Guacamole Quickie!

Tired, hungry, not in the mood for cooking, haven't been to the market yet this week! But I found a tomato, a ripe avocado, half a lime, and the red onion I had barely scratched the day before. Guacamole for dinner?

I like snacking for dinner sometimes and, as long as it's a healthy snack, why not? Snacking + Dinner = Snicker?! or Snacker?!

Guacamole Snacker!

1. I cut the tomato in half, cored it, and cut it into small cubes. 
2. Then I cut open the avocado, removed the stone and scooped it into a bowl using a soup spoon.
3. I sliced some of the red onion finely.
4. I put a large clove of garlic through the garlic press and added it to the mix.
5. I squeezed half a lime into the bowl, and added a large pinch of salt and a smaller pinch of coriander powder.
6. I mixed it up nicely and ate it with pita bread. Yum, Snacker!

I add just a tad of red onion, very finely sliced, since I can't really stand the onion breath!

I don't always core the tomato, but I was in the mood today!

Yummy avocado!

Delicious Beetroot and Avocado Salad

This is a simple and delicious recipe that makes for a healthy yet heart lunch!

I peeled some of the beets I had roasted, which was super easy since the skin just slips right off. They went straight in my little bento box!

Beets in the Box!

I then cut up an avocado into cubes and added it to the beets. I find that the easiest way to do this is to just slice the avocado in half, remove the pit with a knife and then slice into the fruit while it is still in the skin. Then I just use a soup spoon to scoop it out!

This avocado was just the right ripeness, from the Avocado Lady with love :)

I added a pinch of salt, the juice of half a lime, a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of black pepper. The lime adds some delicious zest and also stops the avocado from getting all brown.

I also added a tiny bit (about one tablespoon) of chopped red onion for a little extra oomph! It is a great way to offset the sweetness of the beets and the creaminess of the avocado, but I add only a little since I am afraid of having stinky onion breath for the rest of the day!

Sometimes I also like to add some plain yoghurt to the salad, but I was out and it tasted wonderful just the same! The salad was delicious and very filling; I ate it with pita bread :)

I know it might not look too pretty, but it was delicious and filling, I swear!

Total prep time: about 10min (assuming the beets are roasted and ready!)

The Avocado Lady

The Avocado Lady is a creature of legend among Shanghai expats, and a not so secret secret that everyone should know. If you live in Shanghai and you don't know the Avocado Lady it can be said that you do not really live in Shanghai, you merely exist here.

From the outside, the Avocado Lady's little produce shop looks like the myriads of other little local businesses!

The Avocado Lady is your one-stop shop for all sorts of produce that is hard to come by here in Shanghai, and China in general. While an increasing number of fancy foreign supermarkets have started supplying a lot of what this magical being has provided for years from her humble little shop, no-one can beat her prices!

It is a mystery to me to this day how and where she manages to source her imported products for so cheap (small, family-owned businesses usually find it hard to compete with the likes of Carrefour and Walmart when it comes to price!), or where this entrepreneurial woman got this wonderful idea in the first place.

She stocks hard to come by produce such as beets, radishes, arugula, nuts, fresh spices and cheeses and, of course, avocados, which she sells at the cheapest price I have ever seen in China.

On top of the produce, she also stocks an ever increasing array of imported goods such as wine, olive oil, jams and marmelades, breakfast cereals, canned goods... and on and on!

Inside the store, the shelves are laden with foreign goodies and fresh produce!

I came home on my bike the other day, my little basket heavy with the delicious things I picked up. I generally buy my regular veggies closer to my house, but for special things I simply cannot find at my regular produce stand, the wonderful Avocado Lady saves my day!

Beets, avocados, almonds, walnuts, arugula, radishes, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, coconut milk, cream and canned tomatos were some of the spoils from my latest visit to the Avocado Lady!

The Avocado Lady's shop is in Shanghai's French Concession at 274 Wulumuqi Rd, near Wuyuan Rd. The closest metro is the Changshu Rd. stop on lines 1 and 7.

In Chinese: 乌鲁木齐中路274号，靠近五原路。