September 4, 2019 • 19 mins
This leafy green has a peppery bite – that ‘hot’ nature is likely responsible for its long history of being regarded as an aphrodisiac. Anney and Lauren explore the history and science of arugula (also known as rocket).
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Any Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum,
and today we're talking about arugula a K A rocket,
a K A rocket, salad, a K A roquette. Um.
I think there's a few others there are, and I
didn't know about any of those, and I'm delighted by
all of them. It's so fun to say. All of
(00:29):
them are so fun to say. All of those words
are great. Um. It's kind of a companion to our
salad episode. Sure, because we got curious about the PEPPERI
what is it in arugula? Yeah? What what makes arugula PEPPERI?
And well you'll have to wait just a minute for that. Um.
But yeah, then we started looking into it and this
(00:50):
is actually one I'm slightly embarrassed because, um, I was
just like basic Google search, so many references to it
being an Awford easy I came up that I was like, dude,
we have to do this episode. We have to talk
about this. We've got to get to the bottom of this. Yeah. Yeah,
that's another teaser for what's to come. Oh goodness, yes, Uh,
(01:10):
it's also my favorite salad. I mean like a like
a very simple like a rugula salad with like like
a lemon vinegarrette. Um, maybe some like pecorino shaped on
there or something like that. I love arugula too. I
feel like it's it's one of those things that's semi
newish in my life, but that one, now that I've
(01:30):
discovered it, every time I see it on a menu,
I'm excited about it. Yeah. I think it was introduced
to it actually as rocket um really at a British
themed pub oh here in Atlanta. But then but then
after that, I saw it said both ways, So I
don't know, I kind of picked up both I've never
seen it as rocket, or maybe I have. And every
(01:50):
time I see rocket, I assume that's a sauce because
there's a rocket sauce probably in the salads, and I'm
thinking that's a whole salad rocket sauce. That's well, that's
America for you. But okay, let's get to our questions. Arugola,
(02:12):
what is it you like? Saying it's so much I love? Um? Well,
arugula is a leafy green in the wide, wonderful brass
of Caseye family. Um. I'm still not sure if I'm
saying that right. I'm sorry, my Latin is terrible. Um. Anyway,
it encompasses mustards, cabbages, and crucifers, everything from like kale
to cauliflower to horseradish. Arugola looks sort of like a weed.
(02:36):
It's kind of is a weed. Um. It's it's this
vaguely stringy looking flowering plant that um that grows to
a couple of feet tall, that's two thirds of a meter.
So with these are delicate lobed leaves coming off of
the stem um, you can grow a plant to harvest
within like a month. Yeah. Like many of its relatives,
arugola has this peppery, bitter sharpness to its its fresh
(02:57):
green flavor, and it can range from mild to like
really kind of hot in taste. Typically, just the leaves
are eaten with very little stem involved because they're kind
of tough and stringy, But the flowers, which are small
and white or white purple or kind of greenish, are
also edible. Now about that word. Yeah, the name arugula
wasn't commonplace in the United States until the nineteen eighties,
(03:20):
when it started to take off among the more trendy foodies.
Italian Americans, who were more familiar with the ingredients previously
called it rucola or arugula. Rucola is the Italian word
to this day, but if you were from the toe
of Italy's boot, Calabria, the word used was aarkulu. Since
most Italian immigrants to the United States came from southern Italy,
(03:42):
we commonly say arugula versus rocket, which was derived from
northern Italian dialects. Sometime in the sixteenth century, the French
called arugula roquette, and the British turned that into rocket. Yes, yeah, um,
And there are a bunch of cultivated varieties. Um. There's
also so a separate, less mucked with species called wild
(04:03):
arugula that is grown and consumed and tends to be spicier.
Nutrition wise, arugla is pretty great for you. It's got
some protein and dietary fiber, and just so many vitamins
and minerals, especially vitamins A and K and calcium and potassium.
That signature peppery bite of arugla is due to a
group of sulfurous compounds called glucose sinolates um, which botanists
(04:25):
think that this family of plants developed in order to
discourage pathogens from infecting them and pests from eating them.
