Once exotic, it’s now the basic brunch of Instagrammers – which means it’s toast in style terms
The history of the avocado and the modern history of popular culture are basically one and the same. I mean, no offence to Stephen Hawking, I’m sure black holes are also a big deal in their own way but, if you really want to get to grips with the meaning of modern life, look no further than the avocado. Or – to give it its most up-to-date name – the overcado.
The news that the avocado is in crisis – an unwitting scalp of the great #eatclean debacle, a healthy eating movement which now looks like the biggest self-serving scam since someone invented investment banking – hits at the very heart of who we are as a society. The glorious rise and tragic fall of avocado on toast has been written about at way too much length to recap here, but suffice to say that, in Japan, McDonald’s now has an English-muffin version on its breakfast menu. It is still on every fashionable cafe menu, but it is now basic. Basic in the Kate-Moss-Easyjet sense of the word, meaning that it aspires to values that are now too generic to be aspirational.
Continue reading...