I know what this looks like. Someone•jumping on the
bandwagon, hitching a ride to the millennial zeitgeist-defining avocado toast. But more on that later. For me, avocado toast
was my childhood go-to, a simple meal my brother and I learned from my dad, who learned it from his, who learned it from his. It is emblematic of the simplicity of childhood, but
also my father's love of the just enough - nothing unnecessary
or superfluous, just the essentials. In this case. one avocado, cut into slices, arranged on two pieces of buttered toast, then
sprinkled with salt. My dad perfonned this task with his quiet solicitude, his focused attention, his careful motions. This he
got from my grandpa, too, a way of making small, routine activities seem like the most important thing in the world. ,
The first step. after putting your bread in the toaster (the seedy kind), is to halve the avocado with a sharp knife, cutting a straight line through the length of the fruit, knife still, avocado
rotating in your palm. returning to the point of first break. My dad would then twist with two hands to separate one half from
the other, then deftly axe the pit with the blade of the knife. You scoop the. fruit from the skin with a soup spoon and place
them flatly on a cutting board, rounded tops up. My favorite part to watch, now: my dad would methodically cut thin slices
from the first half, using the side of the knife to carefully lay each one on the buttered toast like shingles on a rooftop. He
moves from left to right, slice, settle, slice, settle, slice, settle. Each slice he made feel special. Make two rows but fill gaps on
the top or bottom as needed. Repeat with the other half and
second slice of bread, then sprinkle black pepper and sea salt
and watch the latter meh on the soft green beds.
Yes, O'Hara mentions avocados, but this poem is also atsout love - how love can infuse rightness and meaning into the wrong and meaningless. And my dad's avocado toast (in all its 1 ~·
plainness) is an extension of love, making right and giving meaning in small ways.
Martin Manalansan explores food as a sensory and emotional ,trigger and as a linchpin of conjured homecomings. Food can •transport someone across space and time, regardless of an eater's desire to figuratively return home or not. It becomes embedded in our experiential fabric, threaded through and between patches of memory. I see my dad reading at the table, a plate of two open face toasts before him.
For me, avocado toast means contentedness and security. Through the turbulence of childhood and adolescence, I found great comfort and continuity in the dish, It was predictable, constant, toasty and buttery. With the few ingredients, you really know what you're gonna get. And that was entirely o~y. Things could get scary and unpredictable, but there was always avocado toast.
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• since what is done is done and forgiveness isn't love ~ and love is love nothing can ever go wrong : : though things can get irritating boring and dispensable ; ; (in the imagination) but not really for love... .. :,,, ,,~-,:un• uu 111tH1iu, ,,, u,,,,u,au, ,uu•'"''
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Poem by me (2000-present)
a countertop memory: three generations sharing one initial, Jon J to Chad J; his J to Jacob, Nicholas,
~ and with our J, a likeness : and a liking: : for minutia and avocado toast, : spread of butter, pools of salt. .. .. -
---. -----------------. . ------. -.. --. -.. - ,., I UI • Hut U I Cl••''-' CI I lll' '".:'
J»- ,_ a r.e~ ,_ r.-r.- l'he ::ulery Bad Rawd Millennial •1nvention• of Avocado Toast
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The pennutations of context and connation stapled to food arc constantly being n:defmed, reconstructed, reordered. For avocado toast, this happened in a public rocket to fame whereby the dish has been catapulted to millennial poster food.
This has also meant that people's gripes with millennials and gen z or whatever names we've decided on have been mashed into the creamy spread of the fatty superfood. In other words, it has become a sort of gastronomic scapegoat, a symbol of frivolous spending.
"When I w,ps trying to buy my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado tor $19 and four coffees at $4 .each," says billionaire property developer Tim Gurner.
Is avocado toast really to blame? Here's a quick pop hit detour. A case study, if you will.
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ls thisi in the words of Extremely Low Quality Content, the millennial anthem? If anything, it is an unintentional satire of a particular brand of consumerism. The songwriter accidentally reveals the privilege and material expenses inherent in "influencer" trendiness (e.g., property access and free time to
_ _ .............__!...: , . ~~~ ..