But as with many other plants like suckers, humans decided
that we like that. Um it's a pretty cool group
of compounds, though researchers think that they might be how
produced in this family helps prevent certain kinds of cancers
when we eat them, because some of the compounds that
(04:47):
glucosinolates break down into when they're eaten have been shown
to just just really mess up tumor cells, Like they
can prevent them from dividing, and they can encourage the
cells to just up and die. Yeah. Um, and the
breakdown of glucosinolates, um it is that defense mechanism, Like
if something takes a chomp out of the plant's leaves,
(05:08):
they spill out and interact with with an enzyme that
breaks them down into these other compounds that taste all
bitter and sharp and unpleasant. Yeah. I feel like we've
talked about glucosinolates and are at least a couple of episodes.
But cauliflower, I think it's definitely in there as well. Yeah,
I've talked about it before. Numbers wise hard to come by.
(05:31):
How I looked for it inappropriate amount of time to
try to find global arugla rocket production, like the number
of search terms that I used and the amount of
time I spent was not worth the answer that I
have for you, which is that I have no idea, hope, nope,
zero clue. Maybe one of our listeners knows and can
write in there you go and tell us. Yeah. But
(05:53):
other than a sold superstar, you can eat arugula all
types of ways, sandwiches, burgers, pastas, soups, stews on pizza,
and pesto like sauces. You can just simmer up some
of our sat up, some with a little bit of
butter and lemon, maybe in certain sort of like spinach.
And other than its food uses, the seeds contain some
(06:14):
compounds that folks are researching for possible use in making
industrial lubricants or biodiesel. Wow, okay, well it's time to
talk about some history and some aphrodisiac yep, yep it is.
But first it's time for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(06:43):
thank you. Arugula probably originated in the Mediterranean, and it
goes and has gone by many names, which makes yeah,
searching for it, A little complicated salad rocket, roquette, garden rocket, rugola.
The ancient Romans called arugula ruca and thought it was
say it with us now, and Virgil wrote of it
(07:09):
and the rocket, which revised drowsy venus sexual desire exactly.
Aruca was the Latin word for caterpillar, because caterpillars that
loved the plant so much, and or a type of cabbage.
I saw some different reports on that one. It is
the genus name of the of the main group of
(07:29):
a ruglas. Now, yes, our pal plenty the Elder also
wrote about its properties as an affronusiac as well as
an aesthetic. Ancient Greeks considered it a remedy for male
sexual impotence. In mythology, it was one of the sacred
plants of the god Priapus. He's this fertility god who
(07:50):
was thought to watch over like edible gardens and vineyards
and farms, and dude was always portrayed with his with
his genital's hanging out and like really over exaggerated and
in a state that explains why he's where we got
the medical term priapism from oh so uh Man. Greeks
(08:11):
didn't have Netflix like, they had to make their own fun. Apparently,
folks have put up figures of him in their gardens
to encourage the plants to grow and to double as
a scarecrow. Okay, sure. The ancient Egyptians eight arugula, yes,
used it as an apronusiac for the sexually impotent. Medieval
(08:33):
Arab doctors would frequently recommend eating a mixture of arugola
and honey. Arugola was name checked in both the Bible
and the Talmod. Ninth century Rabbi alm Ram got On
recommended arugola for passover Sader Talmudic stages sometimes also suggested
rubbing it over your eyes if you found some in
the wild. However, the High Priest was not allowed to
(08:55):
partake in any arugola in the week leading up to
Yam come forward, because say it of us now, it
wasn't for yeah. Some historians believe medieval monasteries also forbade
the growth of rugola for that same reason. Arugula made
its way to the New World with European colonists. The
(09:18):
first known instance of arugula in American English was in
nineteen sixty an article written by Craig Claiborne featured in
The New York Times. Yeah and now a rugge so
heavy sigh. It was two thousand seven, yes, and Barack Obama,
then campaigning for the presidency. He was speaking at a
(09:40):
farm in Iowa, and he said, anybody got into a
Whole Foods lately and see what they charged for rugla,
And of course it caused controversy, all kinds of controversy.
Oh my gosh. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune,
this was evidence that Obama was more in touch with
quote wine track of a 's as opposed to beer
(10:01):
track voters, because arugola is fancy and why does fancy?
I guess uh quote. That comment came despite the fact
that Iowa does not have any whole food stores, nor
to its farmers typically grow the leafy green. Media matters
looked into this and surprise, surprised. You can find arugola,
and you could at that time at stores throughout the state.
It's also grown there. It is. Um, It's true that
(10:24):
at the time they did not have whole foods. I believe, yes,
I think they have one. Now, good job Iowa, I guess, um.
But yeah, this arugala gate was a very real thing.
