×

All hail the invention of Taco in a Bag

You would have thought I had just discovered the cure for the common cold or had invented the airplane or electricity or the automobile or the Internet.

Instead, I had not only prepared but divulged the recipe for — a roll of the drum here, folks, and a clank of a couple of skillets while you’re at it — Taco in a Bag.

Ta-da!

I did not invent Taco in a Bag, but I suddenly felt very proud that I had any connection to it at all, that I knew anything about it.

It was like rubbing elbows with a celebrity or being related to royalty or being friends with a really, really rich person.

Bragging rights.

I’m cool. I’m hip. I know all about Taco in a Bag.

I could play proud peacock, all because I knew the recipe for something that wasn’t on someone else’s food radar.

How can that be? Imagine that.

My Labor Day weekend company from the South were not familiar with what apparently is this northern novelty — not the name, not the ingredients, not the concession-stand popularity of it, nothing.

I had made Taco in a Bag thinking my step-grandchildren, always hungry young teens, would enjoy that as a little snack.

Preparing it does not involve rocket science in the kitchen, which is why it became part of my recipe repertoire some time ago.

Prepare hamburger as if you’re making some tacos — an undertaking here that requires next-to-nil culinary skills.

Buy some bags of nachos – the little snack size ones. Grab a bag and crunch it a little bit.

Then open up the bag and into it scoop some of the taco meat mixture.

Next comes adding the garnishes. Shredded lettuce. Shredded cheese. Chopped tomatoes. Some salsa. Some sour cream.

And then?

Get a spoon and dig in.

Talk about a wondrous symphony of flavor.

The beauty of Taco in a Bag — or the Walking Taco, as some “chefs” in my circle refer to it — is that it requires no bowl, no cleanup, no mess to consume.

You eat it straight from the bag. Walk around if you like. Enjoy.

Not only were the grandchildren impressed with this “delicacy” I had prepared, so, too, was their North Carolinian mother, who had never heard of such a thing as this.

I could see from the way she snacked on her very first Taco in a Bag, from the sparkle in her eyes, that she realized she was destined for kitchen greatness, poised for snack food success when she would return to Fuquay-Varina to make this for her children’s friends, impressing their mothers in the process.

If she were in a bid for PTO presidency, this would surely seal the deal.

All hail the invention of Taco in a Bag.

(Kiaski, a resident of Richmond, is a staff columnist and community editor for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. She can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today