A Word (or several)
on Avocados:
Until recently, we had thought that it may have been spelled
avocadoes, similar to potatoes and tomatoes. A visit to
avocado.org confirmed that the California Avocado Commission deems them
avocados. Now we know...
...and knowing is half the battle.
We are into 'cados. We purchase them at our local farmers' market. Obviously, they are acquired from a nearby produce option. The day global warming develops so drastically that we can grow avocados in Pennsylvania, we'll be the first to plant a tree! Most weeks, our household (two people) goes through two to six avocados. We
love making guacamole; and did so very frequently over the summer, blending in our abundant garden tomatoes. Now, we keep a little chopped cilantro in the freezer, for when the mood strikes.
The very, very best guacamole we've ever had was at a party over the summer. A Mexican woman had brought an
enormous bowl of the stuff, and we
couldn't stop eating it. Her simple recipe included
lots of mashed avocado, diced onion (
not garlic) and copious amounts of lime juice. It was so fresh, tangy and irresistable! Sometimes, we'll mix in a little cumin, hot sauce, fresh chiles or chili powder to spice it up; we've never actually stuck to one recipe, ever.
The draw to avocados is that they're
so fatty. It's like eating vegan butter. The mouthfeel experience of a food literally melting in your mouth is what makes those victuals with a 70-100 degree melting point so sumptuously succulent. Think of eating chocolate, coconut oil, fudge, butter. Surely, you are drooling at the thought.
We looked at
avocado.org/nutrition to see what's up with the fat content. The Nutrition Facts reads as follows:
Serving size: 1/5 medium [avocado]
Calories: 50
Total Fat: 4.5 g / 7% DV
Saturated Fat 0.5 g / 3% DV
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 0 mg
Potassium: 150 mg / 4% DV
Total Carbohydrate: 3 g / 1% DV
Dietary Fiber: 2 g / 8 % DV
Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 0 g
Vitamin C: 4% DV
Iron: 2% DV
Vitamin E, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6: 4% DV
Folate: 6% DV
Thiamin, Magnesium, Zinc, Phosphorus, Copper, Manganese: 2% DV
Does anyone else see how ridiculous this is??? Who in their right mind is only going to eat one-fifth of an avocado?? Who is going to take the time to bother - after precariously peeling and pitting - slicing an avocado into fifths??
Clearly, CAC or the USDA or whoever has deduced this serving size to present a food with only 4.5 grams of fat per serving. We find this very silly, because people eat avocados for three reason:
A. They enjoy the taste of fat.
B. They are vegan and/or dairy intolerant and can use avocados in place of butter.
C. They understand the nutritional value of plant-based, cholesterol-free fats.
Personally, we think the CAC and/or USDA could just be honest and write out, "Serving: 1/2 'cado, 125 calories, 11 grams of fat; but... oh! 20% DV of fiber and 5% to 15% of lots of important vitamins and minerals!"
Food labeling comes down to marketing; and even though this food has abundant, healthful fats, North Americans still cringe at the thought of fat in their diets (or at least on the labels).
The recent push in marketing of avocados - seen in magazine advertisements and certain chain restaurants - is very interesting, considering how they weren't prevalent in temperate-climate groceries ten years ago. Now, they're everywhere!
A friend told a story of when he lived in Southern California: many folks had avocado trees growing in their yards, and the fruit would fall and rot and make such a goopy mess of their lawns, they thought it a nuisance. They would feed the spare 'cados to their dogs. How fascinating is that? Those who live where it snows can shell out two or three dollars for one avocado at the grocery store; and a few home-owning Californians thought they were too numerous and too messy. The avocados were so abundant, even the dogs were able to enjoy eating them.
Over the summer, we were traveling; and, in a pinch, needed a quick sandwich. We stopped at a shopping mall, hoping to find a Chick fil-A. There was none, so we went to a Subway restaurant. Obnoxious, green signage convinced us that we needed to "Gooo 'Cadooooo!" The young lady constructing our sandwich squeezed some putrid, green goo out of a pastry-icing bag. It was kind of disturbing.
On the other hand, if you go to any sushi restaurant in the country, you can get some sort of roll that includes avocado. These specialty rolls tend to go by names like "Dragon Roll" or "Caterpillar Roll," and there are delicate slices of 'cado atop rice, sesame, seaweed and all sorts of fish. Every single time, the avocado is perfect! Spotless, but not too mushy. It's considered an amazing mystery how sushi artists always have perfect, whole, unbruised avocados on hand. They must get them by the case - but also, must have some way of telling when they're exactly ready for eating.
Do you have problems getting a just-right avocado? We do. At the store or the market, they tend to be rock-hard; and it's hard to tell when they'll be soft enough to eat, but not brown and icky. Usually, when trying to squeeze-check one, we'll over-grasp and bruise the thing.
One preventative measure we have learned (today, for the last time) is not to keep one's 'cados in the sun. Our hanging basket by the kitchen window is home to lemons, garlic, whatever; and we've been popping the 'cados into it upon returning from the market weekly. However, sun exposure turns the skin black, so they appear ready to eat. Today, we cut into (a black-skinned) one and it was hard as stone and tasted like wood. Another one was even rot-brown on the inside, but too firm to eat. How crazy is that?
Apparently, the best thing to do - if you are a once-weekly grocery shopper - is to put one or two avocados on the counter to ripen while the rest of your stock sits in the fridge. It seems that the cold retards the softening process. We'll be keeping ours in a bowl, away from the window; all the while trying new recipes for guacamole on the regular. Pass the chips!
