Vernon had an abhorrence for any form of brassica, be it cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels spout, broccoli, or whatever. Cole slaw was particularly detestable. It was a difficult situation, because if a possible host enquired about “What do you and don’t you like?” Vernon would say that he would eat any and everything. If he said he had a detestation of brassicas he would have left the host in a quandary of having to choose a side dish from a rather more limited list of options.
Don’t get me wrong. If Vernon was invited to dine and the host served, say, sauerkraut, he’d eat it. Why a host would be serving sauerkraut to guests is beyond comprehension. But you get the drift… Vernon did not like brassicas, and he would stop the car after dining out on brassicas and spew.
Vernon’s wife, Wendy, loved brassicas. In fact, when Vernon went away on a business trip, Wendy would stay at home and pig out on cabbage. As Vernon would say upon his return, “Well, I guess it’s better than smoking.” It was mainly the smell of cabbage cooking that put Vernon off eating cabbage altogether. He would begin with a mild retch and before long he’d be out in the garden leaning over the delphiniums and herbing his guts out.
One day, while Vernon was at work, Wendy (with all the windows and doors wide open to create a draught) cooked up cabbage soup with lots of bacon bones. After removing the bones, she pureed the mixture. The soup was devoured that evening along with some freshly baked buns and a hard-boiled egg. Vernon loved it.
That’s because Wendy called it “Smoked Bacon Soup” and didn’t mention the cabbage. Oh the whimsicalities of likes and dislikes!
Thank you for the dinner party tip.
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I happen to like sauerkraut.
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Same here, in fact most of that family of green stuff.
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We avoid broccoli because Eric doesn’t like it. Apart from that all others are frequent guests.
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herbing his guts out, eh?
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Don’t you have that expression. Heaving his guts out or herbing his guts out. In deference to your good self I shall try to use “heaving” in future!
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Nope. Never heard of it before tonight. Neither had The Google.
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Which just goes to show how “useful” Google is. I presume it comes from the same expression as “Give it the herbs” i.e. rev the car/truck up etc. – sort of beating the accelerator.
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Thanks for the explanation. I had never heard of any of it until now.
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When the kids were little they hated peas but would happily eat “green soup.” Where I come from it would be an insult to not offer sauerkraut.
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I used to make my own sauerkraut when I was in Canada. Here I haven’t been so successful. It might be the weather/heat/cold??
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It might be the weather. My grandpa used to have a large stone crock in the basement where he fermented it (or whatever the correct name for the process is.).
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I presume it’s “ferment”. I kept mine air tight by covering the pounded cabbage in a container with plastic bags filled with water. That way it was heavy and the air couldn’t get in.
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Sounds like a good system. We were kids and just knew to stay out of the basement for a while.
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Nothing says summer like sauerkraut on a brat.
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Oh yeah buddy! And how!
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Do that’s why the delphiniums always looked so good.
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The pansies were as colorful.
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Right. I hear that Wendy had an aversion to Tomatoes.
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Her aversion to tomatoes is why she’s not very saucy.
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Lolz. Speaking from experience here: if you’re not careful about that joke you can wind up paying an extra tab at Subway.
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Wendy is a smart cook. You made me google for sauerkraut. Well, I suspect I may never reconcile myself to consuming sauerkraut.
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Sauerkraut is basically rotten cabbage (and German!) But I quite like it now and again. These days I buy it in a tin.
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I was expecting a poisoned cabbage ending, but this story made me smile. Don’t we all have those whimsicalities! I myself am not very fond of cabbage, but I dislike both the taste and the smell (when you cook it).
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I like most sorts of cabbages – although I’m not that fond of red cabbage, Love what the Dutch call Witloof and the French call Belgian Endives! But over here they’re very hard to get hold of.
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I love brassicas, but it is true that it’s often our brains rather than our tastebuds that tell us we don’t like something!
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I think a lot of people are like that with offal!I love most of it!
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