Avocado Fest: Fallbrook's Creamy Dream

How do you take your pit-tastic fave? In all the ways?

WITH MANY FOODS, there is one standard, tried-and-true, everybody's-cool-with-it way of going about consuming it. The banana? You peel it from the top and eat until you reach the bottom of the peel. The strawberry? Grasp it by its greeny hair and start at the pointy bottom point. The avocado? Well, well, well. Here's where things start to get slightly controversial. There are a few ways to enjoy the alligator pear, and fresh methods are cropping up all the time. Guacamole has long held sway in the how-to-devour-it department, though people who like their green fruit neat would recommend pit-removable and a spoon, and nothing more. Those are two popular ways to eat an avocado, but recent years have given us not only a third, but a fourth. The rise (and rise and rise) of avocado toast at hip-casual restaurants has now broadened our avo-eating experiences, and the presence of the creamy fruit in smoothies has deepened it. Will there be even more standard ways of consuming the avocado in a decade or two? It clearly is a surprising fruit with a lot up its sleeve -- er, skin. It's worth exploring, and how better to do so than munching down on lots of guac-y good things at a full-on famous avocado festival. Yep, we're talking about...

FALLBROOK here, and its annual springtime celebration, the one that draws thousands of pit people. (Okay, yes, an avocado has a big ol' seed, not a pit, to be more accurate, so we'll own up to the correct terminology.) For sure, there are a variety of dip-delicious dishes to try, all with a guac-y theme, but other avo-awesomeness awaits. It isn't all about the cuisine, either; there's the Best Decorated Avocado Contest, too. Which makes sense when you think of the fruit's iconic shape and bumpily, beautiful skin and uniform hue. Is the avocado the perfect canvas to work with, at least where the produce aisle is concerned? Okay, pumpkins still may hold the crown here, but avocados seem pretty art-ready to us. Have to get your guac on? Then make for the 30th annual Fallbrook Avocado Festival on Sunday, April 17. And raise a smoothie, or a slab of toast, to all of the fine ways we enjoy this unusual, obsessed-over fruit.

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