“Taternater” ready to send racing fans to Hawg Heaven

Texas Motor Speedway near Ft. Worth is hog heaven. Literally. It’s been that way since 2013, when concessions company Levy Restaurants unveiled its Hawg Heaven line of pork-centric culinary enormities at the venue, which hosts a series of high-profile motor races throughout the year.

What began five years ago with Hawg Heaven concoctions such as the Shake 'n Bacon Brew bacon-infused beer milkshake and Hawg Heaven Bacon Cotton Candy has now produced a two-pound meat and potato combo called the Taternater.

What is the Taternater? You may be sorry you asked, because what we have here is “a potato of prodigious proportions” (that’s the wording in Levy’s official press release) that is packed with a pound and a half mix of barbecue pulled pork, brisket and hickory black pepper sausage covered with a creamy/spicy bacon jalapeno mac ’n cheese and a creamy bacon gravy, then topped with a helping of onion crisps to add some crunch.

Taternater will debut the weekend of Nov. 2-4 when Texas Motor Speedway hosts the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Playoff tripleheader.

"This will surely ‘starch’ the engines of our race fans," quipps Levy Executive Chef Lincoln Engstrom, the culinary mad scientist who created Taternater. "The Hawg Heaven Taternater is the perfect fall feast for our race-starved fans that have been waiting six months for NASCAR to return to Texas Motor Speedway."

Taternater wil sell for $12 throughout the NASCAR tripleheader playoff weekend, which will feature the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series JAG Metals 350 on Friday, Nov. 2; NASCAR Xfinity Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 on Saturday, Nov. 3; and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA Texas 500 on Sunday, Nov. 4.

Other Hawg Heaven concessions items since the line’s debut in 2013 have included:

·      Bacon Nachos: Tri-color tortilla chips sprinkled with bacon powder and topped with white cheese bacon nacho sauce, candied bacon, jalapenos, black beans, pico de gallo and sour cream;

·      Queso Wings: Oversized chicken drumettes doused in a bacon queso sauce and topped with a mixture of crumbled Doritos and bacon bits;

·      Double Barrel Dawg: Two foot-long Syracuse Sausage branded Texas Hot Links topped with a jalapeño bacon and caramelized onion mix, bacon queso and spicy pork rinds;

·      BBQ Melt: Texas barbecue pulled pork braised in Texas Motor Speedway’s own No Limits Checkered Past craft beer that is topped with bacon jalapeno mac ‘n cheese, Texas 1015 sweet onions and fried spicy pickle chips, then wedged between two slices of griddled jalapeno cornbread and garnished with a bacon-wrapped jalapeno;  

·      Ranchero Dawg: A quarter-pound Kobe beef dog on a poppy seed bun topped with charro beans studded with bacon and chorizo, a thick slice of crisp bacon, smoked cheddar cheese, avocado and bacon crema;

·      Funnel Fries: A combination of funnel-cake fries, popcorn chicken nuggets tossed in Tajin (a seasoning consisting of dehydrated lime juice, salt and chile peppers), bacon-infused syrup, maple candied bacon, whipped topping and powdered sugar dusting; and

·      The BLT: Four slices of thick-cut soy black pepper candied bacon, two thick slices of tomato and a healthy handful of leafy greens piled onto corn-dusted jalapeño bread that is coated with a sriracha mayo and branded with the Texas Motor Speedway logo.