Guacamole

My most vivid impressions are of meals I’ve eaten with friends. When you’re surrounded by good people, good vibes and good food (as Matthew McConaughey might say) everything is heightened. There is science to suggest that by eating and laughing together we are creating endorphins which, in turn, may promote our ability to make memories. Lived experience tells me that is absolutely true.

So we get to guacamole. In my mind, this is Dave’s guacamole because he brought a bowl of it to a potluck BBQ one summer and from that day forward I have only ever made it his way. There were no avocados in my house growing up because the US banned importation of them from Mexico until 1997. I don’t think I bought one until I was deep into my twenties. It wasn’t until I was living near a Mexican grocery store in Chicago that I started to buy them regularly. Even then though, guacamole wasn’t really on my radar as something you made for yourself. You got it on the side when you ordered a burrito but it wasn’t for home.

Until that party when Dave came in. He had a huge bowl of the most brilliantly green, fresh looking thing I’d ever seen. When he took the cover off the smell was phenomenal. It smelled like summer. Limes, coriander, there was a touch of black pepper. If I close my eyes I can put myself right back in that kitchen and hear people laughing outside, feel the sun on my shoulders. That is some serious sense memory sorcery.

And the taste. Stop it. It was like life took a left turn and I saw this whole other vista open up before me. I hadn’t ever had guacamole that tasted of so much. It was tart with lime, it had a bit of bite. It was perfectly seasoned. It hadn’t been blended so you would get chunks of avocado on your chip and he had left the pits in so it didn’t go brown at all. Not that it lasted long.

When I’m having people over this is my go to. It has never failed me once. When you combine it with some easy fajitas or enchiladas it makes a dinner party I guarantee will be memorable for everyone.