The history of Frito Pie

[joiei]

As explained on Eater

 

http://www.eater.com/2016/4/3/11326520/frito-pie-explained

 

I have eaten frito pie all my life.  I was born in the real West Texas, 100 miles west of San Angelo in a little town that was just a wide spot in the road and it is still just a wide spot in the road.  My mom would serve frito pie and sometimes she made a frito pie cassarole. 

I don't know where those folks from New Mexico get the idea that it started there in the 60's because I am older than that.  

 

So Jaymes, when we get together in Austin, we will have to have frito pie at least once.  I'm looking at the end of May.  And bbq of course.  

 

Quote

What is Frito Pie?

Despite its name, Frito pie is not pie at all but rather a pile of Fritos with chili on top. The humblest version of the dish is served from the chip bag itself: The bag is typically placed in a paper boat and split down the middle, and the chili is poured right inside.

Frito pie may vaguely resemble nachos, but due to its messy nature, it is always eaten with a (usually plastic) fork. (A Dallas Morning News restaurant reviewer raised eyebrows back in 2011 when they committed the faux pas of denouncing a restaurant’s Frito pie for being too difficult to manage as a finger food.)

 

[lochaven]

Friday night lights back home and Fritos pie sold during the game. Thanks for the info. 

 

[Jaymes]

Yeah, we've done the "waitress in Santa Fe" thing here before.  Inexplicable to me that anyone could believe it.  And my roots in New Mexico go pretty damn deep.  Grandfather was a sheriff up in Farmington/Aztec back around the turn of the last century.  He and my grandmother lived in an old stone house on the banks of the Animas River.  That house had been the overnight stop for the Durango-Farmington stage.  Before my grandmother married him, she had been a "Harvey Girl" working at several of the New Mexico Harvey Houses.  Aunt owned a motel up there - The Aztec Motel, built in, I think, the 1930's.  Uncle had the first pharmacy.  Other uncle owned two Western Auto stores - Aztec & Grants.  Cousin was the state hydrologist for many years...in...that's right...Santa Fe.  Nephew currently state trooper assigned to Cuba.  I spent most of my summers up on the Animas River.  Two of my three children were born in New Mexico - Clovis and Alamogordo.  So it's not a territorial pride Texas vs New Mexico issue to me.  It's just common sense.

 

Elmer Doolin started packaging Fritos in San Antonio in the 1930's. I repeat, San Antonio.  The home of the Chili Queens, who were already a nationally-famous tourist attraction.  I'm sorry, but who in their right mind could possibly believe that nobody in San Antonio, the home of the Chili Queens, would have considered the natural connection between fried corn tortilla chips and chili until some waitress in Santa Fe came up with the idea decades later?

 

Not to mention that I was in junior high in San Angelo, Texas, in the mid-1950's and I distinctly remember at lunchtime walking across the street to the drive-in and getting Frito Pies, served in the little bags, with all the "fixin's" added.  And absolutely nobody said, "OMG what's this???"  They had already been eating Frito Pies for years.  And years.  And years.

 

In order for me to ever believe the "waitress in Santa Fe" story, I'd have to believe that those hundreds of Frito Pies I ate when I was a kid in Texas in the 40's and 50's were all in my imagination.

 

I will add, however, that it's such a natural combination that I have no doubt Santa Fe Waitress did start serving it, coming up with the "idea" on her own.  I don't doubt that.

 

But who logically could possibly believe that she was the very first.

 

That utterly defies common sense.  I cannot believe that they're still claiming to have "invented it." 

 

Seriously?

 

Give it up already.

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[Jaymes]

4 hours ago, joiei said:

So Jaymes, when we get together in Austin, we will have to have frito pie at least once.  I'm looking at the end of May.  And bbq of course. 

 

 

End of May.  Sounds great.

[kayb]

I love Frito pie. This makes me want to go to Sonic and get one. 

 

It really makes me want to go back to Paris, TN, ca. 1971, and have one from the K&W Drive In, but Sonic is a lot more doable.