Avocado on toast is hot

"Avocado toast is crunchy, creamy, salty, and fatty, all while being nutrititous and wholesome; it's acceptable for every meal of the day; and it's the perfect canvas for your culinary whims." Sarah Jamel - Food 52

The hottest food trend of 2016 is avocado on toast. Avocado and sourdough toast are all over Instagram and the internet in general and every café will have its own version. I have just discovered this after a double whammy on avocado on toast that hit me yesterday. First of all was the October Coles Magazine which had a feature on it - shown at left, and then on the ABC Drive program in the evening there was a segment on the café latté society and its current obsession with avocado on toast. I didn't get to hear the segment so I don't know what they said, but the idea wormed itself into my brain - largely because of the coincidence of the Coles Magazine article I guess. So today I decided to investigate and found quite a lot of interesting stuff - from a food, history and sociology point of view.

So where to start? Perhaps with the history.

Like many of today's essential European foods this one originated in the New World, in Mexico in fact - still the world's largest producer, and was brought to Europe by the Conquistadores. Guacamole, until recently its main use in our eating habits, is, after all, a Mexican dish. According to Jane Grigson it was known in England as far back as the seventeenth century but didn't impact on 'ordinary' people until after the second world war. It was a luxury curiosity until then. Indeed I remember being served it by my late brother-in-law, who shopped at Fortnum and Mason's and served his guests all sorts of luxury items. I don't remember liking it all that much, considering it soapy - though this may have been the texture rather than the taste, and I'm not sure I have progressed that much even now in terms of liking it. My husband certainly doesn't like it so we don't have it at all at home, unless I am making guacamole. Jane Grigson, by the way treats it as a vegetable rather than a fruit which it technically is, like tomato. It's a berry with a large seed. Apparently some people roast and grind the seed and put it in smoothies, but this is not generally recommended as the scientists have not really checked the seed out as a food, and think it could possibly be toxic. Jane Grigson also credits the Israelis with popularising the fruit in Europe and for providing Europe with most of its avocados.

As for the evolution of avocado toast, there is one theory that it is Australia's own Bill Granger - king of breakfast as one article described him - who is responsible, as he was very likely the first to serve it in a restaurant (in 1993). Which goes to show he is a canny businessman. Certainly he would have been one of the main movers and shakers in the breakfast in a café movement and he has certainly made a lot of money out of it. He now lives in London where he has dozens of restaurants, though he returns to Australia every now and then - probably when the weather is better! Indeed there are some articles on the web that try to make it an Australian invention - originating in Queensland, but, also, as some say - is this really a recipe? I mean the basic recipe as introduced by Bill Granger is just crushed avocado on toast. In America it seems to be Gwyneth Paltrow who made it a hot item by including it in one of her cookery books - although even she says it's not really a recipe.

“It’s the holy trinity of Vegenaise, avocado and salt that makes this like a favorite pair of jeans — so reliable and easy and always just what you want.” Gwyneth Paltrow

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And now the craze goes one crazy step further with the avocado rose phenomenon. The Coles Magazine collection above shows one version but apparently Instagram has thousands! Here is one:

And I do like this picture because it is so urban hipster, millennial, however you want to describe it - with the Voss water and the trendy fashion magazine and the implication that we are breakfasting in a café. I think the point of the Drive segment was going to be that the Millenials, who complain that they have no money to use as a deposit on a house, and are thereby being shut out of the housing market, nevertheless spend their money on caffé lattés and avocado on toast. I saw one article quoting a price of $11.00 for avocado on toast. Over a year this would add up to a substantial sum, that could be put towards a house deposit. Well it depends how you want to live your life doesn't it, and I guess that it just proves that you can't have your cake and eat it too - well in this case, your avocado on toast and eat it too.

Just one final thing. Because of this obsession - not just for avocado on toast, but avocado in general - lots of people use it instead of butter in their sandwiches, for example - there has been a massive increase in the growing of avocados. I have not looked into the environmental consequences of this though there are most likely to be some. However, from a criminal point of view I found two worrying facts. In New Zealand where the consumption of avocados has soared there is a growing problem with people stealing avocados from orchards to sell by the roadside or in small markets. Dangerous for the consumers apparently as they may be toxic from chemicals. Mind you I find that little fact a bit weird - I mean although some people may eat the seed, nobody eats the skin, and surely the pesticides don't go through to the fruit - and if they do, then all avocados are toxic surely? Still it's a problem for the police. And in Mexico, the world's largest producer, production has fallen into the hands of a criminal cartel with all that that entails So there is a dark side to avocados. Here in Australia I am guessing that ours are home-grown with perhaps some from Chile and California when they are not in season. They were in the Coles Magazine as an example of what is in season now - and Curtis Stone has been spruiking them on the television. You can get them all year though.

So avocodos - don't pay too much, don't buy from Mexico and don't eat the seed, but otherwise very good for you. And according to most of the gurus, you really shouldn't do too much to them - just a light dressing and a sprinkling of this or that. And you can now get avocado oil too. And lots of cosmetics tout it as well. Stephanie Alexander has a list of things that go with avocado - you can try some of them on your toast:

bacon, chicken, chillies, coriander leaves, cos lettuce, crab, cumin, extra virgin olive oil, feta cheese, fufu persimmons, grapefruit, lemons, limes, mint, oranges, parsley, pepper, prawns, salt, salt cod, spring onions, tomatoes, tuna, wine vinegar.

Add eggs to that list as it seems to be the most common addition in the breakfast stakes.

And you can grow them here in Victoria, though you may not get a lot of fruit. Maybe global warming will help with that. I do know somebody who had a tree and they did get some. It's apparently one of those things that you get either nothing or a glut.

POSTSCIPT - The Feed program on SBS2, which I should say at the outset is probably aimed at those Millennial and is certainly hosted by them, did a report on that statement that Millennials spent too much money on avocado on toast. Their argument was that even if it did cost as much as $22.00 (the figure quoted) and if you had it every day in the year, it would still take you decades to save enough money for a deposit on a house at today's ridiculous prices. Which is sort of true - I guess there are a few more things that could be said though. The avocado toast is just an example of the 'wasteful' spending of the Millenials - there are lots more. The Millenials tend to want to live in impossibly expensive areas like the trendy inner suburbs of Melbourne. They could go further out and buy bigger and better. Apparently my generation is called the Frugals and we have had it easy (in one sense) all our lives. So I guess we just don't understand! Mmmm - what do you think?

POSTSCRIPT NUMBER 2

That article about millennials moaning about not being able to afford houses and spending money on avocado on toast has obviously struck a nerve with them. Yesterday in the Age there was an article by Matt Holden' defending brunch - which I think was the focus of the attack in the first article that started all this. Indeed he quotes it and goes on to defend"

"'It's now common to see brunchers lingering at their table until nearly dinnertime,' opined Shaftel. And? Why not? Why shouldn't people sit around on the weekend in cafés? Isn't that what working all week buys us in a consumer society - the chance to spend our hard-earned on whatever we like on our days off? ...

Any time I look at a café menu and see lunch dishes - steamed barramundi or duck leg or some pasta dish for the really challenged - I want to get up and leave. But I skip lunch and back to all-day breakfast - the bacon sandwiches with provolone and smoked mozzarella, the smoked beef short rib with a fried egg, the pork shoulder sandwich.

Brunch is for jerks? I don't think so. Bring me another serve of avocado smash please."

So there you go. A generation gap if ever there was one.