I know it's a lesser-known regional vegetable that flourishes here on Califuckia's central coast - I have several out of state relatives who have never seen or touched an artichoke in their lives. But anyway, I love boiling an artichoke for about 60-90 minutes in a mixture of brine, pineapple juice and lemon juice (to give the green leaves a nice, sharp zing) and eat them with mayo. You peel off the leaves, dip the puffy, meat end of the leaf in mayo and use your teeth to suck all the "green meat" off the leaf, then dispose of the leaf remnant. Then when the leaves are gone and you get to the bizarre-looking, alien heart of the artichoke, you can dip the whole motherfucker in mayo and eat it until there's nothing left. Like all plump green plants, it's packed with all varieties of nutrition. Including anti-oxidants that keep us from oxidizing (because that would be a worldwide tragedy if that happened).
I got into this artichoke w/mayo habit when I was a young child and every time we visited our late grandma's house, she'd feed us a lunch of tomato soup with soda crackers and a boiled artichoke like clockwork. And the funniest/damndest thing is that at 45, I still often cook up grandma's same childhood lunch for myself from time to time.
I got into this artichoke w/mayo habit when I was a young child and every time we visited our late grandma's house, she'd feed us a lunch of tomato soup with soda crackers and a boiled artichoke like clockwork. And the funniest/damndest thing is that at 45, I still often cook up grandma's same childhood lunch for myself from time to time.
