Right now the number two most searched for phrase on Google is “spaghetti taco.” Yesterday, an article about the novel food that is gaining popularity with the Nickelodeon–channel watching tween set appeared in The New York Times. Many other news outlets picked up the story and have been reporting it all day.
Apparently, the television show iCarly has sparked the trend, as a character on the show prepares spaghetti tacos for dinner. Now as weird as that sounds, I am already familiar with a couple not-too-distant cousins of the spaghetti taco. First is called a walking taco, which I learned about only after moving to Minnesota, as it is apparently a Midwestern phenomenon. To prepare a walking taco, one needs all the ingredients for making regular tacos—seasoned ground beef, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, etc. (See a picture of a walking taco.) Now you may be wondering what makes it a walking taco…all those ingredients are spooned into an individually sized bag of corn chips that have been crushed a bit. Hence, all you need is a fork (though I have actually seen people use no fork and just squeeze the fixings to the top of the bag to bite) and you have the ability to walk and eat a taco at the same time.
Now, I admit that I have a fondness, though it may be rooted primarily in nostalgia, for something called spaghetti pizza. One summer my husband was the director of a summer camp for genius kids (really, I’m not kidding about this…one kid suffered a concussion by falling down while attempting to walk and read at the same time). The camp was a significant distance from our home, and even though I am a supportive wife, I did not want to spend my summer working at a camp. I did visit him on occasion, and when I did we would go into town to a pizza place that served a deep dish pizza stuffed with red sauce and spaghetti noodles. The thing had a lattice top which appeared to be shellacked. Really, it was a thing of beauty, and the type of food that lulls you into a nap while you are eating it. Earlier this week was my husband’s birthday, and as part of his gift—which included some kitchen gear for making pizza—I surprised him by making him a gargantuan spaghetti pizza.
The Spaghetti Pizza before baking:
On the birthday table:
Now maybe someone will invent walking spaghetti or a pizza taco…sounds like a challenge.
Correction: as I post this, “spaghetti tacos” has gone to being the top Google search. Awesome.