“We don’t have lettuce,” Suzen said. “I do have a perfect avocado,” her voice lifted.
“Yes,” I answered brightly. If it is a choice between lettuce and avocado, can there be any question at all? A salad with no lettuce and only avocado might be a tad intense. But a BLT with no L but lots of A is surely upscale. I had no sense of lettuce depravation.
And in fact the soft texture of the avocado is a great contrast to the crunch of that bacon. Yes, the bacon here is meaty looking and I can only suggest that when bacon-shopping you expend some effort. If you have a local butcher, a real butcher, then you may have an avenue to getting real bacon.
I find going through the bacon packages at my local supermarket, flipping them over, opening the flap, and eyeing all that white fat — I find that task depressing and frustrating. I do it, going through 10 or 20 packages but I have never been surprised. 14 fatty ones and then, voila, number 15 is finally rich with meat. Never happens.
Suzen orders her bacon from Ottomanelli in New York City. This Greenwich Village shop is local, real, and a young 100 years old.
In the picture above, the bread is thick and textured. If you live in Lower Manhattan, you want to visit Arcade Bakery on Church Street just below Worth. This particular bread is their laminated offering, a baguette wrapped in croissant dough and then baked. The center is light and airy, the crust brilliantly fragile. The bread offers a yin-yang texture contrast that is the perfect match to that bacon-avocado dichotomy.
You don’t need a recipe for this sandwich. You just need a ripe avocado!