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.

Alone Again, Naturally

The "down side" to having a hotshot salesman as a husband is that he sometimes has to attend business dinners - schmoozing is important in his line of work.

When he goes out for dinner, I have little incentive to cook and usually end up making toast or this favorite standby. Because we are soon leaving on vacation (burglars, listen up - we have a house sitter coming to take care of our big, scary dog so don't even think about it!), I thought I'd use up a hunk of mystery cheese and the remains of a tub of creme fraiche that had been lurking in the fridge for weeks. My Beloved had brought home some fresh salsa and blue corn chips, too, so I had the makeshift makings for nachos.

There isn't really a recipe for a pickup meal like this - you just cover the plate with chips, cut little nubbins of cheese for each chip, sprinkle on some salsa and dot with creme fraiche (or sour cream or crema if you have those instead), then zap in the microwave for about 30 seconds, until the cheese bubbles and runs gooeyly. Eat with your fingers.

Yes, they were a little odd - the cheese turned out to be raclette, a bit stanky for nachos, but weren't the visuals dramatic? I could have wished for a little cilantro to sprinkle over the top but the green of the plate peeked through for accent. And it was good, in a lonely crazy-lady sort of way.