Food

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables were common on Colonial tables, but somehow got lost by their descendants. Although such truck, as broccoli, kale, chard, and a green known confusingly to Italians and precious few others as broccoli rabe and broccoli rapa, have been around for centuries, many cooks still have no idea of what to do with them.

Homing in on which crop is fleeing fastest, I've had lush, fragile, irrevocable peaches on my mind. But then I often do. Native South Carolinians and Georgians, of course, have a near obsession with this fruit: Peach ice cream is the only flavor, peach cobbler the only pie, peach butter and never apple on biscuits and toast. Peaches in winter were the prerogative of royalty until recent times. . . . Now we can freeze up a big batch fairly effortlessly and decide in the calm of late autumn just what to do with them – jam, chutney, ice cream, pie, or simply a luxurious dish of peaches and heavy cream.

A “chicken in every pot” is one political promise that has come all too true, at least in the United States, where chicken is about the cheapest protein going except for eggs. Chicken, achingly available in every place and season, is no longer universally regarded as a treat. To many, it’s more of a duty — either to waistline or bottom line.

Mussels are another local glory found on local menus. At Bobby Van’s, they are served “mariniere” (simply steamed in wine and herbs) year-round. But there are so many ways to serve these cheap, easily cooked shellfish: cold as a first course with various sauces or in soups or hot entrees.

The Neapolitan pie, hardly known in this country before the 1930s, must certainly have overtaken the hot dog as the nation’s number one favorite snack food. According to scholarly research conducted in the ’50s by the lat Richard Gehman, one Frank Mastro from Bari (not Naples) is credited with popularizing pizza outside the Italian neighborhoods in New York.

Either cod or flounder are good local choices for the fish mousse — almost any firm, fresh white fish will do. Naturally one would not choose expensive striped bass; that would be like making hamburgers out of ground filet mignon.

When the first gas ranges were introduced in France about the middle of the 19th century, they were greatly distrusted. Meat baked in an oven was despised by Alexandre Dumas, who decreed that all food in his household be prepared on wood or charcoal fires. Grill cooks (rotisseurs) feared to lose their livelihood.

"Garlic's taste is briefest pleasure—
Eat in haste, repent at leisure.
Garlic's like the poor, like sorrow—
Here today and here tomorrow."
-Justin Richardson, from an anthology by William Cole, "...And Be Merry"

Dried black mushrooms from Japan and spicy, pungent French chanterelles make this a meatloaf for royals. As well it might, since the imported dried mushrooms cost a king’s ransom.

Eaten plain or with yogurt for breakfast or lunch and involved in more elaborate desserts for dinner, strawberries are hardly tiring, even on a daily basis. The season is too short for that. Here is a strawberry shortcake that can be prepared in a trice.

As soon as the weather warms (and the rains cease — a dove with a sprig of impatiens landed on my windowsill, indicating the waters are about to subside), thoughts turn to the pleasures of outdoor dining The barbecue season, perfuming the air with the aroma of charbroil and keeping the heat out of the kitchen, has arrived.

Pizza may be a year-round staple, but in the summer season it can take on a special bright freshness. Now is the time. Herbs, fresh tomatoes or even a little ratatouille discovered while rummaging in the refrigerator are wonderful additions, providing you make the pizza yourself, an activity that allows for creative innovations and saves on gasoline.