April 2008

It is about time I got around to trying this plant. It's everywhere in my neighborhood. I can think of few weeds that are more pervasive. Foxtail maybe. You see london rocket everywhere. Curiously, in all the reading about edible plants I've done, I can't remember a single reference to this plant outside an article in The Alibi, but that could be because there seems to be some disagreement on what to call it, so I might have missed the connection.

Anyway, I found a couple healthy specimens in my side yard and trimmed off a bunch of the leaves.

I used a recipe for pesto from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian which notes that arugula can be substituted for the spinach. In this case I substitued london rocket for the arugula.

Then I mixed it with pasta.

The results:

I am pleasantly surpised by how good this is. I could probably eat some of this every day. I ate quite a bit of it, too, and didn't get a tummy ache like I did when I overdid it on the lamb's quarters, which was encouraging. Don't get me wrong: it doesn't taste like you think pesto is going to taste. It mustardy odor is strong and it tastes more like horseradish than spinach. If you are the sort of person who likes horseradish, you might like this. Cristy ate it without complaining but it was clear that she wasn't going to be clamoring for me to make my delicious rocket pesto again.

You may be wondering why london rocket is called london rocket. This seems to be the accepted theory: "Rocket" is a common British name for arugula and arugula-like plants, and according to In Search of London by H. V. Morton, this particular rocket was associated with the aftermath of the Great Fire of London:

For years Londoners camped out in shacks and tents and other makeshift shelters and saw, as we see to-day, the site of their dwellings covered with weeds. The plant of the Great Fire was the London Rocket (Sisymbrium irio), as that of the Blitz was the willow-herb.

What does Pig-American sound like? and variations thereof are very popular questions on ask.metafilter:

How do you fake American?

What does English sound like?

How does one speak "pretend English"?

What are the stereotypes of the native English speaker's accent as perceived by non-English-speakers?

and

What does American English sound like to people who don't speak english?

There seems to be some consensus around American English sounding like "rar rar rar." Anything where you pronounce a lot of hard Rs. Also saying "Howdy, y'all", "awesome," and requesting cheese, although those observations are a little off-topic.

All of this sounds right on to me, as I pronounce all my Rs as hard as humanly possible, actually do say "howdy" (although it sounds more like "haddy"), use the ubiquitous "awesome," and, like any good American, I love to put cheese on everything.

However, as others point out, any attempt to codify the sound of Pig-American is flawed because the US is a big place where lots of people don't pronounce their Rs and don't say "howdy" or "awesome." (I think the cheese thing is probably universal, though.)

I was googling around for a recipe for saag paneer and found what may be the greatest cooking web site in the Internet: vahrehvah.com.

Here is Chef Sanjay's instructional video for making Stinky Delight.

"If you are living in an apartment, do not try this dish." -- Chef Sanjay

The video for palak paneer (aka saag paneer) is notable for the inclusion of Chef Sanjay's cute friend Nichole and for leaving the impression that you are watching some kind of Saturday morning puppet show.