It all started with a simple tweet. On Wednesday, the New York Times tweeted out a picture of guacamole, accompanied by a recipe, and the internet collectively lost its shit.
The controversy? Peas. The New York Times suggested putting peas in guacamole.
The recipe soon went viral, #guacamolegate was soon trending, the President weighed in…wait, what? The President of the United States weighed in. On guacamole. On twitter. Because we’ve all lost our minds.
respect the nyt, but not buying peas in guac. onions, garlic, hot peppers. classic. https://t.co/MEEI8QHH1V
— President Obama (@POTUS) July 1, 2015
A great distrust of peas in guacamole is, actually, probably the only thing the President has in common with Jeb Bush, who also weighed in with a firm heck no.
To borrow a phrase from Barack himself, let me be clear: I love guacamole. I don’t think our love of eating guac has gone too far—the dip is simple, satisfying, easy to make, and because its main ingredient is avocado, it’s absolutely chock-full of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Our cultural obsession with guacamole, however, has reached critical silliness. Professing your love for guacamole is cool. If you’re important, ordering guacamole is news. And the humble avocado, says ManRepeller.com, “sustains the internet.” But apparently, messing with guacamole is sacrilegious.
But why? There’s no such thing as a “classic” guacamole recipe anyways. Diced tomatoes, jalapenos, lemon, cayenne, cilantro, and onion are all optional add-ins that are deemed classic by some and gross by others. Furthermore, should guac be chunky or smooth? Do you stir in a dab or Greek yoghurt or mayo to make it luxuriously creamy? As with most recipes that are time-honoured and beloved, there’s no one way, nor should there be.
And here’s the thing: the New York Times wasn’t advocating adding in the peas found in the freezer aisle of your grocery store, or, *shudder*, even worse, the canned goods aisle. That green mush is horrible in anything. What they were actually suggesting were fresh English peas, which are crunchier, larger, and fresher tasting. They have a starchy sweetness and more of a toothsome bite than regular soft peas. They’re also in season from the spring into the early summer, and as anyone who’s eaten both a mealy winter tomato and a sun-ripened, fresh-off-the-vine farmers’ market tomato knows—in season or not can mean a whole world of difference. In fact, the Queen of Gardening and Housekeeping herself, Miss Martha Stewart, tweeted a pic of her garden-fresh pea harvest that very same day, a mere two hours before the New York Times nearly broke the internet.
So, I get it, NYT. I get it. Green peas should rank with corn and tomatoes as some of summer’s best offerings. Fresh from the farmers’ market, they’re delicious. It makes sense that any cook looking to make the most of their haul of fresh summer produce would at least try adding a little something extra and green to a dip that’s a summer classic. It would make sense that those simple ingredients, once combined, would amount to something more than the sum of their parts.
Just like all the best recipes do.