Cabbage lady at the Hunt's Point market taught me more than any cookbook

This old woman in the Bronx showed me how to pick cabbage by shaking it and listening for the right sound, said if it doesn't rattle it's not fresh. She made me throw out three heads I already grabbed, has anyone else had a random produce vendor totally change how you look at a single ingredient?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage_ramirez421d ago

Wait she made you throw out cabbage you already picked? That's wild. I would have been so annoyed but also kind of impressed she cared that much. I had a guy at a farmer's market in Brooklyn once grab a mango out of my hand and bite into it right there to prove it was ripe. I stood there completely frozen while he chewed and nodded at me. He then handed me the half-eaten mango and said "now you know what to look for." I still think about that guy every time I buy mangoes. There's something about someone being that absolutely certain about produce that just sticks with you.

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margaret_gonzalez251d ago

I mean that mango story is funny and all but I gotta ask... is it really that serious? Like you seriously still think about some random guy every time you buy mangoes? That's years of mental space dedicated to a stranger's weird fruit demo. I would have just been annoyed he slobbered on my mango and moved on with my life. Don't get me wrong, it's a memorable thing to do but I feel like people act like produce experts are some kind of mystical figures. They're just people who really like fruits and vegetables. I had a guy at a grocery store in Miami once try to convince me that avocados should be stored in water. I still buy avocados normally and don't think about him at all.