Grilled avocado and tandoori chicken

My first born has always enjoyed cooking. I am a firm believer that kids belong in the kitchen mixing, tossing, and chopping from the earliest possible age, and he is a product of that.

In preschool he came home with a yummy recipe for apple pie and insisted we make it that afternoon. In junior high he had a small business making and selling homemade pasta. In high school (inspired by the movie "Chef") he threw a summer dinner for a dozen friends. So, it was no surprise that on a warm night after coming back from his first year at college he asked if he could help me cook dinner. I was heading out to the store to pick up ingredients for grilled tandoori chicken kebabs. As I headed out he called after me to add to my list a bag of avocados. I asked what he wanted to make.

"Grilled avocados!"

It seems to me chefs everywhere have gone grill crazy — grilling pizzas and nectarines seems commonplace. But avocados? I don't much like avocados except in a fresh and spicy guacamole so I replied:

"Ugh."

Well, I ate my words. And everyone he has served grilled avocados to since has eaten them too. Hard to understand why grilling an avocado makes it so yummy but it does. Try for yourself!