Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Vegetables.

Veggies. Veg. Edible plant matter.

Do you like vegetables? Do you have any favourites? Do you like them cooked to within an inch of their lives or do you like them raw? roasted? stir-fried? etc? Are there vegetables that you've never tasted? Do you think vegetables are evil? Are there some vegetables that you can't stand? Do you eat your veggies? Any interesting vegetable tales to tell?

I love most vegetables and eat them all sorts of ways. Favourite: onions! Green, spring, sweet, firey, red, raw, roasted, soup-ed, stir-fried, roasted, tempura, bhaji, pickled at the bottom of a gin martini...

Brussels sprouts are evil! I hate them. Hate. Hate. Hate them! According to my poll, it looks like I'm out numbered but I have the science to justify my loathing (more later). I don't like eggplant/aubergine very much either. Or lotus root. Bleugh!

I'm sure there are many veggies I've yet to try or even know about!

Who's next?

BTW, the portrait in the top left is by a wonderful artist called Giuseppe Arcimboldo and the painting is called 'Vegetables In A Bowl Or The Gardener' depending on your perspective:

17 comments:

  1. Neat pictures

    I loathe sprouts. MLM calls them spawn of the devil. Unfortunately we have some growing in the garden so we will have to try them. - I thought I was selecting broccoli, but got the wrong B.

    I love vegetables. Onions are divine, esp added to some dhal.
    Aubergines are my favourite. I love the velvety texture and taste. Grill them or fry them sliced until dark brown on the outside and squidgy on the inside. Serve with crushed garlic, sour cream or yoghurt and cilantro. Yummy.
    Broad beans too, and runner beans, and courgettes, and peas from the pod and spuds, love spuds, and squash and hmm

    I hate celery, really really hate it. Can't eat anything it's cooked in, or been sat next too.
    yuck

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  2. I like most vegetables.

    I like them cooked or raw. If they're cooked, I like them roasted or stir-fried. If they're boiled, sauteed or stir-fried, I like them to be a little undercooked and firm. They are less appealing if they are overcooked and limp.

    I like sprouted seeds of many plants.

    I love mushrooms but, if you're fussy about definitions, I don't think they're vegetables. They're fungi, which are more closely related to animals than plants.

    An interesting thing to consider is the distinction between vegetables and fruit. For example, some of the foods that I think of as vegetables -- e.g., tomatoes -- are more like fruit (in that they contain seeds). I once read that, if plants are served with the main, savoury course, they are vegetables. If they are served with the dessert / sweet course / pudding, they are fruit. Of course North American culture challenges that definition by serving cranberry sauce with turkey, and so on.



    Other vegetables of which I am particularly fond are onions, tomatoes, red peppers (capsicum), carrots, pumpkin, butternut squash, and corn on the cob.

    Surely we can find a way of turning this into a discussion of phallic symbols?

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  3. About Judy's discussion topic, Let's not and say we did.

    Great post you have here today Ms Toast Burner. Very imaginative. Brussel Sprounts with melted cheddar cheese dripping all over them mmmmm! I pretty much like all vegies and enjoy them cooked in every way you describe. Roasted though would be my favourite because the roasting adds so much flavour.

    Not sure if this is a story but in the late summer when Corn is high in the fields, I begin drooling uncontrollably. A boiling pot of corn, a pound of butter, (margarine sucks) and plenty of salt and I've got the juices dripping down (corn juices for all the pervs) dripping down my chin, my elbows and Lord knows where. Yummy! I needed this post today. Great job.

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  4. LOL, Judy! Well, if you insist. ;-) I'm not sure about how anyone feels about this but sometimes I feel a bit self-conscious when selecting phallic shaped veggies - zuchinni, cukes... like am I taking too long, being too picky, handingly them too much? etc... lol. Now all of you will feel self-conscious next time you're out grocery shopping. ;-)

    I think that phenomena can work both ways though... I shop in Thrifties (a cheery food store) and the staff are very friendly and chatty. I once had a couple of melons in my basket and this produce stock guy chirps, 'Oh hey, nice melons' and then immediately realises the double-entendre and turns the deepest shade of red I think I've ever seen. lol.

    Ah, Mog... I knew that you'd hate Brussels sprouts, sane woman that you are.

