Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Odd Foods.

Crash at my pal Oleg's place, and you may get offered a halved avocado by way of a snack or a meal while he natters on about suppressors or f-stops or concealment holsters. I always thought that this was a charming eccentricity of his.

Now, I've never been the world's biggest avocado fan, having once likened their taste to that of a light green Crayola, but I was in the grocery store last night, wandering through the produce section and avocados were on sale and...

Y'know, a halved avocado, especially with a light dash of salt, is darned good food. I don't know if my taste buds have matured or what, but... YUM!


(Trivial Pursuit Factoid: Avocado made its appearance in sushi, specifically the California roll, as a stand-in for toro. Its taste and texture mimics the fatty bluefin tuna belly quite nicely.)
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29 comments:

Robb Allen said...

Salt and a bit of lemon juice.

Like squishy bits of heaven.

2:30 PM, July 08, 2009
Jeff the Baptist said...

The lemon juice (a splash of a mild vinegar works too) is especially nice because it keeps the color nice. Otherwise they turn from crayola green to waste management brown as soon as they spend any time in the open air. Still yummy even after that, but just not as appetizing.

A fruit that is almost 100% fat can't be all bad, right?

2:41 PM, July 08, 2009
Anonymous said...

...other interesting factoid...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado#Etymology

2:48 PM, July 08, 2009
NotClauswitz said...

And it's the good kind of fat and decreases serum cholesterol.

2:53 PM, July 08, 2009
Tam said...

...I don't care if it causes strokes and brain tumors; it tastes dang good!

2:59 PM, July 08, 2009
El Capitan said...

Add some diced onion, tomato, lime juice and a couple of de-seeded & sliced serrano peppers, and you've got a nice batch of guacamole. A nice chunky fork-mashed guac is a good meal by itself, and it's the bomb when scooped up on warm salted tortilla chips.

3:46 PM, July 08, 2009
Oldfart said...

Everybody I know likes 'em.... except me. I keep thinking I've never had a good one yet so I keep trying to find one and I'm still disappointed. To me they taste a bit like grease. If I have to add a bunch of stuff to choke 'em down I might as well leave out the avocado and save money.

4:32 PM, July 08, 2009
Aaron said...

Cut the avacado in half and pull out the pit, splash some soy sauce in the hole where the pit was, add some drops of lemon juice, eat with a grapefruit spoon while dipping each piece into the sauce in the hole.

A perfect and easy snack at any time.
Verification worde: versesi - the above is versesi to do, and quite tasty.

5:17 PM, July 08, 2009
mostly cajun said...

Salt. Freshly ground black pepper. A couple of splashes of balsamic vinegar.

5:27 PM, July 08, 2009
Rabbit said...

There's a Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood that makes a tableside guacamole that is so good you'll hallucinate. Good hallucinations, mind you.

My mom got me hooked on avocadoes as a child. Salt, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and a dollop of avocado on a saltine = instant Nirvana.

Regards,
Rabbit.

5:41 PM, July 08, 2009
LabRat said...

The salt is *key*. It wakes up your tastebuds and brings out all the good qualities of the fruit- otherwise it just tastes like what it is, green grease. An acid also helps, as others note.

Try 'em in an omelet with some white cheese. This is my new favorite omelet filling. We also now always put some in our BLTs, though "BLAT" is not the most appetizing meal name.

5:52 PM, July 08, 2009
Kristopher said...

Avocado is a Pleistocene ghost ... the animals it coevolved with to distribute the seeds went extinct.

It managed to survive because the fruit had enough oil content to interest predators and omnivores into eating it.

( and I think it's damned cool that Google put that entire book online for free ... )

5:55 PM, July 08, 2009
RHT447 said...

My poor-man's tail mix:

Crush Fritos in bag. Pour onto avacado half as desired. Use outer skin as bowl, mash with fork and eat.

6:04 PM, July 08, 2009
Kristopher said...

My bad ... it's only half the book, after looking at my copy.

Pretty slick ... just enough to get interested.

6:15 PM, July 08, 2009
Oleg Volk said...

Try it with salt and black pepper.

7:10 PM, July 08, 2009
Oleg Volk said...

Or add Worcestershire sauce (mainly vinegar and soy sauce).

7:12 PM, July 08, 2009
sam said...

Good Toro is far superior to that green slimy stuff. Far more expensive, too.

7:17 PM, July 08, 2009
Darrell said...

Slice or mash some avocado on toast, add salt and pepper. Yum.

7:18 PM, July 08, 2009
Tam said...

LabRat,

"We also now always put some in our BLTs, though "BLAT" is not the most appetizing meal name."

Had a BLTA for lunch the other day at Taste (creme brulee for dessert). How did I ever eat BLT's without avocado?


Sam,

Good toro is better than good avocado, but the availability of the former can get spotty. Every good sushi joint in the neighborhood last year went through a toro famine that rivaled the Great Oaxacan Ditchweed Drought of 1987.

7:48 PM, July 08, 2009
LabRat said...

Unfortunately, the bluefin populations that produce toro are SEVERELY crashed out... the toro famine may well be permanent before too long.

8:30 PM, July 08, 2009
TD said...

Its taste and texture mimics the fatty bluefin tuna belly quite nicely

I don't disagree with you often, but: no. Not even close :-)

9:42 PM, July 08, 2009
Matt G said...

I can take you from whole avocado to delicacy in a bowl in under 30 seconds, and don't even have to hurry.

Fresh lemon juice of fresh lime juice, dash of salt, and fresh-ground black pepper make a ripe avocado sing. Srsly.

11:14 PM, July 08, 2009
OrangeNeckInNY said...

A good avocado has a nutty flavor. I've been eating mine plain, but I think I'll try the salt and lime juice on it next time.

12:41 AM, July 09, 2009
Steve Skubinna said...

I like to put a little bleu cheese dressing on my avocado halves.

Because, oh I dunno, it's not rich and oily enough on its own? Or maybe it's just that nearly everything is better with a little bit of bleu cheese dressing on it. And bacon.

Oldfart, I understand completely where you're coming from (even though I do like avocados). FOr years everybody around me raved about how they loved a tall cool glass of buttermilk and I never liked it at all. But that didn't stop me from trying it every year or so, just on the off chance that my tastes had finally matured to the point where I'd appreciate it too. Eventually I decided that, heck, I didn't like drinking buttermilk. Amazing the calm that descended upon me once I decided that not liking buttermilk didn't make me a bad person.

3:17 AM, July 09, 2009
Anonymous said...

Fill the seed cavity with Catalina Dressing.

7:27 AM, July 09, 2009
Kristophr said...

Labrat: They aren't crashed out ... they were starved out.

Rogue fisherman are harvesting entire baitballs ... strip-mining the deep ocean.

Tuna populations are dieing off, and sharks are starving and heading to shorelines to eat, since the deep oceans are being converted into deserts.

Result: waves of shark attacks as pelagic sharks crowd into the 200 mile limits.

11:41 AM, July 09, 2009
NotClauswitz said...

Wash it down with a good reposado-lime-drink on ice with a salted rim.

12:53 PM, July 09, 2009
Anonymous said...

If I'm feeling uptown I fill the cavity w/diced red onion and blue cheese bits, splash on a vinaigrette. Or, salt + big shot of Sriracha hot sauce. Reapply hot sauce as necessary.

1:44 PM, July 09, 2009
Gewehr98 said...

Another one who just can't seem to gag down an avocado or guacamole.

Doesn't help that it reminds me of what was on the bottom of my two parrots' cages...

6:06 PM, July 09, 2009

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