On New Year's Eve, Nick, Louisa and I headed out to Torchy's Tacos to try out their famous fried avocado taco. Yes, you read that correctly: fried avocado. Sounds like Austinites have a positively Scottish propensity for breading and deep-frying anything at hand, doesn't it?In addition to checking out the fried avocado, I decided to try a Trailer Park (fried chicken with green chilies and pico de gallo). Let's tackle the avocado first.
So, fried avocado. Really good idea, but tough to make work in a taco. Surrounded by sauce and seriously crunchy lettuce, the textural contrast between the avocado's crispy breading and its creamy inside was completely drowned out. While I loved Torchy's spicy ranch dressing and would gladly dip an entire independent order of said fried avocado in it, the taco just didn't work.
The Trailer Park was similarly just okay. The chilies weren't quite spicy enough for me, and the taco lacked the acidity it needed to sing. This turned out to be true of most of Torchy's tacos; the only one we truly loved was the Baja Shrimp, which was saved by its successful contrasting textures and its delightful pickles. The pickles made it work. Pickles always make it work.So, moral of the story: go to Torchy's, order two Baja Shrimp tacos, and try to make them give you a plain order of the fried avocado. Perfection.
Update from SXSW 2011: The Dirty Sanchez is so. Freaking. Good. So order that one alongside a Baja Shrimp. (And, yes, that's really what it's called.)
2 comments:
Fried avocado? I am seriously jealous. Can you please elaborate however. What was it coated in? And was it bitter? Often when you cook avocado it becomes bitter.
So, the avocado was coated in a light breadcrumb coating - I'm guessing it was dipped in egg, then in breadcrumbs, and immediately fried. It seems to have been deep-fried, and only just till the coating browned. The avocado was only slightly soft, and not bitter at all.
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