Last night's shopping from The Wild Olive.
Callaloo. I can't see the word without hearing Bill Cosby.
(Fast forward to 8 minutes and 20 seconds, about three quarters of the way through video:)
I bought the can to see what is really inside. Because callaloo is the Jamaican name for pigweed (probably Amaranthus palmeri, I've learned recently - a very tall pigweed, and maybe the one I bought in bunches at Wild Olive soon after we moved to Harlem), and I am gathering intel on edible weeds - one of my favourite subjects, as many of you know.
But callaloo also the name for another plant - taro (its huge tubers are widely sold local stores, too), and what I call elephant's ear, and properly Xanthosoma species. Not sure I'll be able to tell which plant it is, from canned leaves.
But callaloo also the name for another plant - taro (its huge tubers are widely sold local stores, too), and what I call elephant's ear, and properly Xanthosoma species. Not sure I'll be able to tell which plant it is, from canned leaves.
The greens on the table are unrelated - arugula and mustard.
All of which makes me hungry.
All of which makes me hungry.
marscarpone and callaloo: who knew?
ReplyDeleteCallaloo! Have you ever made it - the soup, I mean? There are a number of versions of it in the fabulous old cookbook "Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons" by Jessica B Harris where she writes about African influence on New World cooking. Just a great vivid book, with notes about ingredients (including the mercurial Callaloo) that might be right up your alley. Great Cosby clip! I love to hear about your forays out and about your new neighborhood in Harlem. Perhaps all good writing is travel writing - seeing the world with fresh and honest eyes. Well, back to the wintry world of Madison Wisconsin where the snow it snoweth every day. T
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