It was, the media was all about it, um, and
it might have had long term effects on the American
consumption of arugola um. Apparently, kale and arugola were just
(10:45):
about equally popular at the time, but after a rugla gate,
kle pulled way ahead, and currently arugola is way less
popular than either kail or spinach um, and the the
fancy eaters who kind of picked it up in the
first place have sort of gotten distracted by newer choices. Yeah. Uh.
The two thousand eight election cycle, though, was part of
(11:06):
a larger conversation about elitism in and through food culture.
And it's also kind of when people started railing against
Latte the evils, what is that even? No, No, I mean,
it's it's an understandable thing, you know, these kind of
luxury items that oh and and not not everyone is
(11:26):
a foodie. I kind of dislike the term foodie myself,
despite the fact that I like a lot of food,
but um, because I do. I do think that there's
a sort of elitism in there that's unpleasant. It's like,
this thing isn't better than this other thing necessarily, and
it's not there's nothing wrong with having ignorance of these
foods if you just haven't been exposed to them. Oh sure, Yeah,
(11:47):
someone who grew up in a very small place that
when Walmart opened in our town it was a huge
deal because otherwise you had to drive twenty thirty minutes. Um,
I didn't know. I didn't know what kale was until
a couple of years ago. I talked abo that an
episode be doing. There's just a lot of foods I
didn't know about until I came to Atlanta. And it's
kind of shocking in a way that to think that
(12:10):
certain grocery stores just don't stock certain items and you
would never really know. Yeah, if you didn't write, get
further out there in the world, or watch a lot
of cooking shows or etcetera exactly. Um and David Camp
wrote a book kind of related to this whole idea,
The United States of Arugula, How we became a gourmet nation.
(12:34):
Also because it grows so quickly and because it's considered
a bit of a premium item, you know. Um, it's
one of the crops being grown in a lot of
vertical farms. And if you haven't heard of vertical farming,
it's these indoor computer optimized multi story vertical farms um
that are meant to bring fresh produce to the very
(12:54):
centers of cities so that you can pick stuff and
have it fresh in a grocery store for people to
buy the same day, rather than having to have all
this time and money in carbon footprints transporting things in
from outside. Um. Yeah, and there there have been a
bunch of articles about this, and most of them play
on the term rocket science. Nice m yeah. Yeah. When
(13:19):
I first started researching this episode, I was very, very tired,
and probably should not have been researching it because I
fell for so many like puns and jokes that I
thought were serious. I I wrote out it arugula is
called rocket because rocket scientists wanted to get kids to
eat more vegetables. And I thought about for a minute,
(13:42):
I don't know if that's true. I came back in
fact check when I wasn't as tired. Good, good, good, Yeah.
There are a lot of a lot of plays on that,
on that word and name for it. It's fun. It is,
It is so fun. This is part of me that
wants to call it rocket, but arugala is also so good.
(14:04):
Just a mix and match depending on your mood. Yeah, yeah,
I do think it's funny that arugala grows so quickly
and is I've read it described as a weed in
some places and fancy sure, Yeah, I mean for I
think for hundreds of years, people weren't too keen on
actually like planting and growing it. They were just like,
I can just get that just down the road. I
(14:26):
don't need to put that in my garden, Like what
are you talking about? Um? But then that aphrodisiac thing happened,
and everyone was like, oh in my garden all the time,
in my house, plans everywhere. The power of the half roadsiac,
belief of an aphrodisiac hey placeba works of the time,
we cannot underestimate. Yeah. Well anyway is about what we
(14:51):
have to say about arugala. But we do have a
little bit more for you. Well we do, but first
we've got one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, sponsored, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with I think that's what the rocket
(15:21):
sounds like. I'm pretty sure that is totally what rockets sounds.
I'll go, I'll go with it. Yeah, I like it. Yes,
According to Savor, there's a ding sound in the rocket
launch perfect Ethan wrote, I thought you might get a
kick out of this. It's yet another example of human
(15:43):
kind's uncanny ability to pursue alcohol by any means necessary.
