Should I curtsey when I meet the Avocado Toast Whisperer?
January 28, 2019 8:14 AM   Subscribe

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is the Avocado Toast Whisperer, her former makeup artist Daniel Martin revealed on Instagram. Daily Mail was quick to point out how problematic her choice of sandwich spread is, and the internet had a field day with it. At the same time, across the pond, sports fans fear the worst as the Mexican fuel shortage threatens the supply chain of the staple snack of the sporting competition Super Bowl – but the Association of Producers, Exporters and Packers of Avocados from Mexico assures exports will not be affected. Even further west, one really big avocado causes excitement, dispelling the rumor that avocados are not a thing anymore.
posted by Vesihiisi (47 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Let them eat toast.
posted by Fizz at 8:31 AM on January 28, 2019


Has anyone even actually had avocado toast before, feels like a made up thing and not even a particularly delicious one at that. Of all of the things I'd want to eat with avocado, recooked sliced bread is the last.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:52 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I've made it at home! It was pretty darn tasty.
posted by sarcasticah at 8:57 AM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


If you put enough salt in it, it's kind of like you've spread your bread with refreshing green butter.

Avocado toast is fine. If you like both avocados and toast (I do) it's a tasty snack. Does it deserve the craze it went through? It does not. It's still just avocados and toast.

(Here's where I admit I ate half an avocado smashed on a toasted bagel this morning for breakfast.)
posted by phunniemee at 9:19 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I eat avocado toast for breakfast on a semi-regular basis. As food, it's fine. It is a perfectly good breakfast! As a symbol of millennial self-indulgence, it's extremely stupid.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:20 AM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


Someone needs to bioengineer a cold weather avocado tree before I go full on Carmen Sandiego and steal, like, Mexico.

Also I should really not even be reading the post text of this thread before lunch.
posted by loquacious at 9:23 AM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


I've had it before, with a poached egg on top, and I enjoyed it. But I'm Gen X, though, so perhaps my data point is invalid!
posted by droplet at 9:35 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh yeah avotoast is great. Avocados never seem to be ripe or get ripe for he though.
—Another generation x avocado toast lover.
posted by rodlymight at 9:46 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Has anyone even actually had avocado toast before

Yes, here is how I make it:

Toast thick slices of a seedy/nutty bread.
Drizzle with nice olive oil,
Halve an avocado, remove pit, slice thinly (I do this in hand, and scoop out with a wide spoon).
Fan out avocado slices on toast,
Squeeze lemon over top,
Sprinkle with Dukkah and/or salt & grinds of pepper.

We eat this probly 3-4x a week in the summer.
posted by gyusan at 9:55 AM on January 28, 2019 [9 favorites]


Avocado toast is basically an open-faced turkey sandwich without the turkey, lettuce or cheese.
posted by jeremias at 9:58 AM on January 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


Like pretty much any food, you can have shitty avocado toast and amazing avocado toast.

But when it’s good, it’s really, *really* good.

You can also make it at home with your favorite ingredients. For breakfast, I add smoked salmon with various toppings like spinach and seasoning like chile-lime. You can also do tortillas or flatbread.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:02 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Avocado toast is really a thing (and a tastier vegan thing than margarine/'naise), it is fine, but honestly they're better as an ensemble player in a breakfast burrito, quesadilla, or with eggs in other various forms. I find the whole toast arrangement ends up too thick by the time you've added anything other than avocado.

(Sliced boiled eggs, on the other hand, are way easier on toast than making egg salad. Just spread with mayomustardayonaisse and add cornichons on the side.)
posted by Lyn Never at 10:10 AM on January 28, 2019


Slap some sesame seeds and a little drizzle of sesame oil on there. Heaven.

After college I lived to Los Angeles for five years. You know how when you work in an office, everybody brings in various food items and leaves them in the break room? In Southern California, these items primarily are avocados (and oranges) from somebody's back yard tree. FREE AVOCADOS ALL THE TIME. It was a rude awakening moving to East Coast and finding how much they cost in a North Carolina grocery store.
posted by something something at 10:11 AM on January 28, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm not a fan, in case any of you are interested. To me it's like a really, really disappointing mango.
posted by pipeski at 10:13 AM on January 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


Toast a really hearty slice of bread. Preferably seedy and grainy. Mash an avocado and spread it on the toast. Drizzle a tiny bit of really good olive oil over that and then squeeze a lemon over it, too. Maldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper on top. Then top with either a poached egg or a fried egg, over easy.

