The last few years that Nick was in high school, he used to talk about Qdoba quite a bit. From what I could tell, Qdoba was the place where every Howard County high school kid with a driver's license would head for their after-school snack.
Up until yesterday, my experience with Qdoba had been limited to Jay's postseason soccer dinners the past two years. Knowing that their sons' were addicted to Qdoba, the team parents made sure that was what we had to eat at the banquet. The first year, whoever ordered the food didn't get quite enough. By the time I made it to the buffet table, all that was left was chips and salsa. The second year, the food held out a little longer and I was able to get a pretty good pile of chicken, cheese, guacamole, salsa, and chips on my plate. It was pretty good but I still hadn't had the entire Qdoba experience.
That changed last night. We were out on Route 40 and decided to stop at Qdoba for dinner. I approached the counter pretty warily as I wasn't completely sure how to order. After letting Kim and Jay go first, I had it figured out. I got a burrito with chicken, black beans, brown rice, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, and ranchera sauce.
We had decided to get take-out rather than eat at the restaurant. Since the cashier put our purchases into a bag and handed the bag to Kim, it wasn't til I got home that I found out how much my burrito weighed. It was mammoth, almost the size of a brick. I'm the kind of person who appreciates the size of my fast food serving almost as much as its taste. So, I was feeling pretty good. I only felt better after taking my first bite.
At last, I understood Nick's fascination with Qdoba. Yes, my burrito was messy. Yes, I'll admit that it was so big that it actually got a little bit monotonous eating it. And, yes, I can't imagine it was that good for me with all that ranchera sauce oozing out of it. But, who cares? It was absolutely delicious. The only thing wrong with it was that it almost didn't leave me any room for my applie pie for dessert. Almost.