Late nineteenth century NYC prohibition laws prohibited the sale of
alcohol and Sundays and last the establishment also served a
meal to go along with it. Thus was born the
rain sandwich, sometimes made of rubber. These cheap, generally sickening
sandwiches were served with tall glasses of SuDS as a
(16:04):
way to circumvent the prohibition laws of the time. I
think he sent along an article with this email, and
I read it, and I think it was they would
pick it up and pass it on to the next person,
like nobody was eating eating right, Just a way to
get around the law. Sure human ingenuity, I know, I know,
(16:27):
Dale wrote, My father worked for American Airlines for thirty
years from nineteen fifty two to nineteen eighty two, the
Golden Age from d C H to se and yes
to when they deregulated and killed the industry. Anyway, one
day in the early nineteen seventies, and aircraft had some
mechanical issues and there were major delays. The meal for
the flight was to Leymanyon. You always got good food.
(16:49):
Then the food was too close to the allowable time,
so they ordered a new meal service from sky Chef
and disposed of the two hundred plus meals on board.
The meals were still all ice cold, so instead he
took the entire old meal service and put it in
the car. That night, we all sat around the table,
opening over two hundred plastic wrapped little white trays and
(17:11):
pulled out the cold flame from each one, packed four
each in plastic bags. There were four of us, and
then placed them in the deep freezer. For well over
a year, we were the only family I know of
that had a weekly fileme in Young Night. Good on
your dad? Right? That is that sounds like something you
would do? Anny, totally can't. That's delicious and expensive on
(17:38):
so weak. Gosh, steak, I've been wanting to steak for
a while and we just did that thing on the
Impossible Burgers. Just confused? Can I can I make a
small confession. I went out to a restaurant like the
night that we recorded the Impossible Burger episode in ordered
a regular burger. I appreciate your honesty, I just but
(18:01):
did it. It didn't have the impossible burger on the menu.
Oh it was a joint that has the beyond burger.
Oh dear, but I wasn't sure if I could eat
the sauce. And they are like a little bit picky
about like substitutions and stuff, and I didn't want to
ask the question because sometimes I just get tired and
I just know that's fair. I think it is, too,
And that was a really good cheeseburger. I'm glad you
(18:21):
enjoyed it, Lauren glad guiltily guiltily enjoyed it. Sometimes the
craving you get from an episode is not the one
you enter. Yeah. I was just going, like, how many
gallons of water am I wasting? Oh? But so good,
(18:43):
but so delicious anyway, conflict. Thanks to both of them
for writing Yes, we would love to hear from you.
Listeners that you can email us at hello at saber
pod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod.
We would love to hear from you. Savor is production
(19:04):
of I Heart Radio and Stuffed Media. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thank you, as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Any Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum,
and today we're talking about arugula a K A rocket,
a K A rocket, salad, a K A roquette. Um.
I think there's a few others there are, and I
didn't know about any of those, and I'm delighted by
all of them. It's so fun to say. All of
(00:29):
them are so fun to say. All of those words
are great. Um. It's kind of a companion to our
salad episode. Sure, because we got curious about the PEPPERI
what is it in arugula? Yeah? What what makes arugula PEPPERI?
And well you'll have to wait just a minute for that. Um.
But yeah, then we started looking into it and this
(00:50):
is actually one I'm slightly embarrassed because, um, I was
just like basic Google search, so many references to it
being an Awford easy I came up that I was like, dude,
we have to do this episode. We have to talk
about this. We've got to get to the bottom of this. Yeah. Yeah,
that's another teaser for what's to come. Oh goodness, yes, Uh,
(01:10):
it's also my favorite salad. I mean like a like
a very simple like a rugula salad with like like
a lemon vinegarrette. Um, maybe some like pecorino shaped on
there or something like that. I love arugula too. I
feel like it's it's one of those things that's semi
newish in my life, but that one, now that I've
(01:30):
discovered it, every time I see it on a menu,
I'm excited about it. Yeah. I think it was introduced
to it actually as rocket um really at a British
themed pub oh here in Atlanta. But then but then
after that, I saw it said both ways, So I
don't know, I kind of picked up both I've never
seen it as rocket, or maybe I have. And every
(01:50):
time I see rocket, I assume that's a sauce because
there's a rocket sauce probably in the salads, and I'm
thinking that's a whole salad rocket sauce. That's well, that's
America for you. But okay, let's get to our questions. Arugola,
(02:12):
what is it you like? Saying it's so much I love? Um? Well,
arugula is a leafy green in the wide, wonderful brass
of Caseye family. Um. I'm still not sure if I'm
saying that right. I'm sorry, my Latin is terrible. Um. Anyway,
it encompasses mustards, cabbages, and crucifers, everything from like kale
to cauliflower to horseradish. Arugola looks sort of like a weed.
