I’d like to take a moment and give my sincere thanks to Chef David Bancroft from the celebrated Auburn, Alabama restaurant, Acre, for properly serving Frito Pie in a bowl and thereby taking the stigma out of eating the . . . how do I say it, “uncouth” dish.
The first time I’d ever heard of Frito Pie was when my sons came home from church youth group and it was obvious they’d had some kind of religious experience, but upon further prodding, found they had just submitted to the power of eating out of a bag. “What do you mean they served dinner in a bag? Who were the parents on duty who would do such a thing? It was that new family from Pittsburgh, wasn’t it? Is the church budget so tight we can’t afford bowls? Were you having a lesson on homelessness?”
Eating Frito Pie straight out of the crinkly bag was soon the rage at every teenaged party. No amount of pizza or sub sandwiches could squelch their enthusiasm for the feast made by first “smooshing” the bag of chips, then pouring in drippy chili with all the toppings.
Southerners, and especially those of us from Alabama, have had enough trouble getting the rest of the world to understand that we (most of us) don’t eat . . . Click HERE to finish reading the story at AL.com.