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!
Wait . . . The 10,000 steps thing is made up?! Mind blown! But also I guess I’m not surprised, not that it’s made up, and not that many people get overly fixated on quantifying and maximizing these made-up health measures either. I wish it were the norm for health authorities and journalists to recommend a more moderate and sensible approach--“fewer norms, more following our gut instinct,” as you aptly put it.
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.
The church example is especially weird, because most church services are about an hour, and churches have drinking fountains! I find it so bizarre that so many people feel that they can’t wait a short while before they can get a drink.
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.
Yikes about your friend. Hikers here in Switzerland know not to drink from streams because cows have probably been in them, but snow seems so pure and clean. Thanks for the warning, and I hope he’s ok now.
As for water in the past, I seem to remember reading that no one drank water, ever, in Europe (which may be one reason European restaurants are so stingy with tap water!). People--even young children--drank “small beer,” which was low-alcohol beer. The alcohol killed all the nasty bugs.
A historian acquaintance told me that one driver of the Industrial Revolution was the introduction of tea and--even more so--coffee to Europe. Boiling the water made it safe to drink, and people started drinking caffeinated drinks instead of beer. Everyone became a lot more energetic! Who knows if this is actually true, but it makes a great story!
People got sick from it much more often in the past, for sure. There are still some parasites evolved to be spread by humans who drink contaminated water (such as the Guinea worm), but fortunately they are on the way out.
Is Giardia a semaglutide? Lose weight even though getting ill and regaining weight when the course of treatment is over. I bet lots of people would try the Giardia diet!
Yeah, he went through hell while recovering, and he was a very fit guy in his mid- 30s who wasn't overweight to begin with. He thinks that maybe the snow that he gathered up had trace amounts of urine in it, because he had gathered up a pan of snow (in the dark) from just outside the hut and brought it inside to heat it up for drinking water. Maybe if he had let it boil, he would've been safe? An oddity: his wife drank some of that water too, but never got sick.
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.
Excellent point! Thyme always goes bad for me too, and for some reason I can never get my plants to survive. Stores should have shrubs of thyme and rosemary, and we can just pinch off a sprig!
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?
Well, this is a good point, although I’m not sure there are any studies on the dehydrating effects of wine and hard liquor. I think everyone just assumes that the amount of alcohol is so high in comparison with the amount of water that the drinks will be dehydrating.
Right. A pint of beer is a lot of liquid. A shot of scotch, not so much. And a glass of wine is in between, but on the less side as well. Now if you drink the whole bottle...
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!
Ha! Thanks for the kind words and for the tips! I agree about celeriac--delicious!
I came to defend celery and knew I wouldn't have to. ;)
I like this free celery idea! It should be like the tap water in American restaurants — given away in generous quantities, to prevent dehydration.
Ooo! Good point! Let’s put celery’s high water content to use!
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.
Yes! It’s the same with peanut butter. True, it improves celery, but why not just have it with bread and honey, the way God intended? 😂
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!
Wait . . . The 10,000 steps thing is made up?! Mind blown! But also I guess I’m not surprised, not that it’s made up, and not that many people get overly fixated on quantifying and maximizing these made-up health measures either. I wish it were the norm for health authorities and journalists to recommend a more moderate and sensible approach--“fewer norms, more following our gut instinct,” as you aptly put it.
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.
The church example is especially weird, because most church services are about an hour, and churches have drinking fountains! I find it so bizarre that so many people feel that they can’t wait a short while before they can get a drink.
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
Thanks for the recipe--for everyone else. Alas, I don’t eat bacon. It’s the one meat that I miss!
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!
Oh, I am a huge fan of mirepoix and celery in soup stock. The problem is having to buy (and then throw away most of) the whole bunch.
I love the Search for Delicious!
It was such a lovely book!
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. . . .
I’m with that kid. To me, celery with peanut butter is a punishment, not a snack!
No. It's delicious--to me, at least.
As I always used to tell my kids, different people like different things, and that’s ok!
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.
Yikes about your friend. Hikers here in Switzerland know not to drink from streams because cows have probably been in them, but snow seems so pure and clean. Thanks for the warning, and I hope he’s ok now.
As for water in the past, I seem to remember reading that no one drank water, ever, in Europe (which may be one reason European restaurants are so stingy with tap water!). People--even young children--drank “small beer,” which was low-alcohol beer. The alcohol killed all the nasty bugs.
A historian acquaintance told me that one driver of the Industrial Revolution was the introduction of tea and--even more so--coffee to Europe. Boiling the water made it safe to drink, and people started drinking caffeinated drinks instead of beer. Everyone became a lot more energetic! Who knows if this is actually true, but it makes a great story!
People got sick from it much more often in the past, for sure. There are still some parasites evolved to be spread by humans who drink contaminated water (such as the Guinea worm), but fortunately they are on the way out.
Is Giardia a semaglutide? Lose weight even though getting ill and regaining weight when the course of treatment is over. I bet lots of people would try the Giardia diet!
Ugh! But the side-effects!
Yeah, he went through hell while recovering, and he was a very fit guy in his mid- 30s who wasn't overweight to begin with. He thinks that maybe the snow that he gathered up had trace amounts of urine in it, because he had gathered up a pan of snow (in the dark) from just outside the hut and brought it inside to heat it up for drinking water. Maybe if he had let it boil, he would've been safe? An oddity: his wife drank some of that water too, but never got sick.
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.
Excellent point! Thyme always goes bad for me too, and for some reason I can never get my plants to survive. Stores should have shrubs of thyme and rosemary, and we can just pinch off a sprig!
Interesting, I use thyme in so many dishes that I constantly run out. Love the summer when I can grow my own!
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?
Well, this is a good point, although I’m not sure there are any studies on the dehydrating effects of wine and hard liquor. I think everyone just assumes that the amount of alcohol is so high in comparison with the amount of water that the drinks will be dehydrating.
Right. A pint of beer is a lot of liquid. A shot of scotch, not so much. And a glass of wine is in between, but on the less side as well. Now if you drink the whole bottle...