When you say celery, perhaps define this as "celery stalks" as compared to the root of this veg, commonly referred to as celeriac. And this gives us almost two different types of food on the same plant!
Celery stalks easily become floss-free if you peel off the fiber strands. Hold a sharp knife at one of the ends and just pull. Crunchy-albeit bland-green snack. I prefer mine with crunchy peanut butter, unless I use it in salad, soup or whatever.
Now, celery root: don't get me started! But, as I rant on... :) ultimate favorite, as salad, or battered and fried, or simply sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces and grilled. Optionally with the sauce or condiment of your choice. Also good cubed in stews, or turkey stuffing (as a side dish).
Tap water in Swiss restaurants: You can ask for tap water, (rather than bottled mineral water), and many places even graciously serve it in a friendly manner. Some restaurants now put it in a caraffe with the restaurant logo and still charge a few francs for it. I say: Grant them a rant!
Coming to this late because of...Covid, but I had to comment because I am one of those rare people who actually likes celery. However, I, too, forget about it in the fridge and think your idea of free celery is a good one. It could be like those penny dishes stores used to have: take a stalk if you need one. Love it! I also agree with you completely about water bottles and hydration. The whole 8 8oz glasses of water per day was made up, as was the 10,000 steps per day admonition. My rant would be how about we stop counting every bit of our lives and then entering the info into an app that will tell us whether we succeeded or failed. If you're thirsty, drink; if you want celery, eat it. Fewer norms, more following our gut instincts, in these cases, literally. Nice column!
You're wrong about celery, unfortunately -- it's fantastic -- but oh so right about "hydration" and water bottles. It's been a long and weird cultural obsession, hasn't it? I remember first seeing everybody with water bottles in church in the 1990s, and thinking "how DARE you." In church, it's disrespectfully self-indulgent, but everywhere else, it's infantilizing. They might as well be sippy cups, and people need them like toddlers need little bags of Cheerios.
One of my most favorite dishes is cream of celery soup. I make it any time the bunch of celery is startng to wilt. But bacon is a key ingredient. Not sure how one might substitute that, but it might be worth a try. Here's a good starting recipe (with the bacon) that might be inspirational. https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-cream-of-celery-soup-wi-70990
Your thoughts on celery prompted a discussion in my office about the food that is forgotten in the fridge/ kitchen counter: I forget parsley, my coworkers said leeks and different fruits. On the topic of celery, I used to hate it and still cannot eat chunks or the whole stalk. But I was cooking a ragu one day and rather than omitting the required chopped celery I decided to use it and was astounded by the wonderful peppery flavor it gives the whole dish. I am a convert but only if I can dice it really small!
Ha, one of my childhood memories is of a student in my Home Economics class who was made to cry because the teacher was forcing him to eat celery with peanut butter--a healthy snack that he could not deal with. I myself often buy it thinking to nibble on it, only to find it wilted a few weeks later. . . .
Ha! I had this exact same thought just yesterday about hydration: long ago, many people had no easy access to water, so they probably rarely drank water and probably didn't drink very much on a daily basis. It simply can't be that we "need" gallons per day.
The other thing I think about sometimes: long ago, many people were drinking water from creeks, rivers, and lakes, and of course animals still do this. But we modern humans are not supposed to do that, because of bad stuff in the water. And the bad stuff isn't just man-made pollutants, but also naturally-occurring microbes and other invisible things* that can wreak havoc within a human body. So I wonder: did humans once have more robust immunity to such things, or did people get sick (or worse) much more often after drinking water, or maybe people somehow knew which water sources were OK and which were not?
*A friend once got Giardia from drinking melted snow during a hut-to-hut cross-country skiing expedition, out in the wilderness of northern Minnesota. He got very sick, lost 30 lbs, and it took him about 3 months to recover.
I support your "celery by the rib" scheme and propose that you add a "fresh herbs by the gram" clause. I have never in my life used an entire bunch of thyme.
You know the Gell Mann amnesia effect? I am applying that to this quote: "the water in the coffee more than compensates for that tiny [hydration] loss. (The same principle applies to beer, incidentally, although not to wine or other alcoholic drinks, which are dehydrating.)" Why if previous "studies" on caffeine and beer are bunk would one believe other studies on wine?
Dear Mari, I love good rants. However....
When you say celery, perhaps define this as "celery stalks" as compared to the root of this veg, commonly referred to as celeriac. And this gives us almost two different types of food on the same plant!
