Roach Coach Pleasures
There are people out there that are willing to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a restaurant, based on the way it looks. Sure, you could pay extra for a nice atmosphere, fancy televisions and singing mariachis, but expensive dinning does not always equal better food, especially when it comes to Mexican food. The reason I mention all this is because the next set of Nachos I’m going to review come from my work’s lunch truck (aka the roach coach). If you don’t know what a lunch truck is, it’s basically a truck that is driven around by a driver and has a full-fledged kitchen and a nice lunch lady with poor understanding of the English language who sits in the back. They usually have contracts setup with different companies and they stop in the morning and afternoons to fill your craving for almost anything that is greasy and or fattening.
Also a good excuse to leave your desk for 10 minutes
At first I didn’t dare order anything from such a from the Roach Coach for fear that I might contract cholera, but once I took a chance I was pleasantly surprised. You can order almost any breakfast or lunch item on this truck; Burgers, burritos, chips, juices, and of course, Nachos. At times you might have to put up with slight stomach pains or the runs hours after digesting the food, but it’s the chance you take when the only type of food available to you comes delivered on four wheels. You can pretty much order the Nachos with any meat available; carne asada, al pastor, pork, chicken, etc. As usual I went for chicken (I heart protein). Lucky for me I speak Spanish, so I didn’t have to worry about the lunch lady confusing my order of chicken Nachos for one of a tongue burrito (which I wouldn’t have minded) like some of my co-workers have to. As I waited around for my order I took a look at what was available to enhance my Nacho eating experience. There were some bottles of different dressings and salsas as well as some variety of chiles on the side.
Wish Bone salad dressing and maple syrup? Don’t think so.
Generic green and red salsa in unmarked bottles? Ca-Ching!
Upon receiving my order in a Styrofoam container, I walked back to my desk. As I reached my sitting area, the room was filled right away with the wonderful aroma of breakfast Nachos (this was 9:30am). My co-workers peered over their cubes with jealousy as they admired the delicious looking plate that now sat on my desk. Our supervisor next door proceeded to slam our door with rage/jealousy, as he does every time we fill his nostrils with delicious food smells from the lunch truck. The aroma, now trapped in our windowless room, could do nothing except wait to be absorbed by our noses and pores. Below is a shot of what I saw in front of me.
Part of a complete breakfast
Take a look at the mess above. That is what I think of what I think of Nachos. This is the poster child of what Nachos should look like: A good mix of all the ingredients necessary to make tasty Nachos. Guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, beans, cheeses, crispy chips (mmmmmmmmmmmmm).
Ok, that’s only the way they look, but what about the taste? I’ll skip the sour cream, as that was your usual generic sour cream taste, and I’ll start with the guacamole. All this guacamole consists of is avocado, lime and a little bit of salt. It’s kind of liquid-y but not enough that it’s too thin to be dipped. That’s it, and you now what? It’s delicious. I’ve seen guacamoles made with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, green chiles, lime and mayonnaise all at once, and they don’t even come close to how delicious this is. I’ve been to places where I’ve paid extra to just have any guacamole, and that still doesn’t compare to this guacamole that I had to pay nothing extra for. Whatever amount of ingredients she mixed in was perfect. Guacamole is not that hard to make, yet it seems that most places cannot get it right.
How to f- up guacamole
The pico de gallo consisted of cilantro, tomatoes and a little bit of lime. The ratio of onion was a little higher than the rest of the ingredients, but I’m bias as I love onions. The taste was, once again, excellent and the ingredients were quite fresh. The chicken was grilled and juicy, although it didn’t have too much flavor, but the rest of what the Nachos were covered in made up for it, as everything else complimented the chicken quite nicely. The beans were refried and not too greasy, they got the job done well. The chips were crispy from beginning to end, as there really wasn’t anything making the chips soggy at any point. Not only that, but the chip to topping ratio was actually ¾ chip.
;-D
So these Nachos don’t just come with one type of cheese, but actually come with two! This might not seem as mind blowing as I might try to make it sound, but most places that try to use two cheeses can’t even get one right and totally ruin the Nachos by trying to add more than they should (*cough* Cheesecake Factory). The first cheese is shredded jack. It wasn’t quite melted on top, but the beans were hot enough that it melted there. See, I don’t really feel the cheese has to be melted on Nachos as long as it’s done right, and in this case it’s done right. So aside from shredded jack there was also cotija cheese. Never heard of cotija cheese? Well, I’m not surprised, but I will explain it more thoroughly when I start the cheeses section of my site.
Si se puede!
Cotija is a Mexican cheese that won the cheese of the year award in 2006, beating out 500 other cheeses from all over the world. It’s a little saltier than most cheese at 4% salt (most cheeses are 1.5%), and it comes in a hard and granulated forms (like parmesan). This might seem like a turn-off to some, but the taste is actually quite robust and can compliment many dishes well. In this case it was sprinkled all over the top of the Nachos. Again, it was not melted but with the way it was used it did not matter. Both these cheese complimented each other as well as the rest of the ingredients on these Nachos. Most “better” places simply give you one typical cheese like cheddar (don’t get me wrong, I LOVE cheddar) while this lunch truck gives you a tastier experience with two types of cheeses. Heck, cotija itself is more expensive than most typical cheeses offered on Nachos.
In conclusion, these Nachos were awesome. The ingredients were fresh with just the right amount of all these ingredients, with no ingredient overpowering other ingredients with its taste. The taste of the guacamole and pico de gallo were delicious considering there was nothing mind-blowing about the ingredients. This lunch truck lady obviously had the fundamentals of cooking down to a T. She took minimal ingredients and made the best of it. She knew what cheeses went well with each other and even went as far as using lesser known cheeses in ways not usually used and still made a delicious plate of Nachos. Considering she’s in a rush making everybody else’s orders, and the fact that they only cost $4.50, I could ask for nothing more.
Never stood a delicious chance!
-iwst99
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