(02:36):
It's kind of is a weed. Um. It's it's this
vaguely stringy looking flowering plant that um that grows to
a couple of feet tall, that's two thirds of a meter.
So with these are delicate lobed leaves coming off of
the stem um, you can grow a plant to harvest
within like a month. Yeah. Like many of its relatives,
arugola has this peppery, bitter sharpness to its its fresh
(02:57):
green flavor, and it can range from mild to like
really kind of hot in taste. Typically, just the leaves
are eaten with very little stem involved because they're kind
of tough and stringy, But the flowers, which are small
and white or white purple or kind of greenish, are
also edible. Now about that word. Yeah, the name arugula
wasn't commonplace in the United States until the nineteen eighties,
(03:20):
when it started to take off among the more trendy foodies.
Italian Americans, who were more familiar with the ingredients previously
called it rucola or arugula. Rucola is the Italian word
to this day, but if you were from the toe
of Italy's boot, Calabria, the word used was aarkulu. Since
most Italian immigrants to the United States came from southern Italy,
(03:42):
we commonly say arugula versus rocket, which was derived from
northern Italian dialects. Sometime in the sixteenth century, the French
called arugula roquette, and the British turned that into rocket. Yes, yeah, um,
And there are a bunch of cultivated varieties. Um. There's
also so a separate, less mucked with species called wild
(04:03):
arugula that is grown and consumed and tends to be spicier.
Nutrition wise, arugla is pretty great for you. It's got
some protein and dietary fiber, and just so many vitamins
and minerals, especially vitamins A and K and calcium and potassium.
That signature peppery bite of arugla is due to a
group of sulfurous compounds called glucose sinolates um, which botanists
(04:25):
think that this family of plants developed in order to
discourage pathogens from infecting them and pests from eating them.
But as with many other plants like suckers, humans decided
that we like that. Um it's a pretty cool group
of compounds, though researchers think that they might be how
produced in this family helps prevent certain kinds of cancers
when we eat them, because some of the compounds that
(04:47):
glucosinolates break down into when they're eaten have been shown
to just just really mess up tumor cells, Like they
can prevent them from dividing, and they can encourage the
cells to just up and die. Yeah. Um, and the
breakdown of glucosinolates, um it is that defense mechanism, Like
if something takes a chomp out of the plant's leaves,
(05:08):
they spill out and interact with with an enzyme that
breaks them down into these other compounds that taste all
bitter and sharp and unpleasant. Yeah. I feel like we've
talked about glucosinolates and are at least a couple of episodes.
But cauliflower, I think it's definitely in there as well. Yeah,
I've talked about it before. Numbers wise hard to come by.
(05:31):
How I looked for it inappropriate amount of time to
try to find global arugla rocket production, like the number
of search terms that I used and the amount of
time I spent was not worth the answer that I
have for you, which is that I have no idea, hope, nope,
zero clue. Maybe one of our listeners knows and can
write in there you go and tell us. Yeah. But
(05:53):
other than a sold superstar, you can eat arugula all
types of ways, sandwiches, burgers, pastas, soups, stews on pizza,
and pesto like sauces. You can just simmer up some
of our sat up, some with a little bit of
butter and lemon, maybe in certain sort of like spinach.
And other than its food uses, the seeds contain some
(06:14):
compounds that folks are researching for possible use in making
industrial lubricants or biodiesel. Wow, okay, well it's time to
talk about some history and some aphrodisiac yep, yep it is.
But first it's time for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(06:43):
thank you. Arugula probably originated in the Mediterranean, and it
goes and has gone by many names, which makes yeah,
searching for it, A little complicated salad rocket, roquette, garden rocket, rugola.
The ancient Romans called arugula ruca and thought it was
say it with us now, and Virgil wrote of it
(07:09):
and the rocket, which revised drowsy venus sexual desire exactly.
Aruca was the Latin word for caterpillar, because caterpillars that
loved the plant so much, and or a type of cabbage.