Celery stalks easily become floss-free if you peel off the fiber strands. Hold a sharp knife at one of the ends and just pull. Crunchy-albeit bland-green snack. I prefer mine with crunchy peanut butter, unless I use it in salad, soup or whatever.
Now, celery root: don't get me started! But, as I rant on... :) ultimate favorite, as salad, or battered and fried, or simply sliced into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces and grilled. Optionally with the sauce or condiment of your choice. Also good cubed in stews, or turkey stuffing (as a side dish).
Tap water in Swiss restaurants: You can ask for tap water, (rather than bottled mineral water), and many places even graciously serve it in a friendly manner. Some restaurants now put it in a caraffe with the restaurant logo and still charge a few francs for it. I say: Grant them a rant!
thanks for your continued posts. Keep on ranting!
I like this free celery idea! It should be like the tap water in American restaurants — given away in generous quantities, to prevent dehydration.
Mari … you know I can get behind “Cranky Rants: The Blog” …. 🫡
I think perhaps cream cheese can redeem celery, but then again you might as well just have a bagel.
Coming to this late because of...Covid, but I had to comment because I am one of those rare people who actually likes celery. However, I, too, forget about it in the fridge and think your idea of free celery is a good one. It could be like those penny dishes stores used to have: take a stalk if you need one. Love it! I also agree with you completely about water bottles and hydration. The whole 8 8oz glasses of water per day was made up, as was the 10,000 steps per day admonition. My rant would be how about we stop counting every bit of our lives and then entering the info into an app that will tell us whether we succeeded or failed. If you're thirsty, drink; if you want celery, eat it. Fewer norms, more following our gut instincts, in these cases, literally. Nice column!
You're wrong about celery, unfortunately -- it's fantastic -- but oh so right about "hydration" and water bottles. It's been a long and weird cultural obsession, hasn't it? I remember first seeing everybody with water bottles in church in the 1990s, and thinking "how DARE you." In church, it's disrespectfully self-indulgent, but everywhere else, it's infantilizing. They might as well be sippy cups, and people need them like toddlers need little bags of Cheerios.
One of my most favorite dishes is cream of celery soup. I make it any time the bunch of celery is startng to wilt. But bacon is a key ingredient. Not sure how one might substitute that, but it might be worth a try. Here's a good starting recipe (with the bacon) that might be inspirational. https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-cream-of-celery-soup-wi-70990
Your thoughts on celery prompted a discussion in my office about the food that is forgotten in the fridge/ kitchen counter: I forget parsley, my coworkers said leeks and different fruits. On the topic of celery, I used to hate it and still cannot eat chunks or the whole stalk. But I was cooking a ragu one day and rather than omitting the required chopped celery I decided to use it and was astounded by the wonderful peppery flavor it gives the whole dish. I am a convert but only if I can dice it really small!
I love the Search for Delicious!
Ha, one of my childhood memories is of a student in my Home Economics class who was made to cry because the teacher was forcing him to eat celery with peanut butter--a healthy snack that he could not deal with. I myself often buy it thinking to nibble on it, only to find it wilted a few weeks later. . . .
Ha! I had this exact same thought just yesterday about hydration: long ago, many people had no easy access to water, so they probably rarely drank water and probably didn't drink very much on a daily basis. It simply can't be that we "need" gallons per day.
The other thing I think about sometimes: long ago, many people were drinking water from creeks, rivers, and lakes, and of course animals still do this. But we modern humans are not supposed to do that, because of bad stuff in the water. And the bad stuff isn't just man-made pollutants, but also naturally-occurring microbes and other invisible things* that can wreak havoc within a human body. So I wonder: did humans once have more robust immunity to such things, or did people get sick (or worse) much more often after drinking water, or maybe people somehow knew which water sources were OK and which were not?
*A friend once got Giardia from drinking melted snow during a hut-to-hut cross-country skiing expedition, out in the wilderness of northern Minnesota. He got very sick, lost 30 lbs, and it took him about 3 months to recover.
I support your "celery by the rib" scheme and propose that you add a "fresh herbs by the gram" clause. I have never in my life used an entire bunch of thyme.
You know the Gell Mann amnesia effect? I am applying that to this quote: "the water in the coffee more than compensates for that tiny [hydration] loss. (The same principle applies to beer, incidentally, although not to wine or other alcoholic drinks, which are dehydrating.)" Why if previous "studies" on caffeine and beer are bunk would one believe other studies on wine?