"<RJ>" > wrote in message
...
>
> I'm still trying to acclimate to the Tex-Mex eating style.
>
> But avocados have me puzzled.
> A spoonful of avocado tastes like
> a spoonful of lard.....
> Try as I may, there's no discernable flavor.
>
> Is this one of these totally neutral items
> that only supplies color and texture
> to the other ingredients ?
>
> Or am I one of the 10% that is missing
> the "avocado tastebuds" ?
>
>

an unripe avacado is indeed almost like spoon of hard lard, not worth
anything but hiding under dressing.

a ripe avacado is a complex set of flavors that vary as the variety and the
soil and conditions in which they were grown and the degree of ripeness-
some have a garlic flavor, some have a sweet flavor, some have a rich
background aroma that fills the sinuses like cognac does.

an avacado is ripe a day or two after you get it home from the store, when
you can touch it on the sides with your fingers and the flesh under the skin
just slightly gives. The riper it gets, the different the flavors.

Use a sharp knife to halve it lengthwise to the pit, then turn one side
against the other and remove the side without the pit.
Holding the other half in your palm, pit up, use the knife edge to tap
once into the pit, and turn the pit and take it out. (Kudos to the
senora who showed me that trick)

The skin of a ripe avacado will peel off very easily from the big end sort
of turning inside out. or from the small end kind of sliding out as the skin
peels back.

Once ripe, avacados seem to change flavors as they ripen, until they start
to grey and really mush up. The ones we got now get more garlicky the riper
they are.

fwiw