"I thought I should give you warning. We're taking the ship. It's nothing personal."

Nachos; A Study.
Alternate title: the best nachos I’ve ever eaten.

Our last stop on the cruise through the Panama Canal was to Huatulco Mexico. The day after that we docked in Acapulco and were whisked away to an unclean very over crowded airport to wait for the next 8 to 10 hours due to storms in Texas, our first destination on our trip home. It sounds like it’d be awful, but I didn’t have a kid, I did have a book, the airport sold booze, AND I could smoke ANYWHERE I WANTED. So essentially it was just an extension of my vacation, and thank the fuck Christ it happened there and not in one of those stuck up American airports that force you to run 3 miles just to have a cigarette. Now I have a kid who insists food isn’t for eating unless it’s hit the floor, I don’t drink in front of her, and I don’t smoke, so if it were to happen today I’d likely be in the corner crying.

Back to Hualtulco. It was a sunny warm December day, (What up Equator? You and me, we gonna hang out? I like your style. Call me.) The beaches were beautiful, I think it was a fairly new tourist trap, construction going on, cute houses built into the side of mountains with palm frond roofs. I’d go back in a heartbeat. To live. We walked through some shops and then came to an outdoor restaurant. It was big, and had no walls, there was a roof of some kind so the sun didn’t blast down on us, but we were still able to enjoy being outside. My FiL had a very large coconut booze drink, but being the pampered white girl I am, I was afraid of the Mexican ice; he said the alcohol would kill the bugs but I wasn’t buying it and stuck to nachos and a coke with real sugar out of a glass bottle. It was bomb.

An old woman was walking around selling beaded necklaces, I can’t remember if J bought one for me, and I forgot to check, but it would be in his nature to have done so. He bought a necklace made of coconut for me in Nicaragua (I’m pretty sure) because the 12 year old kid selling them told him if he did he’d get lucky. J likes the bold.

The nachos arrive. They are on a very large plate but they were spread out. Some places just pile nachos higher and higher, but these were very simple. Chips, smoother than store bought, no salt, thick. Able to withstand the weight required to be a chip in nachos. They didn’t get soggy by halfway through, which is a feat, but I don’t know how they would have fared by the end because I didn’t make that far, it was a filling meal. Black beans, whole, quite a bit of them, covering the chips. On top of that were white blobs I first mistook for sour cream. It was not, it was a white cheese, soft, I’d say somewhat like mozzarella in texture, but not in taste, melted perfectly. I don’t know how to describe that other than mild and delicious. Very monochromatic, easy on the eyes. With the plate came little cups full of all the things other places pile on to make a soggy mess. This way I choose how much and what to use. One had pico de gallo, I picked my way around the onion the best I could not being much of a fan, but the tomatoes and cilantro were very yummy. The next guacamole, very chunky on the avocados, making it easy to scoop. Followed by jalapenos which I stayed the hell away from (see aforementioned pampered white girl) and then something in the sour cream family. It had a much blander taste, and was liquid instead of firm like sour cream. I went the dipping route, instead of just loading the up and was pleased with this decision. They were fantastic until the end, perfectly paired with my glass bottled full o’ sugar coke, when I had to stop before I exploded. My only regret? I didn't take a picture. I've never been one to take pictures of my food, but I should have taken one of these.

Afterwards we walked around some more, saw the sights. Then back to the ship we went. And thus began my love affair with nachos in Mexico.

Thanks for all the love on my last post. I needed, and very much appreciated it.