Vegetable Tales

No, this is not an entry about the movie Veggie Tales. I was surfing twitter and came upon @summertomato which then led me to her blog and an article about how our parents’ generation cooked vegetables. According to the article, many of our parents favored convenience in forms of canned/frozen/prepared vegetables, so it’s no wonder many of us grow up really hating it. That is, until we venture into our own kitchens making amazing dishes using organic farm market vegetables.

I was lucky enough to be exposed to a wide variety of fresh vegetables thanks to my family who didn’t believe in canned/frozen/prepared vegetables. Ever since I was little, I had to help my parents clean and pick vegetables. (Not everything came in crispy clean and free of dirt in shiny plastic bags!) And I was always taught to get used to some vegetables/herbs that had strong flavors that kids didn’t typically enjoy: spinach, cilantro, chive. My parents always salted vegetables when they cooked.

The article made me understand why some of my friends are so turned off by all sorts of vegetables. Maybe they haven’t grown up eating the food I’ve had. If you’re still a non-believer though, I suggest going to the best Chinese/Korean restaurants you know and try out their vegetable dishes. Once I overheard someone on the train raving about Chinese food. She said the celery/pork stir-fry made her see celery in a totally different light. What used to be crunchy and bland celery absorbed some of the meat flavors and turned out delicious. Be creative and you’ll find use for those awesome vegetables!