Anthony Bourdain is known for speaking his mind about the food he travels the world to try, and while his palette is invariably accustomed to high-end fare, sometimes one just has to do as the Romans do and eat local delicacies…like Frito Pie.
The treat isn’t really a pie so much as it is a mixture of Frito’s corn chips, chili, peppers, and cheese in the bag. Bourdain said that the one he tried had canned chili and a “day-glo orange cheese-like substance” inside, something the owners of Santa Fe’s Five & Dime General Store say just isn’t true. General manager Mike Collins says the chili is in fact homemade and the peppers used are native to New Mexico, where the dish was invented–not Texas, as Bourdain claimed.
“Neither the Frito, nor the Frito pie, are indigenous to New Mexico. They were actually Texan,” Bourdain said on his show “Parts Unknown”. “New Mexico, you have many wonderful things. I think, let Texas have this one.”
Bourdain has apologized and says that despite what his review may have sounded like, he did enjoy the corn-chip delicacy.
“I, in fact, very much enjoyed my Frito pie in spite of its disturbing weight in the hand. It may have felt like shit, but was shockingly tasty.”
“It always hurts to see something taken away from New Mexico and given to Texas,” says New Mexican David Stout. “The only thing we have at the moment is Breaking Bad, so just give us Frito pie.”