Aspiration

[BarbaraY]

I saw this vegetable in the grocery store yesterday. It looks like Chinese broccoli. Has anyone else encountered this?

Does the name mean it aspires to being regular broccoli or is it having breathing problems?

I didn't buy it because it was rather pricey.

[Vadouvan]

Its been around for about two years at least.

Its a hybrid / Morph of ASParagus and Broccoli.

Welcome to the world of genetic engineeering.

[Busboy]

I saw this vegetable in the grocery store yesterday. It looks like Chinese broccoli. Has anyone else encountered this?

Does the name mean it aspires to being regular broccoli or is it having breathing problems?

I didn't buy it because it was rather pricey.

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Funny, we were just talking about this at dinner last night. My wife and I dislike the name because it reminds us of how Jimi Hendrix died.

It's a cross between broccoli and asparagus. We first had it in Denver 6 or 8 years ago.

[Kent Wang]

Welcome to the world of genetic engineeering.

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Genetic engineering or careful breeding?

[Adam Balic]

It is a cross between broccoli and a Chinese green (Gai Lan), nothing to do with asparagus.

Welcome to the world of conventional plant breeding

[fifi]

Thanks, Adam. I was wondering how anyone got a cross between two such wildly different genera as asparagus and brocolli. Aspiration is just a really stupid name. Aspiration, in the traditional meaning, can kill you.

[BarbaraY]

The lable on it said that it tasted like broccoli and asparagus. I thought it look a lot like gai lan which I get in the summer from the Farmer's Market.

I think the name is ridiculous.

Edited January 27, 2006 by BarbaraY (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Its been around for about two years at least.

Its a hybrid / Morph of ASParagus and Broccoli.

Welcome to the world of genetic engineeering.

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Oh, yeah, way longer than that - I've been buying it since before I moved to New York, which is coming up on 5 years ago...

[sanrensho]

It's sold as broccolini in our parts. I prefer it to regular broccoli and often buy it when I don't have access to gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Not expensive and carried by one of our large grocery chains (Save-On Foods).

[russ parsons]

one of the all-time stupid names (right up there with meritage for a red wine blend) ... and, by the way, a completely botched marketing campaign. i think it was originally called "aspAration" becaues they thought it LOOKed somewhat like asparagus. which really tells you a lot about what a lot of produce marketers know about produce. broccolini is a much better name.

hey, guess what i found: here's a short piece from 1998 when it was introduced:

If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, you hope the same is true for asparation.

It's a new hybrid vegetable still in its first year of commercial production that tastes like a mild, sweet broccoli; looks a little like tiny broccoli florets growing on long, thin stems (which don't need to be peeled to be edible); and is called asparation because some people say it tastes something like a cross between asparagus and broccoli.

All of which makes it a real winner of a vegetable stuck with a pretty lame name. Asparation? It sounds like broccoli that wants to be something else. At least it escaped its first proposed name: asparbroc.

In reality, asparation isn't that close to asparagus in taste, though with its long, edible stems it could be said that there's a slight physical resemblance. And there is a move afoot to change the name of asparation to broccolini, which seems to reflect its nature better. We've also seen it sold as baby broccoli.

Whatever you choose to call it, it was developed three years ago by Sakata Seeds, a Japanese company with an American arm based in Northern California. It is a cross between broccoli and gai lan, sometimes called Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale.

Indeed, it could more accurately be called baby Chinese broccoli. It also shares some flavor characteristics of rapini or Italian broccoli.

Raw, the vegetable has a tender crunch and a sweet broccoli taste with only a little of the Chinese vegetable's usual mustard-like character. Cooked--either steamed or blanched briefly--the flavor becomes even milder and sweeter.

"I've only tasted it cooked; Japanese don't eat raw broccoli," says Hideto Kaneka, marketing manager for Sakata Seed America. "Even in the research stage we only tasted it after it was boiled."

It is good tossed in salads and--briefly sauteed in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes--in pastas or as a side dish.

After two years of seed trials, it is licensed to be grown in this country by Mann Packing in Salinas and Sanbon LLC in El Centro. It is not yet widely available. Mann, the largest grower of broccoli in the country, hasn't even started shipping its yet; the company is expected to roll it out this fall.

