Tales of Millennial Avocado Consumption, and so on

‘Ria
talesofux
Published in
5 min readMar 6, 2018

Four days ago, I had an avocado for the first time, and I was obsessed with it.

I suppose the hallmark of a millennial is our ready obsession with, well, damn near everything. Today, we have people and places and things in interconnected niches.

If, via casual research, I moved from the umbrella of social welfare, to incarceration system welfare, female in-prison healthcare, and reproductive health delivery for female prisoners; I would nearly always find a person, a platform or a forum that had chosen to focus on this space within a space within a space.

In a world that can allow you choose to feel alone or feel connected to over 5 billion people, associations and connectivity are more important now than they have ever been.

High speed ISPs and the inter-connectivity of social media systems keep us fed. If you searched an e-commerce platform for a beloved style of shoes, be rest assured that your web ads would read competitive shoe prices for the next few days.

Link this to the fact that you are quite possibly a fashion addict and curate fashion accounts on Twitter and Instagram and a pattern begins to form.

We feed and are fed by associations, virtually. It’s all so connected.

Infographic via the Pew Research Center

Thinking about this now, after four days and four avocados (I don’t know why I cannot manage more than one per day) I guess I loved them because I had nothing to associate them with, taste-wise.

Avocados look nothing like any fruit or vegetable I have encountered here. They taste nothing like any of them, too.

Photo via @charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

Ovoid, like I think my ovaries would be, green-skinned while untripe, mottling into a proud purple with every passing day, avocados are funny looking, unwieldy things. Attempt to halve one with a knife, and you would discover that there is an unyielding obstacle, centre-ish.

I’d had to split the halves-much like I imagined the Biblical Israelites did when they opened pomegranates, to find a round-yes, round-seeded heart.

The Pit.

It looked like an oversized ping pong ball, and I wanted to bounce it against the countertop.

via GIPHY

I have seen avocados before, and had them in salads, too. I had just never quite managed to decide to eat one, simply to know what it tastes like, untouched and unspoiled.

Everything I’d heard and read about them pointed to their greasy nature. Why would a raw fruit have an oil-based pulp? What happened to being soft, and filled with water, like watermelons (totally adorable, btw)?

Photo via @nobiteuntilphoto on Unsplash

So, I sat with one, halved, de-seeded it and proceeded to cut out the pulp. I wished for an ice cream scoop, then, if for nothing, to have the satisfaction of greasy fruit presented in semi-soft curls. I had none within grasp, and made do by carving cuts to my liking.

I remember staring at the extracted pulp for what felt like a minute, before lifting the first forkful to my mouth. The portions of the pulp closest to the skin were a dark green, blending to a lighter green with each step towards the centre.

I wondered if every part would taste exactly the same way. I allowed it rest on my tongue, at first, then began shifting it to find a spot.

If you read a little, you will find that your taste buds, on different portions of the tongue, are “trained” to perceive varying tastes. You have an area for sweet, another for salty, another for sour, and a fat space for bitter, somewhere at the back of your throat.

I moved the fruit around, unsure what I was smelling and tasting.

For the first time in a long time, I ate something I was unable to make associations with. And it felt great! It didn’t feel particularly greasy, like cold and deep fried pastries would. It just…moved, along my tongue, like it knew what it was doing and why.

I liked it.

I googled all the ways to eat an avocado, a la millennial style. From anecdotes from friends over the years, one of the most popular ways to eat it, in this environment, would be slightly salted, and served as a side dish with white rice and a chicken stew. I think I remember a cousin mentioning pureeing it with a whisk, to spread on bread.

Avocado Baby Toasties via @cravethebenefits on Unsplash

Google was all over the place with olive oil drizzles, grilled avocado halves, and pureed avocado on toast. This last, for some reason, brings to mind mindfulness and gratitude. This might have something to do with the fact that my web contact with avocado toast was always in reference to meditation, vegan or dieting eating. See what I said about associations?

Associations are offline, too. In Lagos, I associate specific areas with stress, because, persistent traffic, cramped vehicles and overhanging exhaust. I’m not sure I’m coping very well. I had what I think was a brief claustrophobic attack while seated in a BRT vehicle yesterday.

The vehicle was air-conditioned, yet crammed with people seated, and standing. No one seemed to be sweating, but there were so many people in so many spaces. I didn’t want anyone to touch me, inadvertently or no. This happens once in a while, and I have come to associate it with specific periods when I am sad about something.

I lost someone very dear to me over the weekend, you see, and I have felt very many feelings, all at once. Visiting them was something I had planned for a road trip. I was unable to embark on it, and now he is gone. If I were to guess, I’d have no one to blame for that except myself.

Lagos is really shitty, sometimes. I suppose most places with dense human and industrial activity can be this way. I hope you always have good associations to make, wherever you are.

‘Ria has some of the best insights. H/t @riaevbuoma Ha-Ha!

P.S-Do you know any avocado-themed songs? It would be magical to know the how and why the song was written, don’t you think?

Love and Avocado-buttered Light,

‘Ria

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‘Ria
talesofux

Braced at the point where design, user experience, data, communication and problem solving in healthcare meet. Not exactly a point, but, you get The Point. :)