Ordinary Nothing

If you’re one of those odd people who refuse to eat things just because they’re green, this post isn’t for you, and you can skip it. If you’re not one, then let me assuage your incredulity by stating that yes, there really are people like that. I personally know a few. I even expect to get indigent yells from at least one of them, due to this paragraph.

OK, now that we got rid of people who won’t eat things like cucumbers or zucchinis anyway, and so will find the preparation method a moot point, I can go on.

I’m sometimes amazed how people can totally disregard perfectly valid way to deal with some raw ingredients. Case in point, cucumbers. A very common vegetable (at least here). Ask most people what they would put into a salad (assuming they make salads. If not, ask them what they’ll expect to find in one), and a cucumber is likely to be on the list.

Ask them whatever else cucumbers are good for, and you may get a list of other dishes. And it is extremely likely that there will be one common element to all of these. The cucumber in them would be either raw, or pickled.

Mention something like frying, broiling, or cooking a cucumber, and you’ll get really odd stares from people. The first time I tried it was as a part of a dish of mixed broiled vegetables. I added a cucumber to the mix, thin quarter slices. And it passed on wonderfully, with everyone enjoying the dish. That is, until someone mentioned that they thought we have run out of zucchinis. And, since there was nothing seemingly problematical about that, I answered that the green pieces are not zucchini, but a cucumber…

My father didn’t mind much, my mother made a face (but went on eating, since it tasted good), and my brother… Started going on and on about what a freakish idea that is, and that cooked cucumbers are too bizarre to eat. And he stopped eating it, saying the dish tasted strange.

The next few times that a dish included thinly sliced zucchini, he actually tried to avoid eating it, saying that the cucumber gave it an odd taste. An odd taste which miraculously disappeared once I told him it’s not a cucumber in there.

And my brother is not the only one with those attitudes. Sadly enough, that post isn’t just taking a jab at him. Plenty of people seem extremely surprised when I mention using cucumber in cooking and broiling. Unique and rare spices are just regarded as exotic, as are rare fruits and vegetables, whose useage is just called special and creative by people seeing them made. But a cooked cucumber, that get called bizarre, and often shunned, mostly before anyone tries to actually taste it.

And it’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with it, or that there are health issues, or anything whatsoever. Practically any vegetable is regarded as accepted in practically any method (as long as it keeps it edible, and without any health related concerns), but a cooked cucumber isn’t.

Which is what I find bizarre, since there’s nothing too bizarre about it. Cucumbers and zucchinis are actually much alike, both in look, texture, and in taste. Except that the cucumber loses more water in cooking, so tends to shrink more. And that a cooked cucumber obtains a sweetish flavour, and doesn’t have the mild bitter background taste of zucchinis.

Oh, right, and while I’m at it, there is another vegetable which is (wrongfully) regarded as perfectly acceptable if done in some forms, and unacceptable in others. In an interesting contrast, that vegetable would be the… zucchini. Which people have no problem eating cooked, grilled, fried or broiled, but raise a lot of objections to eating raw… Unless, that is, they just get it roughly grated inside a salad, and assume it’s a cucumber with a more distinct taste…

August 29th, 2005 at 21:39 EET | Categories: Food and Drink | Track comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.