Eats

Behind the Avocado Curve

AS AVOCADO TOAST CEASES TO be a Thing (I understand the new Thing is “tomato toast”), I am unembarrassed to say I only tried this delectability for the first time last week, for dinner.

Verdict: Impressed enough to make the leftovers into lunch the next day. The crunch and earthiness of the toast (I used Safeway’s “Signature Brand 15-Grain Bread” as a base) perfectly balances the cool richness of the avocado. I didn’t even salt or pepper it at first (as the standard recipe advises), but when I did the flavors popped like a rose in bloom. The next day was even better with gomasio (a sesame/sea salt/seaweed blend) sprinkled over it.

I rarely follow food fads (in fact I am quite defiant about it), but this time the Hive Mind (or at least one guy in Australia) has devised something truly happifying. Mash avocado, salt and pepper to taste, spread thickly on good toasted bread, eat with knife and fork. As the man said, “Go thou and do likewise” — if you haven’t already.

?, Torah

365 Names of God: The Force

THE FORCE is a non-anthropomorphic term, but to a purist like me, so is “God.” It could be argued that since the Force is created by all living beings, rather than the reverse (at least, the reverse from a mythic perspective) that it should not be included here. But according to dialog from the Star Wars films, the Force does have a particular will and is vital (puntended) for sustaining life. I think The Force is certainly Godlike to the degree that it warrants inclusion.

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Crit

Words to Bring Back: “Civics”

– Definition: n. pl. (construed as sing.) The division of political science dealing with citizenship and civic affairs.

– Used in a sentence: “My old high school stopped teaching civics years ago.”

– Why: It’s needed. Boy, is it needed.

Life, Torah

Adventures of a Lidded Yid

“ARE YOU A PRIEST?” ASKED the workman as I passed through a local condoplex.

“No, just a Jew,” I answered, smiling.

“That’s good,” he said, also smiling, and went back to his repairs.

He was not the first person who asked me about my yarmulke (in Hebrew, “kippa”), but he was one of the most affable. I have been wearing a small, knitted skullcap pretty much full-time since 2000, when my increasing religious observance (and a local anti-Semitic incident) seemed to call for it. It has sparked many conversations between myself and various onlookers, including a Muslim attorney interested in how kosher food differed from its halal counterpart;

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Life, Writ

(Shave and) a Haircut, 12 Bucks!

WE HAD LIVED IN SONOMA for a third of my lifetime before I visited Allen’s Hair House, about a half-block south of the Plaza. I had become fed up with being charged $20 for a chop job by my previous barber, who shall remain nameless, and I was frankly curious about the unassuming Broadway storefront with the classic spinning barber pole and the hand-stenciled sign: “HAIRCUTS – $12.”

I was greeted by the smell of jasmine rice, and by an older Vietnamese man with a thick accent and soft voice. He offered me one of the two empty barber’s chairs and, when I sat down, he tied the traditional paper strip around my neck before enveloping me in a smock decorated with an Egyptian theme.

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Torah

First Graf: Path of the Just

MUSSAR (מוסר) IS A HEBREW TERM usually translated as “ethical behavior/discipline,” or to put it more succinctly, the fine art and science of being a mensch. Its roots are almost as old as Judaism itself — according to Genesius, it’s mentioned about a dozen times in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) — but the so-called “Mussar Movement” (people gathering together to help each other become better people) first flourished in the 19th century, largely among the Orthodox Jews of Lithuania. It has undergone a renaissance of late, and several of the Mussar classics are available today. One such book is The Path of the Just (Mesillat Yesharim). Written in the 18th century by Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzato (“Ramchal”), it takes the reader through a step-by-step interpretation of Mussar traits as listed in the Talmud. R’ Luzzato begins his work in typically humble style, apparently siding with Ecclesiastes that there’s “no new thing under the sun”:

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THERE’S (more) ‘ing WATER on MARS!

BACK IN 2008, THE METAPHORAGER gleefully spread the word that water, at least in trace amounts, had been found on Mars. Now there’s a(n apparent) pile of it. Using an advanced form of radar, scientists appear to have discovered more of the life-generating fluid, which seems to be concentrated in a vast underground lake at Mars’ south pole.

What this portends for the search for life remains to be seen. We at The Metaphorager have a pool going (no pun intended) that we will discover some form of extraterrestrial life by 2050, even if it’s only microbes or algae; the recent discovery that ice-volcanoes on Saturn’s moon (and alleged water-world) Enceladus are spewing complex organic compounds is also casting hope in that direction. C’mon humans! let’s build some space probes!