I passed the booth with a big sign advertising a “walking taco” a few times before I just had to see what it was.

It seems walking tacos are a food that’s familiar to most frequent fairgoers but virtually unheard of to the rest of us.

There are a few variations, but the concept is simple. Open up a snack size bag of chips, and add the taco fixings — meat, lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc. — right into the bag. Then you eat the taco with a fork straight out of the bag.

The name, I’m guessing, comes from the fact you can do just that as you walk around the fair.

The booth where I got my walking taco made them with cheese Doritos. They also offered a similar concept with Fritos — called a Frito pie. Later in the week I spied at least one other booth offering the walking taco, this time made with Fritos.

The taco was great. I was never much a fan of eating tacos in shells. In fact, my mother was way before her time on this idea.

I remember back about 20 years ago, before it became the norm to eat tacos out of soft shellls, my mother (who despised any kind of mess) insisted in crushing up our hard taco shells and having us eat our “taco salad” with a fork. This idea eventually evolved to using tortilla chips.

The cheesy Doritos added a nice flavor twist.

Maybe next year I’ll try the Frito pie!