You can find it--broccolini, asparation, whatever--at some Gelson's, Bristol Farms, Safeway and Lucky markets. It's also beginning to show up as baby broccoli at some area farmers markets, though with longer, less-trimmed stems than the bunches we've seen in supermarkets. Be sure to taste this before you buy it; the ones we've sampled have ranged from tough and bitter to tender and sweet.

Asparation is more difficult to farm than broccoli; it takes a lot of hand care. Early in the growing season, the central bloom of every plant has to be pinched off to allow the leggy side shoots to grow. It also takes repeated pickings, unlike broccoli. Because of that, asparation will probably never become a staple vegetable. It will probably always be sold at a premium.

In fact, Mann is trying to go the radicchio route in introducing the vegetable. Its marketers have already begun to work with some chefs and with the Culinary Institute of America. This summer they'll start supplying some restaurant accounts. In October or November, they'll roll it out for retail.

"Radicchio started at white-tablecloth restaurants and now it's available all over America," says Mann's Laurie Coster. Things have been going well, she says. "The response has been so fantastic our biggest challenge now is keeping people patient."

[Adam Balic]

Thanks, Adam. I was wondering how anyone got a cross between two such wildly different genera as asparagus and brocolli. Aspiration is just a really stupid name. Aspiration, in the traditional meaning, can kill you.

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It would be almost impossible to cross such un-related plants conventionally, and even genetic engineering is only good for introducing a restricted number of genetic elements, not creation of hybrids like this.

Cat-fish is not a mammal -fish hybrid either.

Aspiration is a deeply stupid name. Does it have a slightly different USA meaning v UK meaning?

In the UK we have purple sprouting brocolli, which is a similar long stemed variety and is suggested to look like old forms of the plant.

[Shalmanese]

I was served brocollini at a restaurant a month ago and can't believe I overlooked a vegtable as delicious as this for so long. Just rapily fried in some garlic oil with some salt and pepper and hot sauce and it' fantastic. I've been using it in everything now.

[Carrot Top]

Aspiration is a deeply stupid name. Does it have a slightly different USA meaning v UK meaning?

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From The American Heritage Dictionary:

aspiration: 1. Expulsion of breath in speech. 2. a. The pronunciation of a consonant with an aspirate. b. A speech sound pronounced with an aspirate. 3. The act of breathing in, inhalation. 4. The process of removing fluids or gases from the body with a suction device. 5. a. A desire for strong achievement. b. An object of such desire; an ambition.

(Sigh.)

[Patrick S]

In medicine, aspiration is usually used to mean the inhalation of foreign stuff, like vomit, into the lungs, usually by unconscious or semi-conscious people.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Patrick S (log)

[Chris Amirault]

So asparbroc is something of an onomatopoeia: you breathe (aspar), you puke (BROC!), and then... silence.

Great marketing team behind this vegetable all around, really.

[Carrot Top]

Personally I pictured a skinny looking broccoli sprig with a lisp dancing around in a top hat and tux on top of sump pump beautifully rainbow-painted with dollar signs.

Can't say that it made me too hungry.

[fifi]

So asparbroc is something of an onomatopoeia: you breathe (aspar), you puke (BROC!), and then... silence.

Great marketing team behind this vegetable all around, really.

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OK . . . Now I have had my eGulley laugh of the day.

*painfully rises from the floor*

I have to wonder what the demographics of the focus group was for this one.

[mrbigjas]

It's sold as broccolini in our parts. I prefer it to regular broccoli and often buy it when I don't have access to gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Not expensive and carried by one of our large grocery chains (Save-On Foods).

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really? it's insanely expensive around here. every time i've seen it it's about three bucks for a little bunch of about four stalks. i've never tried it, for that very reason.

[Malawry]

I love this stuff, personally. It was only about $2.50/bunch at the Asian market I was visiting last night (cheapest I've seen it), but it was a little too floppy--not fresh enough for my tastes. It's usually $3-3.50/bunch, never inexpensive but always delicious. I buy it when I have company usually, as a treat.