Growing up in Durban, South Africa, we had an avocado tree in my grandmother’s back yard. A subtropical climate where fruit trees flourish. Family or friends in the neighborhood had fruit trees in their yards like avocado, mango, guava, litchi (lychee) and mulberry. These were common and produced plenty of luscious fruit for residents and sometimes even monkeys would pay a visit.
We were the beneficiaries of the yellowy-green goodness by nepotism which made for easy avocado toast on a regular basis. I grew to like the taste of avocados in my teenage years. This fork-smooshed stuff suddenly tasted so good to my more mature taste buds and it’s never changed. Sometimes the creamy salt-flecked, peppery toast does not make it to a plate, it is eaten standing at the kitchen counter.
I remember seeing a “green mamba” a highly poisonous snake in the beloved avocado tree which stunted my desire to climb that tree indefinitely. On the other side of the wall where the avocado tree grew, there was an illegal “shebeen” on the vacant lot. A slightly disreputable unlicensed liquor establishment. Thanks to the shananigans of the sheebeen, the avo-tree made for some entertainment, especially on pay-day weekends.
The toast of the nineties is not the toast of today. Avocado toast can be done in so many ways. Here are three of my favorite ways to have “avo” on toast.
- Avocado and goats cheese crumbles
- Avocado and tomato
- Avocado and egg.
Some Chicago eateries that make fancy avocado toast:
- 1 ripe yet firm avocado
- 2 slices of toast
- 1 tomato sliced
- Toast the bread
- Wash and slice the tomato
- Cut the avocado in half
- Take out the pit
- Take one half of the avocado and peel the outside skin off
- Place it on a chopping board with the hollow of the pit side on the board
- Cut the slices as thinly and evenly together supporting the avocado and keeping it together until all slicing of the half is complete.
- Place the knife down and build a thin long wall of avocado by moving the avocado pieces along
- It is easiest to make a "u" shape.
- Curl the one end of the "u" inwards to shape the rose avocado