Blue Food

Just a quickie today as I prepare to go to dinner with some friends, a dinner at which the host will have us making sushi.

In order to not feel like a clod, I offered to bring something that would complement the sushi, knowing full will that the great Eric Gower would happily suggest something I could make from locally-available ingredients. He sent me a recipe for a Japanese-style cole slaw, and I ran to the store earlier and got some red and white cabbage and a carrot to combine with the other stuff I had around the house: rice vinegar, maple syrup, various oils, ginger.

After I made it, I filled the container of the food processor with water and went about doing some other stuff. About an hour later, I went into the kitchen and noticed that the water had turned blue. As I did the dishes, I was sticking my hands in blue water. This led me to one inescapable conclusion: red cabbage (Rotkohl) is, in fact, actually blue.

Now, anyone who's taken Psychology 101 knows about the experiment with dyed foods, and they know that the food which supposedly tasted the worst was the blue food. If it's not a berry, nobody wants it to be blue. And yet, this staple of the German diet (a staple that's one of the few I can't stand) is...blue food!

I rest my case. And no, that's not Sauerkraut, it's Rotkohl.

Report on German sushi, maybe, tomorrow.