New food!

These past 5 months, I’ve been enjoying fruits and vegetables here that I had never experienced before. It’s entirely probable that my eyes are open in a different way these days and all of this is easily available at the same time of year in NY, but I am just loving “discovering” these new foods of the earth:

Fennel – I know that this is readily available in NY, but maybe not so common. In Brussels (and France when I’ve been there in the past) it’s all over the place. Steamed, roasted whole, and my favorite - shredded onto salads. It’s been described as kind of licorice-y, but is also sweet and light and crispy.

Kohlrabi – Part of the cabbage family, if you haven’t seen it before. I can get it at the food coop in Park Slope at home, but never have. To me, it always looked like a hard, dirty root vegetable, and I imagined it tasting kind of dull. However, at the farmers market in the courtyard of the Theatre de la Monnaie (Place de le Monnaie, Brussels, every Wednesday morning), my French friend selected it, deeming it a “vegetable eaten my hippies around the world”. We (well, she) peeled off the tough outer skin, and shredded it onto our salad. It was nutty and hearty, the exact right counterpart to the shredded fennel. Later on, I had it sliced thin like chips with olive paste and it was exactly perfect.

English cucumbers – these are the long skinny ones, commonly individually shrink-wrapped (huh?). Not as common in the US as their thicker, shorter siblings. The skin on the English cukes is thinner, and usually eaten. Personnally, I find the skin kind of bitter, and don’t love the taste of in when I juice it. But satisfying when eaten in thick slices.

Persimmons – called “Kaki” in French. I know that these are relatively common in the US, I had just never tried one before. My oh my. How delicious. Sweet and buttery, it’s more like candy than fruit. I’ve been eating them plain, just sliced, but could see the day that I’m carrying one around and eating it like an apple.

I am beyond excited to continue my discovery of “new” fruits and vegetables when I get home.

One love,
Marissa