Some of my friends smile at me indulgently with the kind of a look that they usually reserve for little children or people who are loco en la cabeza whenever I mention nopales. Why eat anything as prickly and as slimy and just plain dangerous, they ask? Poor souls, if they only knew. For lurking beneath its nasty agüates (stingers) and forbidding exterior lies the tender heart of a saint. If you like the fresh taste of farm fresh green beans and asparagus with a hint of lemon, then you are on your way to loving nopales in just about anything Mexican, for example, with your scrambled eggs with pinto beans and a homemade tortilla for breakfast. Try nopales in tacos and red-hot stews. If you have never tasted nopalitos, then this refreshing salad is the perfect place to start. Give it a try, and soon your taste buds will find that some things have a beauty beyond just mere appearance.