3. Doritos were born

Doritos

Doritos are the most unexpected and arguably the most delicious thing invented in a theme park. A few months after Disneyland opened in 1955 a man named Elmer Doolin, who would be the founder of snack food company Frito-Lay, convinced Walt Disney to let him open a Mexican restaurant in Frontierland called Casa de Fritos. The food included tamales, enchiladas, chile and the "Ta-Cup,” which was essentially the typical fast-food taco that was about to become popular in America but in a Fritos shell. Fritos were offered complimentary with every purchase. Casa de Frito's first location was on New Orleans Street. It became immediately packed with tourists who wanted to taste Mexican food for the first time, so popular that Casa de Fritos needed to relocate to a larger spot in 1957.

A company named Alex Foods delivered food products across Southern California, including to Disneyland and Casa de Fritos. In the early 1960s on one fateful day, a route salesman noticed discarded tortillas and said that the cook should turn them into tortilla chips instead of just tossing them in the garbage. The leftover tortilla chips were a hit and Casa de Fritos added them to the menu without informing the Frito Co. The date the route salesman came up with what would become Doritos is unknown.

A year later Arch West, marketing vice president for the Frito-Lay Co., noticed customers eating the tortilla chips at Casa de Fritos. Salivating at their success in the park, he ordered the chips into mass production and made planes to market them for a national release. The snacks were named Doritos, which means "little golden things” in Spanish, and debuted to quick sales. The plant spent 24-7 making the chips to try and meet the demand. 40 years later, Doritos remain a staple American snack food found in almost every grocery and convenient store.