EDITOR’S NOTE
Av-oh VERSATILE AVOCADO
BLENDER TO BOWL
GENIUS HACKS
HOT OFF THE GRILL
GOOD THINGS
FRESH APPEAL
AS I worked on this issue, choosing the recipes and editing the stories that are included in FOOD, I thought about my love-hate relationship with avocado. I used to hate it. I had it once as a child and it tasted like nothing. Whenever I hated anything I had ingested, I would not only rinse out my mouth, but try to scrape it off my tongue, until I realised it was painful and I would probably bleed. I avoided avocado for more than 20 years, until I found myself at an event where the only thing they served were nachos and guacamole. I was cringing as I took a chip and scooped the guac. I popped it in my mouth, closed my eyes and was ready to confirm I hated it. But no. An explosion of flavours burst inside my mouth and soon I had managed to get a whole tub for myself. I haven’t looked back. I have become a great champion of avocado. If I could, I would have it with everything. It’s perfect on toast as well as pizza, refreshing as a soup in the summer and delicious stuffed and grilled – avocados continue to rock my world. I do, however, draw the line at having it with sugar. I do not know what possess people to do that. But to each their own. Like the previous issues of FOOD, we are celebrating the deliciousness and greatness of avocado – the true versatile fruit of winter. I hope you enjoy this edition. Let’s get cooking!
Buhle F O O D Editor
Buhle Mbonambi @Buhlebonga buhle.mbonambi@inl.co.za
F O O D Designer Tanya Rondganger
WITH EVERY MEAL
EDITOR’S CHOICE
FAKE GUAC?
Executive Editor: Lifestyle Nelandri Narianan
YOU’RE ADDICTED
Love changes your brain, with heightened neural activity in dopamine-rich areas of the brain leaving you feeling euphoric and slightly obsessive. That beautiful green skin, that velvety smooth texture, and that melt-inyour-mouth creaminess and buttery flavour that gets your pulse racing. Now you know why the Aztecs claimed avocados as aphrodisiacs.
5 SIGNS
YOU MISS THEM WHEN YOU’RE APART Having to live a few months without your beloved avocados – when local avocados are not in season – is torture. Luckily, from March to October, you can eat South African avocados to your heart’s content.
YOU ARE ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED WITH AVOCADO
Obsessed with avocado? Love eating it in any way, shape or form? The South African Avocado Growers’ Association shares five signs that you didn’t choose the avocado life but the avocado life chose you. YOU ARE A DIFFERENT PERSON
When falling in love, your whole sense of self changes. Committing to a relationship with avocados brings about subtle changes in your body. Aside from the blush of pleasure you feel every time you eat one, avocados are a source of potassium, and their high monounsaturated fat content helps to reduce blood cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease (when used to replace saturated and trans fats).
YOU CELEBRATE THEIR SUCCESSES
When the love bug bites, you celebrate your objects of affection’s wins with pride. This is the same pride that wells up inside you when you walk into an eatery and find avocado on the menu. Not just a little saucy something on the side, but complete dishes prepared by chefs who too have been seduced by the virtues of the avocado.
YOU GET A LITTLE JEALOUS
When hopelessly in love, a certain amount of jealousy can be healthy. Evolutionarily speaking, jealousy helps alert you to potential threats to the relationship. When it comes to your relationship with avocados, this will probably see you making a beeline for the salad at the braai to steal the avocado off the top before anyone else can take it, and other equally self-serving
