Avocado Shake

An avocado shake may sound gross, even if you like avocados, but it’s not. Trust me. I’m an upstanding and trustworthy individual.

I had never even seen an avocado shake until about two years ago when I was dining at Pho Ba Le, a Vietnamese restaurant on Washington Ave. This section of town, with lines of cars out the cluster of Vietnamese strip malls and the double-parked cars at the Italian Market, is a nightmare to drive in on the weekend. Can you say clusterfuck? Yet, the avocado shake and a stop in the Asian Markets is worth it.

The avocado shake is pale green in color, sweet, nutty, and has just a hint of avocado. The flavor is subtle and addictive. If you were handed the shake and not told what was in it, you would never guess avocado. You'd guess sweet nectar of God.

Pho Ba Le puts tapioca balls in the shake, so as you fiendishly suck up the shake you also get chewy, sweet tapioca pearls. With the addition of tapioca pearls, what I’m drinking is really a Boba, or bubble tea, but skip the tapioca and you have a shake / smoothie / frozen beverage / insert-name-here.

Avocado Shake

2 cups ice
2 peeled and pitted avocado
½ cup condensed sweetened milk

• Blend ingredients in a blender.
• Pour into glass.
• Put mouth to glass edge.
• Tip glass up while holding mouth open.