Cute Vegetables

[maggiethecat]

I'm fond of Japanese pop culture, especially kawaii, the word that embraces everything "cute" -- think Sanrio and it's many products, amigurumi and schoolgirl fashion. It includes stuff like the molds for transforming hard boiled eggs into pandas or choochoo trains for the bentos and Hello Kitty everything. It's the kind of cute so cute that the most hardened lumberjack or cop would stop and say "Awwwwwwwww."

What's your nomination for cutest vegetable? At the Byward Market in Ottawa last month I almost smooched the gumball sized local potatoes and the actual baby carrots that could have been the model for a Beatrix Potter illustration. They were as sweet as a baby's smile.

But the all time cutest veg, in my opinion is the pattypan squash or cymling. They look like a cross between a tiny spaceship and a cookie cutter flower. Adorable.

What vegetable makes you sigh and smile, not because they taste good but because they're cute? OK, teeny baby radishes...

[apronless]

What vegetable makes you sigh and smile, not because they taste good but because they're cute? OK, teeny baby radishes...

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Baby zucchini, definitely. Something about seeing those big honkin' ones in a bin, and then right beside them, the wee tiny ones. There is always an internal 'aww' when I see those.

[annecros]

Little yellow pear tomatoes. Taste like Styrofoam, but darn, they are so cute they make me smile!

Sugar Baby watermelons. Larger than the other cuties, but these are cute and tasty and hubby and I can split one without bursting at the seams.

[feedmec00kies]

I don't know, I find that small vegetables (and fruits) in general make me react that way; it's a pretty universal response. I like small, cute things too! Kumquats, small squashes, small varieties of tomatoes, potatoes... I also have a soft spot for the little baby peppers you find in full-sized bell peppers sometimes. When eating small produce, I like to eat them in multiple bites, as if they were really their "full-sized" cousins.

But the thing that made me smile most of all wasn't quite an individual fruit or veggie, but a techique Jacques Pepin demonstrated in his PBS series, The Complete Pepin. These olive bunnies made me squeal. I have yet to try making them. As you can see from the random internet photo I found, he used canned olives, which are ok, but I'd love to try this with brine-cured olives instead. They might not have quite the right body, though, but I wouldn't mind having to eat my attempts!

Edited August 3, 2008 by feedmec00kies (log)

[annecros]

SQUEEEEEE! A whole herd of olive bunnies! If that isn't part of Easter brunch, I don't know what is!

Baby peas, all peas must be babies.

[azureus]

I'm fond of all types of tiny legumes. Right now, in my garden, I'm growing "Rice" garden beans, "Rice" cowpeas, and "Tarahumara" garbanzos. All of the dried seeds are much smaller than their more common counterparts. I'm envisioning a tiny bowl of soup this fall. . .

April

[Peter the eater]

Enoki mushrooms look pretty cute when sitting on the shelf alongside their giant grotesque relatives.

[JAZ]

I'm a big proponent of one- or two-bite sized appetizers for cocktail parties (when I teach cocktail party classes, I always tell my students, "Don't make your guests set down their drinks to eat."). Two of my most successful appetizers are stuffed miniature potatoes, and stuffed cherry tomatoes. They have the "cute factor" plus, for some reason, people love miniature versions of big foods. I'll have to figure out something to do with the small squashes.

[Lindacakes]

Those little baby corn-on-the-cobs . . .

[kbjesq]

I love the little, multi-colored fingerling potatoes . . . and they taste good, too.

However, IMHO there is nothing cuter than baby beets - all varieties!

[Sugarella]

These olive bunnies made me squeal.

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Those are adorable.... I wonder what else one can make? I should really find a food carving book somewhere....

I've always thought fiddleheads were adorable.

Little marzipan animals made incorrectly, like giraffes with short stubby legs or perfectly round mice, always make me smile.

But small cooked birds, like cornish hens, are horrifying to me.

Edited to add: Ha ha!!!

Edited August 8, 2008 by Sugarella (log)

[Chufi]

[Beebs]

Cherry tomatoes on the vine!

[feedmec00kies]

They're not the smallest plums, but I had to post this anyway.

The "bowl" that they're in is one of those little dishes they give you in Japanese restaurants to put your soy sauce in when you eat sushi.

[heidih]

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Oh my Those adorable shrooms call out to be a print with some of racheld's watercolor fairies frolicking around and upon them. Thank you.

[racheld]

AWWWWW, Heidi!!! How nice to be remembered.

My favorite small vegetable memory is of a little wedding party of swans, made by Caro years ago as we were putting a bushel of squash into the freezer.

She picked out the loveliest crooknecks, small and tender, and cut the bottoms flat, then with a wisp of tulle from an old corsage, some tiny paper cutouts of black ties, a wee circle of white for a clerical collar, and they went skating down a mirror on the salad buffet at a Rehearsal Dinner we catered.

Thanks for the memories.