Nacho Aficianado

I count myself as a bit of a nacho expert. I love nachos and I have eaten more plates of them than the average person. There's something about all that melty cheese, beans and guacamole over crisp corn chips - I think it's brilliant.

Cousin Jan and I took a day off from swimming last Friday and decided to go window shopping and out for lunch. The day was foggy and chilly and the sun didn't even shine until around 2pm and even then only briefly before dodging back behind the incoming fog bank. The idea of stripping off and jumping into a pool just wasn't appealing, so... we didn't!

Instead, after poking through a bunch of shops in the Rockridge area of Oakland, we sat down to fish tacos and nachos at the Cactus Taqueria. It was noisy and bustling, clearly a family sort of place. We ordered from menus on the wall and were called some time later to pick up our meals.

My nachos were pretty darn good. In addition to the required ingredients (beans, cheese, chips), this plate had chopped tomato (actually nicely ripe!), fresh guacamole, and slices of puckery green olive and fiery jalapeño. There was also a sort of salsa bar where one could choose one's own favorite toppings. The plate was generous, too - Jan and I worked our way from opposite sides and still couldn't finish it all.

While not perhaps the very pinnacle of nacho creation, it was a solidly good plate at a very reasonable price ($5.50 at this writing). This aficianado would happily return.