Emily Zeck - Avocado ·Toast ( eicerpted) ,
I don't wanna wait in line To spend $20 bucks just to have a good time I don't wanna fake it no more I'd rather be in sweats on my living room floor Take my ~akeup off Hang up my dress and Kick off my heels And turn On Netflix I don't care Call me parks and reckless No, I don't care
You can keep your high-rise high life I'd rather have the coconut lime life I'd rather have the sand get my mind right Give me a tan and a good vibe
It's my life I'm just fme Ea tin' avocado toast on the west coast Sunshine, I don't mind Salt in my hair and the sand in my toes
I don't wanna waste my time Flexing for people I don't even like I don't wanna chase the lie Everyone~s living and I don't know why Material things You're so obsessed with Break your bank I'll break out the N etflix
Avocado toast became capital for Instagram status, and its
fame and trendiness saw it popping up in pricey toast bars
around the country. And I assume that the rising price of the
dish only reinforced its allure. In his article "Trash Food,"
Chris Offutt forecasted that "one day wealthy white people will
pay thirty-five dollars for a tiny portion of carp with a rich
sauce-and congratulate themselves for doing so." There
appears to be a similar congratulatory nature to these toast
creations, which must be assembled and purchased in spaces
that can feel exclusive and insular ( even still, Zeck flaunts it as
a symbol of carefree, clean living). Continuing, Offutt writes
that ''when the white elite take an interest in the food poor
people eat, the price goes up." We've certainly seen such price
inflation here. .,
. · That being said, Mr. Gumer's statement is highly reductive, '
and he also seems like an ass. Avocado toast alone is not
enough to account for millennial spending habits, and the price
of artisanal toasts are influenced by many factors like the cost
oflabor (which is influenced by the regional cost of living,
insurance mandates, etc.), rent, supplies, equipment, permits,
advertising, accounting, maintenance, etc., etc. ·
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something about the balance of fat and salt, crunchy and
creamy, toasted and cool. It's just yummy.)
It's hard not to be fascinated ~y the story of avocado toast. I
grew up eating it at my dining table and grandparents' counter,
but my friends did not see that image when I explained I'd be
making a zine about avocado toast. Instead, they laughed,
drawing on every association of the dish with meme-worthy
millennials, oblivious influencers, health fads, and sterile
hipster cafes. Avocado toast has become about so much more. ,.. ,-
I w~uld bt remiss to i~olate pre-Instagram avocado toast to my
family. Avocado, commg from the Spanish aguacate, was a
staple for my German great grandpa but originated in central
Me~ico. Since its origination, the avocado has spread across
the globe, growing in the Americas, Caribbean, Oceania,
Africa, an,d parts of Asia.
To~y, large-scale avocado orchards exact great resource and
~nviro_nmen~I tolls. These standardized economies of scale are
mput-~t~ns1ve, from water, fertilizer, and pruning technology
to pesticides a~d sun burn protection. It takes roughly eighteen
gallons of applied water to grow a single avocado. That water
burden_can si~ficantly exacerbate droughts in avocado­
producmg regions.
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With all this in mind, avocado toast still means a lot to me. It means a lot because it feels like home and being surrounded by love and
· though things can get irritating boring and dispensable (in the imagination) but not really for love.
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,, Zine Write-up
From the moment this project was introduced, I could not shake the idea of compiling my
memories of avocado toast. I was a little wary at first given the simplicity of the dish, two pieces
of bread and one avocado. But that very simplicity is partly what made the dish so special. It was
simple in the way that my dad liked things to be, that is, simple as a strength, not a detriment
There are few dishes I ate as consistently and frequently as avocado toast, which added to its
special role in my life. As I mention in the zine, my dad's avocado toast was a source of
consistency and stability amidst the chaos of adolescence.
And simply by remembering the taste of avocado toast in my mind, I feel partially
transported back to my grandpa's kitchen island or my dining table in my childhood home. This
figurative transportation reflects Martin Manalansan's idea of a conjured homecoming, i.e., the
power of food to trigger the matrix of emotions and sensations associated with one's home,
especially when home is spatially distant. I also touched on the classification of food through
Chris Offutt, who explored the class associations of certain food items in his essay, "Trash
Food". In the past decade, avocado toast has become entangled with status and class, for the dish
has been widely championed by health-conscious, Instagramming millennials, becoming a
double-digit priced artisanal creation. Offutt describes how the perceived value of a food can rise
when the "white elite take an interest," and avocado toast is an excellent example. The
production of avocados is also notable for its resource usage. As we have discussed in class, the
simplification and standardization of industrial economies of scale have necessitated a wide
arsenal of inputs, and growing food on the market's timeline instead of nature's timeline creates
major resource and ecological burdens. The sheer volume of water necessary to grow an avocado
is startling when juxtaposed against drought-stricken regions neighboring avocado orchards.
I Iinocut relief printed several of the images in my zine, which was an excellent time for
some meditation on the subject matter. In particular, the opening portrait of my grandpa and dad
gave me several hours to stare at their faces and think about their impact on my life. This was
really special! My grandpa, who still eats avocado toast to this day, was delighted to hear about
the project and recount some stories from his family's farm in rural Washington.
I
May 2017, sf.eater.corn/2017 /5/23/ 15677684/avocado-toast-prices-menu-coSts-san- francisco.
Manalansan, Martin F. "Beyond authenticity: Rerouting the Filipino culinary diaspora." Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. New York University Press, 2013. 288-300.
Offutt, Chris. "Trash food." The Bohemian South: Creating Countercultures, from Poe to Punk (2017): 128.
O'Hara, Frank. "Poem." Frank O 'Hara: Selected Poems, Carcanet Press. "Why Avocados Are So Expensive I So Expensive." YouTube, uploaded by Business Insider, 02
November 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwbhgS9fuc&t=325s. Zeck, Emily. "Avocado Toast." YouTube, uploaded by PRMD Music, 27 July 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BARA0svNS4.