So I was wandering through a bookstore in San Francisco when I came across the new book: The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution I did a double take. The author lets the lowly “arugula” define the notion of gourmet?
It’s odd, when I go to Italy the first thing I think about is the food. Yet, it’s not all that difficult to produce it here. It’s really the thought that you can walk into just about any restaurant, plunk down in a chair, and order mouth-watering food that knocks your socks off. Then you count the ingredients and are amazed that they usually don’t amount to more than six. Of course, behind each dish on the menu are years of development. By this I mean that the locals, local women usually, gathering what grows in the countryside, have been cooking and tweaking the recipe for a long while just like the guy with the cigarette dangling from his upper lip that eyed you from the kitchen when you sat down. They’ve been doing this forever.
And they’ve been using weeds. Yes, weeds like arugula. Ever plant arugula? It comes up, it spreads, and pretty soon your “gourmet” friends are picking leaves of it out of your lawn and chowing down.
Are we entering a new phase of “gourmet” politics? Have we thrown off the mantle of haute cuisine to feast on the stuff we’ve always ignored, like the weedy arugula and fennel that grows besides the roads and byways and spreads at frightening rates, like old fashioned good will…and fascism?
All I know is, The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation has gotten good reviews from those who’ve read it.
I guess I’ll have to read it, too.