One thing I miss the most about California is ripe, delicious avocados. Sure, you can get avocados here in Massachussetts, but they are invariably rock hard, stringy, and tasteless. When you do find the occasional good looking avocado, it’s insanely expensive. I’ve resigned myself to a lack of avocados in my life, which has been sad, because one of my favorite snacks in the world is avocado with soy sauce.
I was introduced to this perfect snack by an old housemate, and while it might sound strange initially, you will be as quick a convert as I was. The saltiness of the soy sauce is an excellent complement to the relative blandness of the avocado, and the hole left behind by the pit creates a perfect little dish for the soy sauce. The skin of the avocado is its own bowl, so you really only have to dirty a spoon, and a knife, to cut the thing open.
There’re all kinds of healthy fats in the avocado, and while soy sauce isn’t the healthiest thing in the world, you don’t really use a ton of it, so its sodium effects are negligible. At least that’s what I tell myself. The fact of the matter is this was a hard snack to give up, so when I saw actual ripe avocados for only $1.39 (which, yes, I know, is still expensive), I almost jumped in glee. It felt incredibly indulgent to eat this perfect (ok, almost perfect–I am still in Massachussetts) avocado on a cold March afternoon, scraping the last bits of green flesh from the skin with my spoon and relishing every salty smooth bite. I hope the memory lasts awhile–I’m not sure when I’ll find good avocados again.