Alert: Buried the lead at the bottom…..
I — and you too? — keep falling in love with food that gets “discovered,” then mangled.
Think Sushi, which I savored with my dad in the early 60’s, each piece lovingly prepared to order at the sushi bar by Ya Chan, who hand-picked crab right out of its shell. Grumpy me can’t stand those yuppie rolls with the theme “too much is not enough,” that include spicy mayo and zero fresh fish, just the farm raised salmon that’s fatty and flavorless. Why isn’t just-leapt-out-of-the-water enough? (The all mighty buck, I know.)
But this isn’t just about pricey food made cheap.
For the last several decades the food-o-my-people, bagels, are everywhere, pumped up and doughy. They’ve become dinner rolls pressed into bagel shapes, rather than crisp and chewy miracles.
Croissants? Don’t get me started. When McDonald’s serves ’em you know it’s all over.
OK, I get it, America is about co-optation of everything, so I need to relax and go with the flow. But I get worried when we move on to produce. Broccoli? See the article below. Kale? How did kale get fashionable? I should be pleased! Can’t wait to see how they mess it up……
Article link: Creating the New Broccoli Craze
Kale is invincible. it grows in snow. It is hearty and can keep for a month in the fridge, it has many, many more ways to perform in the kitchen ranging from chiffonade and fried for a nest to hold a fried egg to braised with garlic and oil to its oft mangled but not always dried chip with powdered heat….what are they thinking. Broccoli can’t hold a candle to kale with its fussy and problematic composition of a fragile head and tendancy to turn bile green with the tiniest bit of heat. Kale has its reputation for a reason. It grows in snow, it is available all year long, it tastes good alone or adorned and its many varieties enhnaces its already perfect countenance for today’s back to the terroir cooking. Long live kale. Brooccoli with is weird gas that is emmitted if off the stalk too long, is too tempermental to win the devoted following that kale has earned.
LOVE your comments, YOUR rant, although I’m a big broccoli lover too. Love to post this on my Facebook page too with your permission Love to get into a discussion of kale vs broccoli online! Hope you can join me. Won’t make a move without your permission.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Locavore-Way/134792915858