Delicious.
posted by cooker girl at 10:18 AM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


avocado toast is great. I really don't get the hate. (genX)
posted by supermedusa at 10:20 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Take roughly equal amounts of avocado and goat cheese. Spread on good bread. Run it under the broiler for a bit to make it melty and slightly brown. Garninish with finely diced tomato and cucumber. You could dress with a vinegrette if you want complexity.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:25 AM on January 28, 2019 [7 favorites]


Had to lookup who the Duchess of Sussex is, but yeah, she lived in Los Angeles. Of course she eats avocado toast. Everyone here does. Sometimes you just go out into your driveway to get the avocado to make the avocado toast.
posted by sideshow at 10:28 AM on January 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


Avocado goes fine with toast, but the whole is better with a big slice of beefsteak tomato, still warm from the summer sun.
posted by bonehead at 10:31 AM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


I grew up eating crushed avocado (on its own or with other stuff) on bread (any kind) for breakfast every day that avocados were in season. It's so weird how any ethnic- or foreign-ish food is subject to being turned into an obnoxious trend, and then there has to be a general conference about whether a thing millions of people have eaten all their lives is actually all hype, or maybe, possibly good enough for white Americans to continue eating as if it were normal food. See also: coconut water. I'd really like to see some of those rubbery pancakes or fluorescent, sugar encrusted breakfast cereals (or Poptarts, can you imagine) stand up to this kind of scrutiny!
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 10:41 AM on January 28, 2019 [15 favorites]


I love the fact that the comments are just a lovefest for avocados. Avocados are the best food. I'm too, uh, out of routine at the moment to be eating fresh avocado, but I've got a bag of frozen avocado halves I'm working through, and it's so good nice to be able to add a poor copy of that back into my diet.

Fresh avocados in the UK are good (as long as you buy them from Tesco), but not cheap (£1.75 for 2), so there's a tiny bit of truth in the premise of the article.
posted by ambrosen at 10:45 AM on January 28, 2019


Fresh avocados in the UK are good (as long as you buy them from Tesco), but not cheap (£1.75 for 2), so there's a tiny bit of truth in the premise of the article.
I mean, we're talking about the Duchess of Sussex, who is married to a prince, lives in a cottage on the grounds of a castle, and has an office in a palace despite not really having a job other than existing. I don't think her slightly-expensive breakfast is really the thing that separates her from the common people.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:50 AM on January 28, 2019 [7 favorites]


Everything Bagel Seasoning or I don't want to speak to anyone ever again.
posted by lextex at 11:16 AM on January 28, 2019


I came home late at night a bit tipsy a little while ago, and the only even vaguely snack-like food in the house was one perfectly ripe avocado. Readers, I sprinkled some sweet and spicy seasoning on it and ate it like an apple. #noregrets
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:18 PM on January 28, 2019


avocado toast is great. I really don't get the hate.

One of my favorite lines from INXS’s “Mediate”!
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:28 PM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Readers, I sprinkled some sweet and spicy seasoning on it and ate it like an apple.

Unpeeled?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:59 PM on January 28, 2019 [5 favorites]


I just came in to say that, just when I thought I couldn't love avocados more, it turns out they are high in fiber! So now I'm eating then daily, and there's nothing to stop me now.
I think they taste best just sprinkled with salt, and I eat them directly out of the skin/ shell with a spoon.
posted by honey badger at 1:41 PM on January 28, 2019


I don't recall ever eating avocado toast before the bruhaha, but learning about it being scorned made me want to try it, so I had an $8 version at a local farmers market that was fantastic (onion, pickle, various spices, great bread) and now it has become a breakfast staple in my kitchen.
posted by davejay at 1:43 PM on January 28, 2019


I love avocado toast (Gen X). The ethical ramifications, like quinoa, chocolate, and coffee (among others) are troubling but so is so much of our food production as it currently stands that I'm going to continue to eat the occasional avocado toast and trade it off by going almost completely dairy-free, and vegan a majority of meals.
posted by warriorqueen at 1:53 PM on January 28, 2019


The best thing to sprinkle on your avocado toast is pico fruta.
posted by purpleclover at 2:37 PM on January 28, 2019


Well, my one year old, who previously was not that into avocados or toast, ate all his avocado toast with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Thanks for posting this!
posted by carolr at 2:57 PM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Has anyone even actually had avocado toast before, feels like a made up thing and not even a particularly delicious one at that.

Isn't questioning the existence of avocado toast at this point right up there with the flat Earth conspiracy?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:32 PM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


My personal favorite dipping substance is an extremely diluted Guacamole (40% avocado, 30% sour cream, 15% peach pineapple salsa, 15% salsa verde and a dash of Huy Fong Sriracha). And you don't want to know what's in my Nacho Cheese...
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:37 PM on January 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've been at a few events, and more informal occasions, when Meghan has been there. Can't remember seeing her eat avocado on toast (and the kitchen in Windsor Castle can provide just about anything on request)(except swan, though perhaps that was because I didn't have the status). On the other hand, I have seen her polish off some good English homemade cakes with great enthusiasm.

