Dietary discrepancies

Leeks! You know them, right?! Everybody does. Or so I thought.

Leeks are these very healthy vegetables that we use a lot in the Mediterranean cuisine. It is used in salads and sautés and as a main ingredient in soup. We grow on it just as much as on carrots or garlic. Actually, in Portuguese leeks is called “alho francês”, which literally translates to “French garlic” (though I see it more as an onion. And what’s with the French-speaking people and their pleasure to “register” veggies?! I mean look at exhibit B: Brussels sprouts...).

So I was happy to see leeks selling at my local supermarket and was willing to pay for them more than four times what I would have paid anywhere in my home country.

It was under the label “new item”. That should have warned me. Because when I got to the cashier there were like five people assembled to ask me: “What do you do with it?”. And because I’m so eloquent when it comes to being thus directly approached I answered: “I cook with it.”.

This was followed by a strange silence while I was visualizing banging my head on several hard surfaces. But after the moment’s recollection I stated that it is pretty common where I’m from and started to talk about the dishes that could be prepared with it. I even went as far as sharing that the white part is the tender one. Wow!

"What do you do with leeks?" Really?! Anyway, I guess it isn’t any different from me asking (to myself and I suppose that’s the main difference) what do one does with ochros. Or better yet carailee. What the…?!