Avocado Toast

Lately I’ve been hearing about a certain food craze, Avocado Toast. I haven’t had the opportunity to eat this trendy new item, but I do have experience with avocado on bread. While I lived in Peru from 2003–2005 I grew accustomed to a standard Peruvian breakfast.

The breakfast typically consisted of fresh bread with something to put on it; avocado, a fried egg, deli meat, fresh cheese, butter and jam, or tamales. This daily tradition never got old. My favorite was the avocado. I would smash it into the bread with a fork and sprinkle course salt over it.

I have tried to recreate this tradition at home off and on, seldom with the same success. The thing we lack here is the bread. In pretty much any community in Peru there are bakeries where bread is sold fresh and affordably each morning. Here in the states, a local bakery is a place to treat yourself, not a place to provide for your daily needs.

The other missing element is the avocado (se dice palta en Perú). The variety of avocado was amazing. Some days we would get melon sized avocados, while other days we would have small “butter” avocado. It was all ripe, never past its prime, mildly flavored, and delicious. It was like nature’s butter. Buying avocado in your typical U.S. grocery store is a gamble, often ending in disappointment.

Thinking about moments and past traditions like these is a real treat. It may be nostalgia taking over, but every time I travel back there, you can guess what I’ll be eating for breakfast.