I think she's going to like it here.
posted by Wordshore at 4:30 PM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


What something something said. In southern California avocados are practically a scourge. Your average avocado tree puts out something like, I dunno, 8 million avocados a season. They'd probably be cheaper elsewhere if the vast majority of them didn't have squirrel bites out of them.
posted by sexyrobot at 5:31 PM on January 28, 2019


Has anyone even actually had avocado toast before, feels like a made up thing and not even a particularly delicious one at that. Of all of the things I'd want to eat with avocado, recooked sliced bread is the last.

Anyone who refers to delicious, delicious toast as "recooked sliced bread" should not be dignified with responses. But so many of you did, so.....

I don't know why it is called "avocado toast." I have always thought of it as "avocado ON toast." I like it scooped out with a big spoon and then sliced into tiny thin slices, fanned out. And then a little crunchy salt. It never looks like the ones on Pinterest do, but who cares about that? It's for eating, not photographing.

Or you can make your avocado ON toast into a BLTA. Whatever works.
posted by 41swans at 7:28 PM on January 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Kids these days, trying to take credit for avocado toast.

I decided to retry avocados as an adult when I was living in a house with a bedroom under an avocado tree, which would wake me up every spring and summer with loud bangs of avocados falling on the roof. "If you are going to keep waking me up, I'm going to find out what you taste like." I eat them a lot now in and on lots of things.

I've seen some big avocados growing around here, but man that Kona avocado is huge!
posted by eye of newt at 8:45 PM on January 28, 2019


Leave Meghan alone!
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:53 PM on January 28, 2019 [3 favorites]


Considering all the sugary unhealthy crap one could have for breakfast, avocado seems like a great option. Plus if you make it as suggested above, it’s really yummy. I’m sure if she said she ate cereal or pancakes or scrambled eggs, there’s some environmental or health issue with those as well. We’re pretty much wreaking havoc on the planet just by existing these days and damned whatever we eat.
posted by Jubey at 10:30 PM on January 28, 2019 [4 favorites]


It's a bit like blaming the conditions of the English working class in 19th Century Manchester on the cotton plant rather than capitalism. The problem is people, not avocados or quinoa.

Avocados are still way more ethical than meat, which the Daily Mail will vigorously defend. They're racist trolls.

The BBC has a page comparing the impact of different foods - try comparing avocados with Daily Mail Approved food.

(It's not perfect because using less water in an environment that has little water can cause more of an impact, but still...)
posted by BinaryApe at 12:09 AM on January 29, 2019 [2 favorites]


We are clearly nowhere near Peak Avocado since we can't find a flight of avocado toast of five varieties of avocado.

I would unironically love an avocado variety flight. I would even try to learn to like those Florida ones.
posted by away for regrooving at 12:56 AM on January 29, 2019


Take one marraqueta.
Ignore the argument about what a unit of marraqueta is.
Open up the marraqueta.
Smash up half a palta and add to marraqueta.
Add some salt.
That's it.
If there's anything about these instructions you don't understand, you've never had the real thing. Sorry.
posted by signal at 5:23 AM on January 29, 2019


I would even try to learn to like those Florida ones.
I have a Hall avocado tree in my back yard. The trick with learning to love them is not expecting them to be like a Hass avocado, but accepting them as the delicious fruit they are. They make disappointing guacamole, but they are great in salads, grilled, cooked in Thai-style curry, and by themselves with a little salt, pepper and olive oil. (That said, I would never buy one from a grocery store, but having a more or less infinite supply of them every fall - well, you learn to love them.)
posted by Daily Alice at 5:34 AM on January 29, 2019


I think the tree in my yard is what you're calling the Florida/Hall kind. I've had Hass avocados in other countries, and being unused to them, found them a bit weird - but still good. I love both kinds (but especially mine) in a salad with salt, pepper, olive oil, some grated raw garlic, and a lot of lime. Sometimes, quartered tomatoes (or eighthed, depending on their size). Ah, the life!
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 6:32 AM on January 29, 2019


I'd eat a free avocado if I had to pry a live squirrel off it first.
posted by Vesihiisi at 9:53 PM on January 29, 2019 [2 favorites]


Here in La Casa Aurelian, avocado toast usually has a little bit of salt and freshly squeezed lime juice on it. The toast is usually an English muffin. Yum.

I hope we haven't reached Peak Avocado yet. Some high school buddies (yes, married sweethearts) have a ranch where they grow 'em, in San Luis Obispo county, and I'd like them to continue to prosper.
posted by aurelian at 11:30 PM on January 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


It's even better if you chop some prawns into it, with a big squeeze of lemon juice, like a prawn cocktail mashed onto toast.
posted by lucidium at 8:03 AM on January 30, 2019


« Older The island has run out of oxygen   |   Winter is coming? Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments