Whole Enchilada Fiesta

Festival Location: La Cruces, NM, USA

Festival State: New Mexico Festivals

Festival Type(s): Food Festivals, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

The city of Las Cruces celebrates its heritage every year when local Mexican-food amigo and spice-meister Roberto Estrada cooks (with the help of eleven sous chefs) The World's Largest Enchilada, which measures just over 30 feet in diameter.

The ingredients? Try 750 lbs of stone ground corn, 175 gallons of vegetable oil, 75 gallons of red chili sauce, 50 lbs of chopped onions, and 175 lbs of grated cheese. We're talking major belly ache here.

But festival-goers seem to smile as their piece of local history slides down their gullet. But if the crowd outside the porta-pots is any sign, the whole enchilada is a lot better going down than keeping down.

Every years since 1980, over 70,000 hungry heffers with bullet-proof bellies have polished off the whole enchilada plus enough gorditas, fajitas and tamales to feed Santa Anna's army. Cold cerveza, mariachi music and the heated annual police department versus the fire department boxing match round off the event.