Avocados not Guacamole

When we first moved to Pittsburgh, one did not find avocados in the stores and very seldom in restaurants. The change in availability has been pretty dramatic in the last 27 years but it is still not the same as having an avocado tree in your back yard. And the quality in stores is iffy: you never know whether the avocado will ripen well or if someone dropped it and it will develop a big brown spot.

My parents had two avocado trees (that are still there, despite the hard freeze in 2007), a Hass and a grafted tree with several types, including Hass, Fuerte, and Edrinal. Naturally the Hass was the favorite but there is something to be said for all types and variety is the spice of life. I remember a small fat finger sized purple avocado with thin skin that grew on the school grounds but in general, California has not taken advantage of different varieties and sticks pretty much to the Hass. A real shame.

My older sister liked her avocados with mayonnaise, my father liked his with vinegar, and I like mine with salt and maybe some lime. I really like them simply with salt mashed up on a warm corn tortilla. In Chile I had an avocado served in thin slices fanned out on the plate and drizzled with olive oil. As with the mayonnaise, that might seem like overkill for the very rich avocado (and this was a Hass) but it was actually very very good. I haven't been in a country that eats more avocados than Chile does. They put "guacamole" on everything, even hot dogs. And you can find more than the Hass variety in supermarkets. In Chile it is not called avocado or aguacate but palta. Aguacate is the Nahuatl word for it (meaning very appropriately testicle) and, according to Wikipedia, palta is the Quecha name. If so, it is strange that in Colombia they would use the Nahuatl (Mexican) term rather than the south American term.

I generally prefer my avocados plain and not mushed up into guacamole but one thing that Jordan in California Home Cooking has right is that there are "as many versions of guacamole as there are counties in California, maybe more". Again I go for simplicity and like it plain with avocados and garlic mashed to a paste with salt. It is too bad that it turns brown so quickly but least you know whether it is fresh.