Rancho El Tablero Serves Up Mobile Mexican in Elko, Nevada

It's one of the West's most beloved symbols. It stands for the American Dream - a notion that with an idea, nay a dream, and a small business owner's loan anything is possible.

The taco truck, in all its mobile Mexican glory, is a welcome sight for late-night revelers and a godsend for those seeking hot, homemade Mexican goodness outside of a sit-down restaurant or the Hellish drive-thru of a Taco Bell, Del Taco or Taco John.

The Rancho El Tablero taco truck in Elko is one of these mobile kitchens. It serves breakfast items at the Brews Brothers coffee shop at the intersection of College Avenue and Idaho Street and parks at the Main City Park into the evening, selling combo plates, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, tortas and a host of other portable food items.

The process is simply enough. You drive up, park, get out, walk up to the window, place your order, step to the side and wait for it to come up. The meats are cooked fresh every day. Burritos, tacos and the other items come with a choice of carne asada, pork or chicken. Tacos are served in a traditional manner. It's just the meat, cilantro, onion and their homemade salsa. Cheese costs extra. It's supposed to be traditional after all. Burritos contain all that just mentioned, along with beans and finely chopped cabbage.

Coming from the Midwest, I'm more familiar with the standard shredded iceberg lettuce used in burritos. It's a cheap filler for the restaurant, and a nuisance for the buyer. Plus, if the burritos is kept for later and reheated, the lettuce gets all wilty in the microwave. With cabbage, the crispness is maintained. That, and the cabbage adds an extra texture you can't get with regular lettuce.

For breakfast, one can get a burrito with chorizo, ham and egg or just about anything else in the typical breakfast burrito. There's a California burrito that comes with avocado. For some reason, people like to call things "California" when there's avocado involved.

As for beverages, there are standard plastic bottles of soda, as well as Coca-Cola in glass bottles (brought up from Mexico, as they taste like the old formula that uses real cane sugar) and the more common Jarritos in lemon and orange flavors.

While the food and good and service prompt, it's not overly cheap. A super-sized burrito is $6.50. Regular sized burritos are $5.00. Tacos are $1.50 each and barely fit into the palm of your hand. But, unlike the pressed/formed corn shells at fast food places, these are fresh corn tortillas from a local panadera (Mexican bakery), so you're not only guaranteed authentic food, but also fresh food. And for some, that makes all the difference.