…and more thoughts about salad and food.
I had never heard of arugula before I went on a pilgrimage to Rome at the end of my freshman year of college.
Back up. I didn’t really eat salad at all until my freshman year of college. In my opinion, this was one of those cases where peer pressure was healthy. “Huh, all these people like salad. I should start eating it, too, I guess.” Growing up, “salad” was iceberg lettuce, cheese, and croutons drowned in ranch dressing. “Dark, leafy greens” were not part of my worldview. Hence, things like arugula and kale, etc., were unknown to me.
Back to Rome, where I learned what arugula is, because it was frequently a pizza topping choice, and in the touristy part of town it was translated to English on the menu as “rocket salad,” which caught my attention. What is rocket salad? What IS arugula?? Well, by the end of the twelve-day trip, multiple people had gone for the arugula on their personal or shareable pizzas, so I’d both seen and tasted it. It was visually pleasing, but it didn’t suit my [relatively immature in the realm of vegetables] palate at the time. “Too spicy,” she thought to herself, as if she were a toddler.
After returning home from Rome came the first time I remember ever feeling like a food snob. We had alfredo Chicken Helper—something I had always enjoyed, having been long accustomed to what I like to call “yellow meals.” But after being in Rome, eating freshly made pasta and sauces for nearly two weeks, the Chicken Helper was a disappointment. A similar thing happened–but with Mexican food–when I moved from Texas back to Missouri in 2016. We avoided Mexican restaurants on purpose for several weeks at least, but my family insisted that a relatively new place in town was pretty good and worth checking out, so we went. I was certain I could have made those tacos myself at home; there was just nothing special about them at all. The only “worth it” thing was the included sopapillas, and only because I’ve never made sopapillas myself. Quality is relative.
Fast forward a good ten years from my trip to Rome (that would be now), and, in order to get dark leafy greens into my diet, I regularly buy the mix of baby spinach and arugula to pair with crunchy romaine or light butter lettuce for making salads at home. I’ve developed my palate enough to be able to taste “nutty” and “earthy” and “bright” rather than just “green,” and now I honestly enjoy the “spicy” quality of arugula. My definition for salad has certainly come a long way from the ranch soup I grew up with. (I do still have a weakness for ranch dressing, though, especially when paired with cheese fries. Sorry, salad.) But, hey! I am actually back in the habit, currently, of making salad for lunch somewhat regularly, thanks to the kickstart of a heap of leftover smoked turkey a few weeks ago that needed somewhere to be useful, as well as an earnest desire to eat more veggies myself after preaching to y’all that you should.
Tell me in the comments below: what are your favorite salad greens? Or do you usually go for pre-mixed kits? (No judgment; I frequently do! So easy.)