I could definitely tell I was a midwestern American with no Armenian heritage when I read the recipe for Madzoon Soup. Seeing that it started out with a bunch of oatmeal and yogurt, I assumed that it would be a sweet fruit soup, perhaps similar to the overnight oatmeal a lot of people eat for breakfast.
And then I saw that it had a couple of onions instead of a pint of strawberries to give it flavor. Definitely not what I was expecting! Plus there's a hint of fresh mint, I guess so your breath will smell kind of fresh (or at least kind of confusing) if you have a bowl.
The next recipe shows the book's commitment to seasonal dishes, as Pokeweed Greens are made from actual weeds that come out in May, at least in Connecticut, the home of the Bloodroot restaurant.
I think I would just stick to actual asparagus rather than this "poor person's asparagus" if I were the cook, mainly because my inattention to detail would leave me likely to pick some other kind of weed and poison everyone. (And this recipe undersells the point that even picking the right kind of weed can lead to poisoning if it's prepared incorrectly, so... yeah. I would definitely not be the person to fix this!)
We'll just finish off with a little May Wine and forget about the pokeweed.
The book recommends using sweet woodruff as a ground cover most of the year, and a thing to stuff into a bottle of wine in May. I kind of wondered why one would want to marinate glorified lawn clippings in the wine and then strain them out. The note suggesting that "woodruff has the effect of releasing alcohol more rapidly into the bloodstream" suggests a possibility, but the recipe offers nothing about the taste. I found a winery that suggests the wine takes on a "delicious scent reminiscent of fresh-cut hay and a sweet vanilla flavor," so I guess that's the flavor of May... along with minty onions and something asparagus-adjacent that will poison you if you aren't too careful. Late spring is a complicated time.
Given the price of food these days, it would be nice if I knew how to forage (and hunt). Of course the hard part would be finding a place to do it these days. As the kids used to sing on the school bus, "this land is my land, that land is your land, if you come over, I'll blow your head off." And that's basically why I never go anywhere. I don't want to have to deal with other people's anger and possessiveness of everything.
ReplyDeleteI remember the song as being more involved (and violent) than that, but your point does stand. Even wandering accidentally onto someone's property can be dangerous, so don't go looking for trouble.
DeleteI know that the song went on from there. Thankfully I don't remember all of it.
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