Avocado on Whole Wheat Toast

Simple.

Amped Up Tacos from Taqueria Vallarta

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated, a lot has changed— I’ve relocated to the sunny Mission District which puts me right in the middle of taco/burrito/cheap Mexican food alley. For example, these tacos from Taqueria Vallarta pictured above (Barbacoa, Carne Asada, and Pollo Asada).

So cheap at $1.50 a pop, but they only come with meat, salsa, and the tortilla. I ordered them to go and spruced them up at home using leftover avocados, ricotta cheese, and sriracha sauce that I had bought to make— you guessed it, fish tacos, for a dinner party the night before.

The verdict? Extremely delicious but extremely messy.

Spicy Avocado Melt from Lunch Geek

Spicy, Avocado, and Melt are my three favorite food related words. Therefore, today is basically the best day ever (actually, it is a really crappy day but this sandwich is helping).

Lunch Geek is located at Market & Fell in San Francisco, they have a standard menu of sandwiches (many of which use avocados) and also a “daily kitchen experiments” menu; from which sprang forth the glorious sandwich pictured above. Aside from avocados, the ingredients include spicy aioli, persian cucumbers, lettuce, and provolone cheese.

Red Snappocado Tacos

I used to make these simple tacos all the time when I was a poor college student. Most recently I used Red Snapper, but this can be substituted for any other kind of fish (my recommendations being salmon, tilapia, or whitefish).
The necessary ingredients include:

1 Red Snapper Filet
2 Whole Wheat Tortillas
1 Medium to Large Haas Avocado
2 Teaspoons of Sour Cream
Cayenne and Chili Pepper (for the heat sensitive, use salt and pepper)
Half a Lime

To cook, season the fish with the peppers and then place it on a greased frying pan. Allow the fish to begin to turn opaque and become slightly flaky, then use a spatula to chop the fish up into several tiny pieces and shreads (it should be really easy to do once the fish has cooked to a certain point). The rest of the fish will now cook much faster. Make sure everything is opaque before you turn off the heat. Now add the two teaspoons of sour cream to the pan and mix it up with the cooked fish. This is optional, but I find that it makes the fish texture more moist.

While the fish is cooking, either slice or dice the haas avocado and divide the pieces into two piles, placing each pile onto an open tortilla. After the fish is done cooking, add half of the amount to each tortilla. Spritz and garnish with lime and wrap it up in whatever way you see fit (even though I call them tacos, I always wrap my tacos up as untucked burritos).

That’s it! It’s a pretty utilitarian recipe, but that’s a part of the beauty of the avocado’s versatility. While it’s most often used in restaurants as an elaborate garnish or dressing, it can just as easily be the basis of an entire meal.

Tuna Poke

A few months ago, a friend made tuna poke for me. At the time, I was under the impression that it was a particularly complicated dish. When it comes to handling raw food, I suppose I expect things to be that way. The reality (which makes a lot more sense) is that raw food tends to be much simpler to prepare. I decided to try my hand at this dish and it took me approximately 10 minutes to make, including preparation time.

Tuna Poke is usually served on its own, but I decided to make mine a little more substantial by adding avocados (which I’m coming to find is like the universal donor of ingredients; what don’t they go well with?). I modified the recipe based on looking at two to three different recipes online, found at Squidoo and YumSugar.

My mom, who is sensitive to raw foods decided to lightly sear her tuna before mixing it in with the other ingredients. I was reluctant to try it at first; warm tuna poke? Eh? However, it was surprisingly good, and tasted kind of like a second cousin to the original dish. The seared fish tasted a lot creamier, though I think the individual flavors of the ingredients, such as the soy sauce and sesame seed oil, stand out more when it’s uncooked and cool.

Stay tuned to see what else I end up adding avocados to!

Prologue

A really smart and successful man named Seth Godin once said, “waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress”. If there was ever a lesson I needed to learn, that’s probably it. After toying around with designing blog layouts for the past two months (constantly rejecting design after design because nothing, nothing could ever be good enough for the most majestic fruit in the entire world) I’ve decided… f— it. I don’t want to be the type of designer that focuses so much on aesthetics that they disregard content. Worse, I don’t want to spend another two months fidgeting with different shades of chartreuse while all of the amazing dishes I’ve eaten or created with avocados remain unknown to the world.

Godin’s lesson is also applicable to my real life. I’ve been planning to move to San Francisco after graduation for awhile now, but I didn’t want to make the move without having secured a full-time job. If I had my dream job, I could get my dream apartment, if I had my dream apartment, I could get my dream puppy, etc… Well, there’s nothing like a less than favorable economy to throw a wrench in one’s plans. However, a recent opportunity arose; despite being temporary, it would force me to make the move to the bay area. It also starts in a week. Not exactly a lot of time to plan everything out perfectly. After allowing myself the weekend to freak out over the tight time restraints, I’ve decided to go for it. The dream apartment will just have to wait while I try to find a suitable sublet.

You might be wondering what my personal anecdote has to do with avocados. I will just leave you with the fact that 95% of avocado production in the United States takes place in California. I am going to that state, and I am going to eat a lot of avocados.