It just doesn’t get any simpler than this: flour tortilla, beans and cheese…that’s gacho! As a kid I was never a big fan of gachos, then again I wasn’t a big fan of playing with girls either, but things have changed. The few times I did make it out to a place that served Spanish food, I usually indulged in panades and salbutes but never gacho. I had limited space and I wasn’t going to waste it on something as simple as a gacho, especially since it wasn’t fried.
I always viewed the gacho as being lazy. If you lined up all the items on the menu, gacho just seemed lazy and uninterested in being chosen. It had the demeanor of being upstart and rude as it would stare you right in the eye with a defiant manner and comment in a nonchalant way “What you looking at? You calling me lazy yet you are not at home cooking!” Compared to the burrito, the gacho just doesn’t have much to offer. Compared to the burrito, the gacho seems like a simpleton.
Some have tried addressing the issue of the gacho being simple by adding ketchup to it. One day the Armageddon of all wars will commence and the two sides at war will be “People who put ketchup on everything” vs. “People who oppose ketchup on everything”. As demonstrated by the person who decided to put ketchup in a gacho, they are just out to provoke someone’s taste buds and start a fight. A little pepper is fine, but ketchup, well that’s just wrong. Ladies you can compare it to your man; that simpleton of a man you got, dressing him up in a suit and tie won’t make a difference to his IQ, you know why? Cause he’s gacho!
But I digress, back to the gacho. So I was never a fan of it, and made efforts to avoid it. But that has changed and now I find myself looking for that lazy bastard on the menu. At least once a week I end up either at Annie’s Fast Food off of Coney Drive or the newly opened fast food place on Queen Street across The Belize Times office ordering two gachos and a coke. The slightly toasted flour tortilla filled with beans, cheese and some pepper does the trick. And while I feel guilty for accusing it of being lazy I can’t help but appreciate its simplicity. The tortilla adds the texture, the beans add the taste and the cheese provides the salty bite that tends to come from only that type of cheese. Nothing more, nothing less; it does just enough to get the job done (like an employee that does just enough not to get fired).
As the Law of Diminishing Return states that as input increases the yield decreases. When it comes to food, the law would state that as you continue eating, the food you are eating becomes less appealing as it was when you were hungry. And while that law might hold true to just about every food item out there (including Li Chee and hot dogs), the gacho somehow, with its attitude, defies this law. Until the last bite that gacho taste the same, and gives you the same satisfying feeling after every bite. On several occasions the two gachos weren’t enough so I did what anyone else would do, order a piece of lemon meringue pie (only available at the Queen St. place).
And as I make my way from the table my thoughts have already moved on from “that was some good stuff” to “when is it ok to get some more?” And while my stomach digests, my mind thinks and my body avoids a food coma, I relate my dining experience to life; sometimes it’s the simplest things in life that are the best…..that’s gacho!
