Having recently traveled “across the pond” to London, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, Earth, I knew I would need to do several things on the trip. Visit the British Museum, eat some Fish & Chips and Jellied Eels, marry The Queen on a double decker bus, the usual stuff. Most importantly though, for tax reasons, I had to eat and review some nachos. What would they taste like, in a country with perhaps not the most flavorful of food and not a lot of Mexican influenced foods? Well now I know, because I went there and tried some.
My first encounter with the English variety of the dish was wandering the streets of London near the Box Park and that Ping Pong bar when I encountered the following:
Now that is a sign that speaks to me.
From the outside it looked like some sort of industrial version of a circus tent, and I had to cast aside the flaps to enter a place that from my picture looks like it was called The Block, but might also be The Shoreditch Food Village E1 in researching it on the internet. The name doesn’t matter, and for all I know it might be some sort of nachoesque Brigadoon, but I entered a strange and magical place I didn’t expect to find in the center of one of the planet’s largest and oldest cities. Imagine the food court area of some kind of outdoor music show, but then have that inside and you’ve got the idea.
This was where I realized that maybe it was time for a new camera where everything that wasn't shot close up wasn't blurry...
You might think that Pizza Street would be the place for nachos, but if you do you’re a dummy. Of course Freebird Burritos was the location of the nachos, despite the fact that their website doesn’t have them listed, leading me to believe that perhaps the nachos are a location specific food item that are only available here. SECRET MENU! I ordered some up, and after they caught the first try on fire in the oven of Pizza Street, the second order was much better.
Nary a burnt chip in sight.
In fact, so much better that I was duly impressed. That they have a synergy with Pizza Street and melt the cheese in an actual oven rather than microwaving it or using nacho cheese sauce was a pleasant surprise, even if the first batch they did caught on fire. Tortilla chips in general are not the go to chip of the land in London, that title goes to the “crisp” which is more of a potato chip, so I am glad they took it seriously and even used a kind with a tasty hint of spice to them. Were the guacamole, pickled jalapenos, and sour cream just some off the shelf brand? Sure seemed like it, but they were fine. The salsa though, really more of a pico de gallo, was pretty damn delicious, and “Damn delicious” turned out to be the overall rating for the meal.
So, 5000+ miles, or 8046.72+ kilometers, from Mexico, nachos can still be pretty damn tasty. I’m sure this will be reflected across all the other nachos I would eat during the rest of my London trip, right? Right? Right? Tune in to find out!
