For a long time there was no buying of cucumbers. I couldn’t see the point–they were the food equivalent of packing peanuts.
Like carrot-discs, I found them cumbersome in salads, particularly when restaurants served them. There they’d be dangling off the fork, the size of a frisbees, threatening to slide off from a gaping watery hole in the center, unless you managed to spear their outer rim. Then–a mouthful of cucumber and dressing and all that’s tasted is the dressing, with the faint flavor of cucumber: watery, with a quiet soapy-sweet atertaste, neither enhancing nor disturbing the dish, just…there. In fact, I couldn’t see the point to cucumber in anything–salads, sandwiches, infused water, etc. It had the awkward mix of being distinct but boring.
I think perhaps I got older and became more of a daytime person (I realized this when my younger cousin came to visit and asked me if I wanted to go to a club and the crystal in my palm started blinking), as cucumbers are much better complimented by sunlight, and I also got interested in cooking and found that I didn’t hate the taste of cucumbers themselves–I never did–I just needed a way to eat them that allowed them to be them. So I’m a fan of dishes in which it’s nothing but cucumber and flavorings–you may of course enjoy them as they usually appear in salads and spa water, but I encourage you to celebrate them for the little hermits they are and try eating them alone. That way, they can be out and proud instead of second-fiddle.
RECIPE: Cucumbers, Hot & Cold
Filed under: Clean Food Daily, cucumbers, raw, salad, vegetables