I saw some different reports on that one. It is
the genus name of the of the main group of
(07:29):
a ruglas. Now, yes, our pal plenty the Elder also
wrote about its properties as an affronusiac as well as
an aesthetic. Ancient Greeks considered it a remedy for male
sexual impotence. In mythology, it was one of the sacred
plants of the god Priapus. He's this fertility god who
(07:50):
was thought to watch over like edible gardens and vineyards
and farms, and dude was always portrayed with his with
his genital's hanging out and like really over exaggerated and
in a state that explains why he's where we got
the medical term priapism from oh so uh Man. Greeks
(08:11):
didn't have Netflix like, they had to make their own fun. Apparently,
folks have put up figures of him in their gardens
to encourage the plants to grow and to double as
a scarecrow. Okay, sure. The ancient Egyptians eight arugula, yes,
used it as an apronusiac for the sexually impotent. Medieval
(08:33):
Arab doctors would frequently recommend eating a mixture of arugola
and honey. Arugola was name checked in both the Bible
and the Talmod. Ninth century Rabbi alm Ram got On
recommended arugola for passover Sader Talmudic stages sometimes also suggested
rubbing it over your eyes if you found some in
the wild. However, the High Priest was not allowed to
(08:55):
partake in any arugola in the week leading up to
Yam come forward, because say it of us now, it
wasn't for yeah. Some historians believe medieval monasteries also forbade
the growth of rugola for that same reason. Arugula made
its way to the New World with European colonists. The
(09:18):
first known instance of arugula in American English was in
nineteen sixty an article written by Craig Claiborne featured in
The New York Times. Yeah and now a rugge so
heavy sigh. It was two thousand seven, yes, and Barack Obama,
then campaigning for the presidency. He was speaking at a
(09:40):
farm in Iowa, and he said, anybody got into a
Whole Foods lately and see what they charged for rugla,
And of course it caused controversy, all kinds of controversy.
Oh my gosh. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune,
this was evidence that Obama was more in touch with
quote wine track of a 's as opposed to beer
(10:01):
track voters, because arugola is fancy and why does fancy?
I guess uh quote. That comment came despite the fact
that Iowa does not have any whole food stores, nor
to its farmers typically grow the leafy green. Media matters
looked into this and surprise, surprised. You can find arugola,
and you could at that time at stores throughout the state.
It's also grown there. It is. Um, It's true that
(10:24):
at the time they did not have whole foods. I believe, yes,
I think they have one. Now, good job Iowa, I guess, um.
But yeah, this arugala gate was a very real thing.
It was, the media was all about it, um, and
it might have had long term effects on the American
consumption of arugola um. Apparently, kale and arugola were just
(10:45):
about equally popular at the time, but after a rugla gate,
kle pulled way ahead, and currently arugola is way less
popular than either kail or spinach um, and the the
fancy eaters who kind of picked it up in the
first place have sort of gotten distracted by newer choices. Yeah. Uh.
The two thousand eight election cycle, though, was part of
(11:06):
a larger conversation about elitism in and through food culture.
And it's also kind of when people started railing against
Latte the evils, what is that even? No, No, I mean,
it's it's an understandable thing, you know, these kind of
luxury items that oh and and not not everyone is
(11:26):
a foodie. I kind of dislike the term foodie myself,
despite the fact that I like a lot of food,
but um, because I do. I do think that there's
a sort of elitism in there that's unpleasant. It's like,
this thing isn't better than this other thing necessarily, and
it's not there's nothing wrong with having ignorance of these
foods if you just haven't been exposed to them. Oh sure, Yeah,
(11:47):
someone who grew up in a very small place that
when Walmart opened in our town it was a huge
deal because otherwise you had to drive twenty thirty minutes. Um,
I didn't know. I didn't know what kale was until
a couple of years ago. I talked abo that an
episode be doing. There's just a lot of foods I
didn't know about until I came to Atlanta. And it's
kind of shocking in a way that to think that
(12:10):
certain grocery stores just don't stock certain items and you
would never really know. Yeah, if you didn't write, get
further out there in the world, or watch a lot
of cooking shows or etcetera exactly. Um and David Camp
wrote a book kind of related to this whole idea,
The United States of Arugula, How we became a gourmet nation.
(12:34):
Also because it grows so quickly and because it's considered
a bit of a premium item, you know. Um, it's
one of the crops being grown in a lot of
vertical farms. And if you haven't heard of vertical farming,
it's these indoor computer optimized multi story vertical farms um
that are meant to bring fresh produce to the very
(12:54):
centers of cities so that you can pick stuff and
have it fresh in a grocery store for people to
buy the same day, rather than having to have all
this time and money in carbon footprints transporting things in
from outside. Um. Yeah, and there there have been a
bunch of articles about this, and most of them play
on the term rocket science. Nice m yeah. Yeah. When
(13:19):
I first started researching this episode, I was very, very tired,
and probably should not have been researching it because I
fell for so many like puns and jokes that I
thought were serious. I I wrote out it arugula is
called rocket because rocket scientists wanted to get kids to
eat more vegetables. And I thought about for a minute,
(13:42):
I don't know if that's true. I came back in
fact check when I wasn't as tired. Good, good, good, Yeah.
