Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
You may already be able to guess that my chief takeaway from the Super Bowl was not about the football. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the Chiefs won! I like when the people around me are happy.
And while I’m not personally invested in their victory, I do even know a few things: Patrick Mahomes has sweet hair, this is Kansas City’s third win of the title in five years, and their jerseys are red and yellow (a similar color scheme to the 49ers, which was concerning to me). I wanted to do a bit of schputting, maybe say something about how they made three baskets in the second quarter thanks to their pitcher, but Chiefs football isn’t always a joking matter. And it’s just safer not to say anything about Taylor & Travis.
I did watch the game — or at least, I was in the vicinity of a TV playing the game. Yet between the commercials, a smorgasbord of snacks, and my kids, there was barely time to direct much attention to football. We were with friends, so I had plenty of arms ready to hold Kiah, but I’m not sure whether Benson had had too much sugar at family lunch earlier or if he was trying to copy the players running up and down the field. Either way, he was under the influence of something, so when he wasn’t sneaking Brian’s soda or hiding in the giant blanket fort they built, he was running. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth — right in front of the TV of course — careening into whichever parent was ready (or not). I don’t know how long or how late he kept that up, but it was impressive.
Not quite as impressive, however, as the avocado stats I looked up, which is my real point.
I know the Super Bowl is the biggest eating day of the year for avocados, but the data is still just always incredible. Although numbers vary, the major growing region in Mexico was projected to export close to 140,000 tons of avocados just for this year’s game, even with environmental factors resulting in a reduced harvest yield. Again, actual numbers are sketchy (or rather, the internet is?), but that equates to over 50 million avocados. Which is even way less than ten years ago, with the USDA estimating that 240 million avocados were consumed on Super Bowl Sunday: “enough to fill an entire football field from end zone to end zone over 46 feet high.”
Specifics aside, that’s a lot of guac. While avocados often get eaten straight out of the shell in our house (give Benson and me a little salt and pepper and we’ll make short order of one), guacamole is by far and away the most common way they show up at a Super Bowl snack bar. There are some variations, mainly in texture and spiciness, but guacamole follows a pretty standard flavor profile: avocado, lime, onion, garlic, maybe tomato and cilantro and jalapeño.
Clearly, that’s delicious; otherwise, it wouldn’t be eaten in such astronomical quantities. But everyone can make that, so you’ll notice my recipe below is a bit different — however, as long as there’s avocado available in some form, I’m happy.
To echo an online report’s sentiment, “Avocados are the real Super Bowl champion.” That’s a team we can all cheer for.
Sesame Guac
I know the Super Bowl is past, but we can still celebrate our win with a super bowl of guacamole. Especially since I forgot to actually bring my avocados to the game. This dip has some of the same aspects of regular guac, but it gets intercepted by the mild crunch and nuttiness of the sesame. Don’t relegate this simply to tortilla chips; try it with everything from dipped on pita to swiped on sandwiches to dolloped on salad.
Prep tips: if you don’t have toasted sesame oil, you can use extra virgin olive oil; it obviously won’t have the same effect, but still add a pleasant fruitiness.
2 avocados
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
juice of half a lime
¼ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
salt
Mash avocados with a fork until smoothly chunky or chunkily smooth. Stir in the coriander, sesame oil, lime, and half the yogurt and sesame seeds. Season liberally with salt. Mound onto a serving dish (or your plate) and top with remaining yogurt and sesame seeds. Eat with whatever you would eat guac.
