As I continue to backtrack on my 6-year-old bold statement that I wouldn’t recognize gimmicky “national holidays,” I couldn’t help but notice that today is National Soft Taco Day. Per usual, I was a little annoyed with the item being celebrated. Really? Not just National Taco Day but National SOFT Taco Day? This is getting ridiculous.

But then I realized something. Sidney and I actually have a pretty heated debate when it comes to taco shells. She likes hard, I like soft. We are pretty adamant about our preferences and when we purchase a taco kit we make sure it has hard and soft shells.

Sidney prefers hard shells.

In my opinion, it is a no-brainer. Soft shells do a better job at containing the toppings. They also absorb the flavors and juices of those toppings. With a hard shell, toppings freely fall from either side of the taco the moment you move it –– that’s to say if the toppings haven’t already fallen out. In my experiences, after I prepare my hard shell taco and place it on my plate, it plops on its side and toppings scatter.

If you really crave what a hard shell offers, why don’t you just enjoy taco night with a bag of tortilla chips? Don’t mess up the composition of a taco just for that extra crunch. Of course you can make the best of both worlds and opt for a double decker taco by placing a hard shell inside of a soft shell…it will definitely help with stability. But not the best option if you are counting calories.

So perhaps the distinction of “soft” in today’s “holiday” isn’t so petty after all. We didn’t eat tacos for dinner tonight, but if we did, I would have made Sid eat a soft shell. Don’t Blink.