Sunday, April 22, 2007

of flavors& desire


Lately I am craving for avocados.(persea americana),although I always had a thing, for this fruit. In Portuguese it is called abacate.
Avocado
is known as "alligator pears" for their shape and reptilian skin,and as "poor man's butter" for their creaminess,and most colorfully known as the fruit of the "testicle tree".

It's no mystery why.

Fully fruited,these ovulate gems hang down from the trees in twos- and have a longstanding reputation as aphrodisiacs.
A native Central American plant,whose name reputedly comes from the Indian word ahuacatl, the avocado can be traced back the to 3rd century BC in Mexico and Guatemala.
The avocado was cultivated by Aztec and Incas.The Aztec had a very
low fat diet,compared with today's standards.
In 1519,the Spanish cartographer Martin Fernandez de Encisco,returning from an exploration on the northern coast of Latin America,pronounced it "marvelous of flavor,so good and pleasing to the palate that it is a marvelous thing".
In 1651,priest Barnabe distinguished separate types:
Mexican,Guatemalan and West Indian.In 1833,the horticulturist Henry Perrine, brought the avocado to North America.
Two varieties are mostly known:
the thick-skinned,blackish and pebbly Hass,(after the Rudolph Hass, a Southern Californian postman, discovered this strain and patented in 1935) with its small pit and a buttery texture-
the thin-skinned,green,and smooth Fuerte.
The avocado has 16% oil,unsaturated, a good source of Vitamin C, iron and potassium.

How to tell if an avocado is ripe

Although the greengrocer won’t like you doing it, the best way to tell if an avocado is ripe is to give it a poke. But what should a ripe avocado feel like? The best way to think of it is to compare it with your face. If you poke the middle of your forehead, that’s like an avocado that is not yet ripe. If you poke your cheek, that feels like an avocado that is too ripe. What you want is something that feels the same as when you poke the end of your nose - there is a bit of give, but not too much (thanks to Gabrielle Gate for this tip!)

No comments: