The Weekly Pannier, November 14: More Variety

This week's collection includes the sun artichoke or Jerusalem artichoke, a new vegetable for us to learn about. Esploring foods that we have ignored in the past, when we were too busy worrying about where to get the tenderest lamb chops or the freshest goat cheese to pay much attention to those un-appetizing-looking roots and tubers, is one thing that makes the vegetarian adventure exciting. And it is exciting, to the senses and the mind (which are not really separate, after all), a total delight.

In this week's basket: red cabbage, curly cabbage (chou frisé), spinach, lettuce, pears, apples, celery root (céleri rave), and sun artichokes (topinambour).

Every country and every culture seems to have its own terms for many fruits and vegetables, and this week's pannier offers some good examples of this diversity. Take for example the curly cabbage, which is also known to English-speakers as Savoy cabbage. The Italians also have a variety of names for this cabbage, including Braschetta and cavolo riccio nero de Lucca. In France, the favorite term is chou frisé. For international travelers like Juliette and me, it can be confusing sometimes, but the effort to have a working knowledge of synonyms for foods can come in handy when ordering in a restaurant or making sense of a recipe.