How Avocado became our favorite Food Pornstar in a world in need of cuddles.
It’s a funky fenomena. Any coffee shop, brunch spot or new bistrot menu in most countries now seems to have secretly sealed a pact on giving a star role to Mr. Sexy Avocado.
The ubiquitous fruit was called “butter of the poor” in pre-columbian America for millenium. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no different, and as almost everyone “I looooove avocado”. It is delicious when seasonal, grown ethically, and perfectly mature. I.e., let’s face it…very rarely.
Now let’s talk about cooking. Avocado has to be seasoned properly if we don’t want to overwhelm our tongues with pure fat. Who would eat a chunk of butter. The pear shaped fruit needs a kick in its ass to wake up and activate: vinegar, citrus, some acidity. Some bitterness. Some spice. Yet it’s often served with even more fat : Feta cheese, mozzarella, smoked salmon, eggs are unfortunately his fake friends.
Without even mentioning the ecological and societal disasters that the avocado intensive culture triggers, the trendy obsession for this poor fruit is not a healthy signal for our global brain’s activity. Avocado is now such in high demand that it is being thrown out of its bed even when not in shape. As a result, even suffering with black edges or covered by brown sick dots, we still choose its green-yellow soft pillow to stuff our faces with style. Eating avocado became a “Socialinsta” status. We get validated by showing the digital world we did our job of eating the fruit, and the message behind this is “Please like me, I’m a health conscious Foodie of our times”.
Avocado is not the only victim of this brain-stomach wash. We could also mention the viral global Eggporn spread, the Pancakes mania, the Burrata invasion, the Smoothie-everything-goes and of course the goodie oldie Burger craze. All of this insta(nt) food requests very limited chewing aptitude and kind of act like xanax in a bite.
Allowing ourselves a minute for some socio-culinary thinking, this trend is revealing an immense craving for reassurance and cuddles. Obviously there is nothing wrong in getting hugs from food. It is the easiest, fastest, most satisfying source of comfort we can imagine, and I will never ever get tired of food hugs. That’s like asking me to forget I had a mum feeding me with milk. Yet instead, staying in that softness lova lova register, we could have seen the resurgence on our plates of more elaborate dishes such as Pommes Dauphine, Purée, Blanquette, Caponata, Ile Flottante, Crème Caramel…Can you imagine those served proudly in every Coffee Shop and Bistrot. Now THAT would be interesting.
