Ooo, I can tell you how fry bread began. The tribes were given flour by the Spaniards from what I've been told. They didn't know what to do with it, never having used it before but they ended up making their own simple version of a sopapilla. Gramms (my maternal grandmother-in-law) is a phenomenal fry bread maker (as well as making wonderful tortillas and naniscotti--no clue how to spell that). It is, however, atrocious for the health.

Really good fry bread is made with blue bird flour (if you use a better flour, it comes out odd) and is cooked in lard. Raises a person's cholesterol just thinking about it. To add to it, the Navajo put a couple burger patties on it and fold it in half to make the greasiest concoction known to mankind, the Navajo burger (but it's good!). A slightly healthier meal is the Navajo taco, which has beans, beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and chiles on it.

I enjoy a good fry bread now and then but I'd have to agree that it is a serious hazard. My husband will see consultants from various firms come out here to work and gain about 20-30 lbs from fry bread and navajo burger addictions. No kidding! He's refused to take me to a particuliarly well known food stand in Window Rock, called Pinky's--for fear of me gaining a ton of weight!

Stephanie

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson