Friday, July 1, 2011

Fiesta Taqueria (Campbell, CA): Super Nachos (Chicken instead of Beef)

Yay!  Yet another taqueria has opened in Campbell, and it's just a 15 minute walk from my office!  As I strolled down Union Avenue on a glorious summer day, my mind was full of high hopes for this festive-sounding taqueria.  When I got there,  no fiesta was happening (not even mariachi music playing in the background), but it was clean and bright inside and the woman at the counter was very nice.  How were the nachos?  Interesting.  Instead of melted cheese on the chips, a strange, crumbled cheese (and not very much of it) was sprinkled over the top.  The woman behind the counter, who also brought out the food said that was a Mexican cheese, kind of like parmesan.  My first thought was, 'Oh, so this must be the authentic Mexican way of making nachos.'  But a second later, I remembered my previous post about the origin of nachos and realized that couldn't be true!  Here is the breakdown:
Pro's:
- Cheap ($4.55 for "Super Nachos")
- Shredded chicken
- "Mexican Parmesan" is pretty tasty
- Good guacamole and pico de gallo
- Nice big bottles of tasty salsa (red and green) brought to the table with the food
Con's:
- Chips from Costco (the ones that come in the giant bag - very easy to identify in the world of chips!)
- Chicken = just ok, somewhere in between Taqueria Vallarta in felton and Taqueria Los Gallos in Scott's Valley.)
 - No melted cheese (seriously?)
- Needed a healthy dousing of their excellent green salsa to punch up the flavor

The Verdict?  Not bad, but even though no melted cheese = healthier, no melted cheese also = not really nachos (the folks at Fiesta Taqueria should read my previous post!).

Rating: 3 out of 5 (would have been a 2½, but for how relatively cheap they were)
Rating Notes: As on the Food Network show, "Chopped", you definitely lose points for missing a key ingredient.
Map to Location: http://mapq.st/mcM81p

2 comments:

  1. That was likely Cotija cheese they used. Not what I would put on Nachos, but it's not bad I suppose.

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  2. I assume that's pronounced 'koh-tee-ha'? Yeah, it had a decent flavor, but wasn't right for Nachos as the primary cheese. I would have liked it to still be there, but also have some melted Monterey Jack or something.

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