    I had never encountered runner beans until I lived in England... I'm used to those thin green beans. I eventually had to ask a neighbour for help in what to do with them. Very tasty once you know... until you don't, wtf?!

    Oh Bogey, I've tried cheese, I've tried butter, garlic, hot sauce, sesame oil, orange juice... underneath it's still the smelly sole of a well worn tennis shoe. Bleugh!!!!

    I'm in agreement about the corn though... table manners should get chucked out the window to enjoy corn on the cob at its best.

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  5. Relating to the artwork, has anyone ever used food creatively?

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  6. I love all veggies - have just made my scrummy veg lasagne for dinner tomorrow. We have a friend to visit for the weekend. She is a vegetarian, so it'll be veggies and salads all the way for the next 5 days.

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  7. Veg rocks. All veg, done any way. I don't eat anything with a bum (fanny) so am rather dependant on veg for sustenance.

    Used to be fussy and mos def didnae dig brussels but have realsied that, if you try hard enough, you can get to like anything. (Ok, i can get to like anything.)

    Weird though, the one bum based product i really miss is black pudding - boiled up blood is as unvegetarian as it's possible to get. After 24 years of vegetarianism, i still sometimes wake up drooling on the pillow having had a dirty dream about black pudding.

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  8. ok, lets try again. Another long comment lost to the ether. Damn wireless connection.

    Black pudding is great. I used to eat it when I was vegetarian, after all there is no muscle involved! Can't eat it now though as it has gluten in it.

    Toastie, get started now, paint a still life with eggplant. Get a shiny shiny deep purple one and paint it. Do it quickly so that the shine doesnt fade, plus you dont have time to think, let the force be with you. - and remember to paint the spaces

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  9. Mog, i've considered keeping a pig and harvesting blood for the pudding every wee while. I donate blood masel and it seems to do no harm. But that's anthropomorphisation again i suppose. (i just like using that word.)

    Do you have coeliac disease? My wife was diagnosed with it during a routine blood test but never suffered a single one of the symptoms. The change in diet's mucked up her diabetes and she's considering going back to gluten.

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  10. No, not coeliac but gluten intolerant. I stopped eating gluten before I was tested so it's unlikely to test positive.

    I find the gluten free bread is high in sugar, maybe that contributes. Sweet potatoes are good for blood sugar aren't they? I wouldn't go back to gluten though, too many side effects of having uncontrolled coeliac disease. Maybe a good dietician would help?

    Blood pudding, yes, I thought of that too, after all the animal doesn't die if you just let the blood. The Masai do that, drink their cattles blood and milk mixed together.

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  11. I was a vegetarian for twenty some years. I eat meat now as well as tofu, pulses and other vegetarian proteins. I love beef!

    I've never tried blood pudding. To me, it ranks right up there with eating swallows in terms of a different culture's culinary weirdness.
    ;-)

    (ooooooo a horsie just walked by... clip-clop, clip-clop... what a beautiful sound first thing in the morning)

    Art... I do have a still life of some veggies on the go, no eggplant in it though. It would be a great veg to paint though, beautiful colour.

    No one ever made art with food - pasta mosaic? potato paint stamps? spaghetti doodles?

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  12. Marnie, you've brought back memories. I made stencils out of potatoes when I was a kid.

    My Hungarian grandmother used to make beautifully decorated eggs for Easter. They were works of art, and it was considered to be a privilege to receive one.

    I knew a couple in Calgary who had a lovely flower garden. It looked ornamental, but in fact every species in it was edible.

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  13. Ha! I knew there'd be a spud artist out there somewhere... ;-) Those painted eggs are exquisite. Do you have any that she made? I wonder how long they last?

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  14. Speaking of corn, have you seen Rachel Ray get WAY too excited with her corn ?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSCzYFJ63VA

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  15. Whichever way you look at that vid, that looks potentially painful to me! One slip and ssssaaaanp!

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  16. Cool art. Love illusions. Also love food - veggies, meats, beer, bread, fruits, cheese, and of course, beer.

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  17. Love the depiction of veggies. I've grown to love some veggies I detested as a child- beets, peas, spinach, asparagus bring them on. I still can't savour a green bean-maybe next year.

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