Author Joe Hayes, in his charming retelling of the Southwestern folktale A Spoon for Every Bite, recounts the story of a poor young couple who tell the wealthy, snobby godfather of their child that they have a friend who uses a different spoon for every bite he takes. This comment proves to be the godfather’s undoing (and the making of the poor young couple), as we learn at the end of the tale that the friend’s “spoon” is a tortilla. I, too, have recently been on a Southwestern food kick, and this amusing book came to mind as I crunched through perhaps my 70th tortilla chip.
Unlike the friend in the book, however, I haven’t been using my chips to scoop up beans. This particular food tour has been an exploration of that popular, bright green condiment, guacamole. Well, it starts off a lovely fresh green — think the color of ranunculus stems — but it quickly fades to ever-darker tones until it reaches an unsightly brown. This discoloration, I quickly learned, was one of the many hurdles I needed to conquer on my guacamole journey, and a theory about avocado pits and extra lime juice is being tested as I type.
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