There are so many guacamole recipes out there, but this Spicy Guacamole is my favorite, featuring fried red chilli flakes!

We came back home from the airport after dropping off our friends – it had been a fun couple of days just as extra long weekends with friends tend to be. But as soon as I opened the door to our little apartment, there it was – the dark, gaping hole – devoid of light, sound and perhaps life. My apartment had somehow magically expanded the last few days to make room for the extra people but now, the new space seemed grotesque, almost vulgar.

This wasn’t a new phenomenon, oh no, not by a long shot. It happens every time we have people over. And not just now. Even as a kid, when my cousins used to spend a few days with us in the summer, the same thing happened when they left. But a decade of rehearsed routines of coming and goings doesn’t quite prepare you for the silence that the crowds leave behind every time. It’s disquieting, and even if it’s a residue of relief that remains in the wake of unwanted guests (let’s face it, we’ve all played host to people we don’t completely love), it’s still not something to truly enjoy, at least not for me.

It would take a few hours for the apartment to shrink back to its normal size, to tighten it’s corners and appear ever too small for the clutter I’ve accumulated over the years, but until it does, it was going to be awkward.

We plopped ourselves on the couch and stretched our legs out on the coffee table, something I don’t normally condone, but the occasion warranted it. Crumpled on each other in an exhausted heap of silence, we let the memories of the last few days wash over us ritually. Once the flashbacks played themselves out, was usually the time I mentally make a check-list of things to do once I decide I am ready to leave the couch. I am the queen of check-lists, and even total and complete exhaustion cannot stop the bullet points from forming in my head.

The first on that list was the most immediate problem: dinner. We had Vegan Ramen for lunch, which meant there were no leftovers. The bowl was slurped clean, toppings and all. The only thing left behind were two pieces of the grotesquely swollen kombu (seaweed) knots, which I promptly emptied into the trash. Every thing about them reminded me of death, whether they were dehydrated or re-hydrated. Ugh!

I rummaged around for something I can hustle within 5 minutes but could still pass off as dinner and spied two avocados. Spicy Guacamole and tortilla chips sounded as right as rain! Ever since we discovered these Jalapeno flavored tortilla chips in the market, it’s been mysteriously added to our shopping list every week. Neither one of us knows who sneaks it in, but it inevitably finds it’s way into the shopping cart every time.

Guacamole and chips don’t really qualify as a meal under any circumstances, but I was exhausted, and wanted something to find a way to comfort me, from the inside out. And this seemed like it would get the job done!

There are an obscene amount of guacamole recipes out there, and each one claims to be the BEST EVER Guacamole recipe. Normally, something like that would make you scoff, but when it comes to guacamole, I think they’re all true. Because Guacamole is one of those things that you must make from scratch, tailored to your specific tastes. There’s no two ways about it, but that leaves way to about a million possible recipes. Makes sense, right?

This Spicy Guacamole is my favorite version though, one that I always make and surprise, surprise! It has a touch of my quintessential not-so-secret ingredient: the fried red chilli flakes. The versatility of this Burmese condiment, and the way it sneaks itself onto almost everything I make is just a tad short of annoying, begrudgingly, even for me. But what can I say, it’s delicious.

In an almost mechanical trance, I scooped out the ripe avocado flesh, chopped the red onions, jalapenos and tomatoes, crushed the garlic in my tiny mortar and pestle, squeezed the life out of the lemon and tore up the cilantro with my bare hands. It’s unfair that such brutality begets the creamy deliciousness of this Spicy Guacamole, but that’s how it is. In a matter of about 5 minutes, I was back to the couch with the bag of tortilla chips (jalapeno flavored, mind you!). We saw a couple of our favorite FRIENDS episodes while noshing on the guac, washed it down with a glass of Rose Milk and went straight to bed, after turning on the dishwasher, of course.

And as surely as the sun rises in the east, come the morning, the apartment {and I} will be right as rain and blissful normalcy would stream in with the sunlight.

When you make these (which I really think you SHOULD!), be sure to SHARE YOUR PHOTOS with me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see what you cook from here!