Fresh Vegetables Or: Giving Up On ‘Green Values’, By Mara L.

This is another entry to my food-series, which Jens kindly invited me to write for his blog (devoting himself, as he should, to the most urgent concern of his fellow Europeans: culinary survival in New York). Today, I shall report on another find, hoping to save fellow-Europeans from what, for me, was a slow learning-curve. On first coming to New York, I was infected with ‘Green Values’ regarding food (which conveniently overlap with the long-standing values of gourmetship!). An illness which needed curing if I wanted fresh vegetables.

Copyright 2006 Jens Haas

For at least six months, the plastic containers with pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables didn’t register with me. Plastic containers with vegetables are not the product of choice for the Green- or gourmet-minded person from Europe. Thus, I reported back to my friends at home that, sad as it is, there are no fresh vegetables in New York. Rumors abound: A conspiracy? Do New Yorkers like rotten spinach? Or do they really only eat take out? Especially my mother was ready to believe anything that was going to bring me home sooner rather than later. However, life here gradually opened my eyes. Unpackaged vegetables, as I now know, rot away because *no one wants them*. Just turn to the other side of the shelf, and you’ll see perfectly nice vegetables, sitting there safely in their plastic containers.

So, today’s entry is a piece of practical advice: Just get over it. Buy the pre-washed, pre-cut, pre-portioned, and, most of all, plastic wrapped, container-protected vegetables that healthy New Yorkers buy. Giving up resistance is anyway just a matter of time. And New York really does have fresh vegetables.

Coming Up: Raspberry Cake In Salzburg