their customers enough that they want to return and staying true to their original vision for their place. If 30 people come in and ask for chips and they act disappointed or put out or whatever then they'll probably wonder if it's time to start offering up the chips and salsa. I wish they didn't do it, it always make a place feel slightly schizophrenic (how about La Sierra where you can sometimes get chuy-guinea pi--but then you can also get a carne asada burrito--wha?). But I'd rather see a place with a good foundation survive.

Oh and while we're talking about nachos, I've travelled a bit in Mexico and lived in Guanajuato for a spell and I've never seen nachos offered on a menu there. Does anyone know if they are indeed a Mexican dish or more of an American invention?

bjt

A number of weeks back, the last time Amata and I were at Polo (18th near Bishop) for lunch, a couple of adventurous young Americanos came striding down the street, backpacks slung over their shoulders, stopping in front of this truly humble establishment to size it up. For whatever reason, they decided to come in and Amata and I, murmuring in Latin of course, so we wouldn't be understood if overheard, conjectured that they were some manner of young chow-seekers.

Alas, they may have been that in some sense, but within a few minutes they had asked if they could get some chips and salsa and then, after perusing the menu, such as it is, they increduously inquired about nachos, which do not appear on said menu. When the owner explained that they do not serve nachos, the two fellows reslung their backpacks and headed off into the sunset...

As R. Crumb once wrote: It's never really the end... (except for these guys).



Antonius

bjt wrote:
Oh and while we're talking about nachos, I've travelled a bit in Mexico and lived in Guanajuato for a spell and I've never seen nachos offered on a menu there. Does anyone know if they are indeed a Mexican dish or more of an American invention?

bjt

well, a simple web search reveals a possible provenance and a near definitive yes on the US origins.

this cook book apparently traces the dish back to WWII border towns, a rich woman, and who knows what else. The only conclusion one can draw is that it is most definitely a Tex-Mex, not Mexican, invention. Surprise!

Well the origin of "Nachos" aside, working with a 99.9 percent Mexican population in a Chicago public school, the nachos don't even need to meet the lowest of standards. They used to have a "teacher's lunch" table that served stale chips with watery, reconsitituted powdered cheese. They were an extra $ .75. Most students who still qualified for free or reduced lunch ate these "nachos" as if they were a dream come true.

These students also cannot get enough "hot chips," AKA fiery spiced cheetos. Many eat them for a breakfast snack. Not a good thing if done on an empty stomach. On more than one occasion I've had to get out the biohazard kit to deal with that kind o' mess.

BTW, the Chicago Public Schools have taken out even teacher soda/pop machines. They've increased the cost of the juice they are offering, however, by .25. All the past machines were Coke products....

No school lunch!

Speaking of tostones and nachos, I saw yesterday on FoodTV an Al Roker show devoted to sandwiches. Most of what they looked at seemed horrible (eg, the Fat Darrell at Rutgers -- food service sub roll filled with previously frozen fries, chicken strips and cheez sticks, covered with Chef Boyardee-ish pizza sauce and garnished with the worst looking lettuce and tomatoes ever to make it past a producer on the network; also "Best Sandwich in America, according to Maxim, which clearly is not Vogue or GQ when it comes to the odd food item). Some others were familiar, like the Downstate IL Horseshoe, and, the Jibarito.

There was a fairly long discussion with the founder/owner of Borinquen, also the inventor of this sammy. While the guy provided some folkloric misinformation (i.e., that platanos are the "male" version of bananas, while the sweet ones gringos eat are females -- bizarre that the network chose to use this, BTW), he also demonstrated why this is such a great Chicago innovation. Everything was fresh made and top-notch, from the made-to-order minute steak, to the proper soaking and double frying of the platanos, to the final touch of brushing on mojo and seasoning the outside of the sammy. Easily the best looking food on the show.

I was just looking through Laz's recipe index and found this thread through JeffB's recipe. I first had tostones at Sabor a Cafe on Peterson (though I think they call them "maduros," which doesn't make sense), and I thought they were the best things I'd ever tasted, so I determined to make them at home. I did some research and triangulated a recipe from my gut, Alton Brown's version and then a recipe in Joy of Cooking (that suggests serving them with caviar)

They are now my go-to side dish for roast chicken. I mostly do what JeffB does, except I sometimes add lime juice or mojo to the soak and sometimes I sprinkle them with it afterwards. However, my masher of choice is a 28oz can (usually of beans) Gives your tostones a nice circular pattern

Maduros are made from more ripe and thus sweeter/mushier palntains. Tostones are made from a greener plantain and are much more savory and usually served with a garlic laced sauce or dip.

Right - but these were certainly twice-fried green plantains, the same as tostones - maybe it was a typo?

-I always assumed nachos were a very American invention-but there is some evidence that they were created by Ignacio Anaya in 1943 at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. This is online somewhere...
-Just got a flashback to early 1970's Old Town-a restaurant called Azteca on North ave. served "kamoosh" which they described as Mexican Pizza, but was basically a version of what we now call nachos. Anybody remember-or is the residual purple microdot in my system?

stewed coot wrote:Just got a flashback to early 1970's Old Town-a restaurant called Azteca on North ave. served "kamoosh" which they described as Mexican Pizza, but was basically a version of what we now call nachos. Anybody remember-or is the residual purple microdot in my system?

Wow - major flashback - I lived a block away. It was Café Azteca, and I loved the kamoosh, especially sitting in the outside garden (this was before sidwalk cafés were legal in Chicago).

I remember "Kamoosh" being on the menu at La Choza in Rogers Park in 1981 or so. It was similar to nachos but I believe that it was guacamole under the cheese.