Monday, March 30, 2009

Fresh Food

Since I've been here, these are fruits and vegetables I've eaten fresh for the first time:

cactus fruit/prickly pear/fichi d'India. I've seen these on cacti, but didn't know people ate them in non-life-and-death situations. I'd say they're not worth the effort it takes to eat them. They taste alright, but they're made up almost entirely of seeds (and, of course, they're spikey on the outside).

pomegranate

physalis

broccoli rabe. They have little broccoli-looking things and flowers (see picture below).

fava beans. I feel these are also not worth the effort to prepare fresh. In addition to removing them from the pod, you have to cut off a skin from each individual bean. But they have fur inside their pods.

porcini mushrooms. they're slimy, but don't taste as "earthy" (like dirt) as dried porcini. Actually porcini aren't bad, I just don't see why they're such a big deal.

zucchini flowers. taste like zucchini, or something.

apricots. It's possible I've had these fresh before, but I don't remember.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Broccoli rabe are apparently all the rage in the food world these days. I'm always seeing them on Iron Chef and in new recipe collections. I don't think I've ever tried them fresh, either. I was wondering what all the fuss was about, but I guess probably not much to write home about (literally, in your case). I'm always looking for new fruits/veggies to add to my repertoire, so let me know if you come across anything interesting/tasty.

Ben said...

We actually just had the broccoli rabe tonight, and it was pretty good. A bit like kale or other greens. We had it with orecchiette in a pasta dish. (We left out the sausage, and added a hot pepper)

Anonymous said...

Recently I had broccoli rabe at a restaurant and was distincly UNimpressed. It was bitter like brussels sprouts and the texture was mushy. Yuk.

Kristen said...

I can't tell the difference between cooked broccoli rabe and other leafy greens.

Kristen said...

an addition: medlar

Ben said...

Cardoons. They're kind of bitter and not at all "sexy."