Ryan's Journal

There's an old media narrative about how kids hate to eat brussel sprouts, from Leave it to Beaver to any old 80's sitcom. I never had brussel sprouts as a child but, based on television, assumed they were some sort of disgusting, up until a friend served them to me a few years ago in Colorado (though I'm sure they were ingested prior in some clandestine form).

They're good, especially when roasted. I don't know anybody who actively hates them and am mystified by the general assumption everybody does. Not that I've surveyed extensively, but it just seems odd that brussel sprouts were chosen as the sacrificial bad veggie; was there one writer in the 40's whose mother boiled the brussel sprouts into bitter mush, and everybody since then has taken his biases as well-known facts of life? It's not even that easy to find them; shopping for sprouts in Boston and Seattle, grocery stores seem to stock very little volume, if at all. It just doesn't seem like brussel sprouts are part of the common American experience enough to merit such a bad rep. Don't overcook them and they're magic. Blame your chef if they aren't.

Based on the same totally incomplete survey, the one vegetable that seems to get the most hatred is celery. I don't quite understand it, but go ahead, haters, speak up and be heard.

Myself, it's eggplant. Bleh.