And then there’s Brassica oleracea, where it’s not even a family, but one single species that brings us a heap of classic veggies including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and gai lan. If you expand to its family you can add turnip, bok choy, radish, wasabi, as well as the majority of source vegetables in the eponymous “vegetable oil”.
Damn. I didn’t understand the joke the above user was making and was hoping that by understanding why it’s a switcheroo I could understand the original joke. But now I’m no closer than where I started.
That’s an existential crisis I’ve had after starting to eat vegan. Suddenly everything in your cupboard is a plant, with the exception of salt and sometimes mushrooms.
It’s just like: I’ll now eat this noodle-shaped plant with this pureed plant and this protein-rich plant and I’ll also throw in some tasty plant shreds. Maybe I should also have some plant leaves with a dressing out of plant oil, fermented plant juice and this plant seed paste.
But then I realized that meat, eggs, cheese, milk, and even mushrooms, they’re all just processed/digested plants, too. So, there’s only plants and salt. Which really didn’t make the existential crisis any better, but at least we’re all in it together. 🙃
For what it’s worth, though I don’t think I’ve ever had them in any form, I’ve heard that the poor reputation of Brussels sprouts is due to the popular way of cooking them in the '30s through '80s being to boil the shit out of them. They’re supposed to be quite good if you cook them the right way.
They should never have been consumed bitter. When they are frozen the bitter substance is destroyed. In former times this implied being harvested only after the first night frosts in autumn, never before. Nowadays there might be some more artificial ways to achieve the same result more reliable. (Perhaps by breeding, too, I’m not sure about this part.)
Taste changes with age, too. The younger, the sweeter and the older, the bitterer people prefer.
The nightshade family also gives us a lot of important vegetables. Potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers being the most common but others as well.
And then there’s Brassica oleracea, where it’s not even a family, but one single species that brings us a heap of classic veggies including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and gai lan. If you expand to its family you can add turnip, bok choy, radish, wasabi, as well as the majority of source vegetables in the eponymous “vegetable oil”.
Are you saying a vegetable fried this rice?
Ah, the old lemm-a-roo
I don’t get it.
Does this help?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switcheroo
It’s kind of an internet culture thing to respond like that…
No I’m familiar with the ol’ Reddit switcheroo. I don’t understand what exactly is being switched in this case.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch here. The comment is intentionally mixing things up for comedic effect, but it’s not a direct switch of anything…
Damn. I didn’t understand the joke the above user was making and was hoping that by understanding why it’s a switcheroo I could understand the original joke. But now I’m no closer than where I started.
That’s an existential crisis I’ve had after starting to eat vegan. Suddenly everything in your cupboard is a plant, with the exception of salt and sometimes mushrooms.
It’s just like: I’ll now eat this noodle-shaped plant with this pureed plant and this protein-rich plant and I’ll also throw in some tasty plant shreds. Maybe I should also have some plant leaves with a dressing out of plant oil, fermented plant juice and this plant seed paste.
But then I realized that meat, eggs, cheese, milk, and even mushrooms, they’re all just processed/digested plants, too. So, there’s only plants and salt. Which really didn’t make the existential crisis any better, but at least we’re all in it together. 🙃
And Cavolo Romano!
So that’s why some vegetables sometimes have that wasabi taste to it.
Also my lovely Cucurbitales, from cucumbers over pumpkins up to melons.
Brussel sprouts? That’s not a vegetable, that’s heresy! Awful stuff. The rest can be good, depending on the context though.
For what it’s worth, though I don’t think I’ve ever had them in any form, I’ve heard that the poor reputation of Brussels sprouts is due to the popular way of cooking them in the '30s through '80s being to boil the shit out of them. They’re supposed to be quite good if you cook them the right way.
They’ve also had a lot of the bitterness bred out of them since the 90s. The ones I’ve eaten recently are less bad than I remember as a kid.
They’re still bad tho
They should never have been consumed bitter. When they are frozen the bitter substance is destroyed. In former times this implied being harvested only after the first night frosts in autumn, never before. Nowadays there might be some more artificial ways to achieve the same result more reliable. (Perhaps by breeding, too, I’m not sure about this part.)
Taste changes with age, too. The younger, the sweeter and the older, the bitterer people prefer.
Don’t forget the brassicas too
The culinary history of humanity is just one long dare about eating the killer plants.
Thanks to all our forefather who ate enough poisonous squashes for us to enjoy squash soup and pumpkin pies.
I love all those vegetables but if I had to give up allium or nightshades, I’d give up nightshades.
I love garlic as much as the next guy, but I don’t think I could imagine food without potatoes