Smooth or chunky. Sprinkled with lemon or lime juice. Studded with serrano or tomato.
No matter how you prefer guacamole, there’s one thing we can agree on: It’s all about the avocado. And now that the California crop has arrived from groves spread across the landscape from San Diego to Santa Barbara, you’ll be making batches of habit-forming guacamole to top morning eggs, afternoon tacos and evening enchiladas now through fall.
For inspiration, take a look at menus across the Bay Area, and not just in Mexican restaurants. Guacamole is one of those universal — and trendy, hello Keto — appetizers found at chef-driven casual eateries and upscale cantinas, from Comal’s stand-alone classic to True Food Kitchen’s superfood guac and Puesto’s innovative pomegranate version.
At Berkeley’s hip Comal, where the back patio makes a perfect spot for margarita sipping and spring guac scooping, executive chef Matt Gandin takes his guacamole seriously — and simply.
“I’m absolutely a purist,” he says. “Our guacamole only has six ingredients — seven, if you count salt.”
Gandin prefers the Hass avocado variety for its flavor and fat content, but notes that you can also use Bacon (oval with thin, smooth skin) or Reed (large and round with pebbled skin) avocados to make guac at home. He uses a molcajete to combine minced white onion and garlic with serrano chiles and cilantro, then folds the mixture into a combination of mashed and diced avocado, finished with a squeeze of lime and salt.
It’s served with Comal’s housemade flaky tortilla chips, which are fried in rice bran oil for a unique layered effect akin to phyllo. “On a busy Friday, we’ll do 200 orders of guacamole,” Gandin says. “It’s one of the stations in the kitchen that requires a designated person all night long.”
At True Food Kitchen, which serves its health-conscious fare in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, the focus is on nutrient-dense global dishes packed with flavor. So when he created the menu’s guacamole recipe, brand chef Robert McCormick wanted to give the already-nutritious avocado a super-food boost.
“As a chef here, you’re always thinking, ‘What ingredient can I replace this with to get more nutrients?’ We started with a blank slate,” he says.
Well, an avocado slate. McCormick replaced the cilantro with kale and lime with grapefruit segments. “It’s a pretty powerful trio,” says McCormick, who adds roasted poblanos for smokiness and complexity. “The kale adds earthiness and crunch. The grapefruit gives it that moisture and acidity you want from guacamole.”
If you’re not sure which way to go — classic or innovative — turn to the tacoteurs at San Diego-based Puesto. The family-owned gourmet taqueria, which has locations in Santa Clara and Concord, offers three different preparations, from traditional to creative, that represent the Mexican and European cultural roots of its owners, the Adlers.
Puesto’s classic guacamole is traditional — lime, onion, cilantro — save for a squeeze of orange and a bit of habanero for a signature sweet heat. “I think it’s great to order that one and put it on every single taco,” says Puesto’s executive creative chef Katy Smith. “It’s a favorite.”
If you have an open mind, er, palate, go for the restaurant’s Puesto Perfect guacamole, which adds Parmigiano-Reggiano to the mix. It was invented during Shabbat dinners around the Adler family table in San Diego.
“They always had both challah and tortillas on the table, parmesan and guacamole,” Smith explains. “One night somebody decided to put the parmesan on the guacamole.” And they loved it.
“Before I worked for Puesto, I saw it on the menu and thought, ‘Isn’t that weird and fusion-y?’” she recalls. Then, she tried it. “It was life-changing. Something about the saltiness and sweetness of a high-quality parmesan with the avocado. It’s the perfect bite in my opinion.”
When it comes to the most meaningful guacamole — if you can ascribe meaning to an avocado dip — Smith looks to Puesto’s Nogada guacamole. It pays homage to a traditional Puebla dish called chiles en nogada that features the colors of the Mexican flag. Poblano chilis are filled with picadillo, a mixture of shredded meat, spices and fruit, and topped with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds.
In the guacamole version, Puesto starts with its classic guac and adds mango salsa to represent the fruit, chile de arbol for spice, candied walnuts and, of course, pomegranate seeds, which Smith says, “gives the guacamole this great crunch.”
Add in tortilla chips from your favorite tortilleria — may we suggest Oakland’s La Finca Tortilleria? — and life doesn’t get much better that that.