There are a lot of a lot of plays on that,
on that word and name for it. It's fun. It is,
It is so fun. This is part of me that
wants to call it rocket, but arugala is also so good.
(14:04):
Just a mix and match depending on your mood. Yeah, yeah,
I do think it's funny that arugala grows so quickly
and is I've read it described as a weed in
some places and fancy sure, Yeah, I mean for I
think for hundreds of years, people weren't too keen on
actually like planting and growing it. They were just like,
I can just get that just down the road. I
(14:26):
don't need to put that in my garden, Like what
are you talking about? Um? But then that aphrodisiac thing happened,
and everyone was like, oh in my garden all the time,
in my house, plans everywhere. The power of the half roadsiac,
belief of an aphrodisiac hey placeba works of the time,
we cannot underestimate. Yeah. Well anyway is about what we
(14:51):
have to say about arugala. But we do have a
little bit more for you. Well we do, but first
we've got one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, sponsored, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with I think that's what the rocket
(15:21):
sounds like. I'm pretty sure that is totally what rockets sounds.
I'll go, I'll go with it. Yeah, I like it. Yes,
According to Savor, there's a ding sound in the rocket
launch perfect Ethan wrote, I thought you might get a
kick out of this. It's yet another example of human
(15:43):
kind's uncanny ability to pursue alcohol by any means necessary.
Late nineteenth century NYC prohibition laws prohibited the sale of
alcohol and Sundays and last the establishment also served a
meal to go along with it. Thus was born the
rain sandwich, sometimes made of rubber. These cheap, generally sickening
sandwiches were served with tall glasses of SuDS as a
(16:04):
way to circumvent the prohibition laws of the time. I
think he sent along an article with this email, and
I read it, and I think it was they would
pick it up and pass it on to the next person,
like nobody was eating eating right, Just a way to
get around the law. Sure human ingenuity, I know, I know,
(16:27):
Dale wrote, My father worked for American Airlines for thirty
years from nineteen fifty two to nineteen eighty two, the
Golden Age from d C H to se and yes
to when they deregulated and killed the industry. Anyway, one
day in the early nineteen seventies, and aircraft had some
mechanical issues and there were major delays. The meal for
the flight was to Leymanyon. You always got good food.
(16:49):
Then the food was too close to the allowable time,
so they ordered a new meal service from sky Chef
and disposed of the two hundred plus meals on board.
The meals were still all ice cold, so instead he
took the entire old meal service and put it in
the car. That night, we all sat around the table,
opening over two hundred plastic wrapped little white trays and
(17:11):
pulled out the cold flame from each one, packed four
each in plastic bags. There were four of us, and
then placed them in the deep freezer. For well over
a year, we were the only family I know of
that had a weekly fileme in Young Night. Good on
your dad? Right? That is that sounds like something you
would do? Anny, totally can't. That's delicious and expensive on
(17:38):
so weak. Gosh, steak, I've been wanting to steak for
a while and we just did that thing on the
Impossible Burgers. Just confused? Can I can I make a
small confession. I went out to a restaurant like the
night that we recorded the Impossible Burger episode in ordered
a regular burger. I appreciate your honesty, I just but
(18:01):
did it. It didn't have the impossible burger on the menu.
Oh it was a joint that has the beyond burger.
Oh dear, but I wasn't sure if I could eat
the sauce. And they are like a little bit picky
about like substitutions and stuff, and I didn't want to
ask the question because sometimes I just get tired and
I just know that's fair. I think it is, too,
And that was a really good cheeseburger. I'm glad you
(18:21):
enjoyed it, Lauren glad guiltily guiltily enjoyed it. Sometimes the
craving you get from an episode is not the one
you enter. Yeah. I was just going, like, how many
gallons of water am I wasting? Oh? But so good,
(18:43):
but so delicious anyway, conflict. Thanks to both of them
for writing Yes, we would love to hear from you.
Listeners that you can email us at hello at saber
pod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod.
We would love to hear from you. Savor is production
(19:04):
of I Heart Radio and Stuffed Media. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thank you, as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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