Avocado

Avocado is a fruit, though the kitchen treats it as a vegetable. It doesn't ripen on the tree the way a peach does — it waits for you. Pick it, and only then does it start to soften, the firm flesh slowly turning creamy and rich. That is why a rock-hard avocado at the shop is not a bad avocado; it is just an unfinished one.

Choose by touch, not by color. Squeeze it gently in your palm; don't press with your fingertip — a fingertip leaves a mark you won't see until you cut the thing open. It should give slightly, like the base of your thumb when you make a fist. Smell the stem end: fresh and green, never sour.

Some people say a brown spot inside means the avocado has gone bad. No! Cut into it first. If the rest is bright green-yellow, firm, and smells clean, the spot is nothing to fear — cut around it and eat the rest. Only if the flesh is gray, mushy, sour-smelling, or the brown has spread through most of it, throw it out. That misconception makes people bin a good avocado over one small patch, or buy underripe ones just to avoid the trouble. One hundred grams of avocado will give you 160 kilocalories, mostly from fat. Respect it, don't waste it.