media. music. feminism. food. city-dwelling. story-telling. and other things.

… I only eat salads made with mâche.

Oh, just kidding, fine, I still eat arugula. Maybe a nice spinach, arugula and mâche blend. Regardless, John Schwenkler’s article on the Plenty Mag site had me from the headline: “A country so polarized that consuming arugula has become a political act.”

As a girl who spent many, many years thinking I disliked salad only to eventually realize it was just iceberg lettuce I disliked, I am saddened by all the arugula hating that has been building for years and seems determined to reach its final, maddeningly-stupid zenith this election season. I am also saddened by lazy journalists, pundits and pols who non-ironically use it as a stand-in for some sort of cultural attitude (also: moose burgers. moose in headlights. moose moose moose moose moose. can we stop this, please?)

Anyway, as John points out, not only is arugula really apropos of nothing, it grows like a weed.

Clearly Obama didn’t deserve it, but then again neither did arugula. Unlike, say, petite vanilla scones or that old liberal staple, the cappuccino, the plant that is known by much of the English-speaking world as “rocket” hardly deserves to be pegged as the exclusive province of left-wing foodies. It is, for one thing, widely regarded as an aphrodisiac, which makes it arguably the most pro-family of the salad greens out there – and in addition to pairing nicely with some fresh fruit and nuts in a salad, its spicy zest also lends itself well to pesto. It grows like a weed, too, which means that even if there isn’t a Whole Foods around, you can show what it means to embody the virtues of hard work and self-sufficiency by scattering some seeds and growing yourself an edible yard. If a guy can’t eat this stuff without being accused of being a latte-sipping closet communist, then what does that say about the state of our public discourse?

P.S. Could we start using truffles instead? I detest truffles. Plus, they cost a lot of money, so it would actually kind of make fucking sense.