Most vegetables in the mustard family have some degree of bitterness. I like bitterness in the right context and proportion, but there are plenty of people who can’t stand it in any amount. I know someone who doesn’t like dark chocolate because it’s too bitter. I’ve met people for whom regular old broccoli is too bitter. Some people hate beer because it’s bitter.
There are vegetables that are far more bitter than arugula. I think bitter melon is the champ. I like bitter melon in certain dishes, but I’d guess that most people wouldn’t like it. Broccoli raab (AKA rapini or cime di rapa) is pretty bitter.
Arugula is peppery in addition to being bitter. Maybe it’s the combination of the two that some people can’t stand. I like it, myself.
I had to Google to find out what it was (which I know I’ve done before and forgotten the answer) and it’s what I know over here as rocket.
I was grown up before I even heard of it over here and rocket seemed a weird name for it, but now I quite like it. Quite often have some as a garnish or maybe topping on a sandwich.
Fresh mustard greens are delicious. I love me some good bitters. It ain’t about bitterness or pepperiness, unless when you’re driving on the highway and smell a paper mill or a dead skunk, you think, “Mmm, peppery!”
This is my main beef with arugula. I see it in a salad and think it’s going to be tasty tasty dandelion greens, and it ends up being inoffensive but fairly boring arugula.
It’s probably the glucosinolatesin arugula that some people find so corpse-like. They’re not bitter, exactly, but rich in sulfur and nitrogen, which humans associate with rot and decay.
I have always detested cilantro and arugula. They taste and smell rotten to me. Julia Child felt the same way so nobody can every accuse you of having an unsophisticated palate because you’re not a fan
I also think arugula is vile and smells like a pungent, dead, rotting animal. Almost as bad as arugula is celery. Celery is the most bitter substance on the planet. If the average IPA has an IBU of 75, celery is about a 200. Both of them will ruin a dish but I can tolerate picking very well cooked celery out of a dish. Just the smell of someone else eating arugula can ruin my appetite.
When I mention either reaction, I get strange looks from people who don’t understand that taste and smell are highly personal (and genetic).
Strangely, I cannot taste that truffle perfume, they are just like regular mushrooms to me, and I love cilantro, it is the defining flavor of mexican and chinese food.
My arugula tastes haven’t changed, but it’s nice to read others who validate my hatred of it. It’s cool to see that it might be glucosinolates–thanks, Whynot, for that tidbit! And no, no, no, IT AIN’T THE BITTERNESS. While I’m not a macho IPA fan, some IPAs are amazing, and I drink strong coffee black sometimes, and I like drinks made with bitters, and I enjoy high-tannin wine, and so on and so forth–even if arugula were bitter that wouldn’t describe what ruins it for me.
I know some folks dislike celery. I really like it, think it gives a wonderful fresh deep flavor to food. There’s nothing rotten-tasting about it to me; it’s interesting to see it compared to arugula!
Must be like how I feel about green bell peppers. I like red, orange and yellow peppers fine. And chiles and anaheims and habaneros, but those green bell things make me want to barf, and I cannot get why other people put them in everything.
Arugula is fine by me, cooked or raw. I do not want chicory, endive, or radicchio, however, except in teeny amounts. Urgh. I also do not get along well with broccoli and cauliflower, but I will tolerate them in mixtures/soups. But I do like broccoli rabe/Chinese broccoli. And I adore things in the bok choy family. I love collard and mustard greens, etc., plus most “yard greens” (lambsquarters, sorrel, cats-tongue, dandelion, purslane) Can barely handle kale. Love cabbage, too, as long as I don’t have to smell it cooking all day.
And I can eat cilantro by the fistful, as well as parsely. But I first hated cilantro. It was an acquired taste.
Yeah, this makes no sense to me. I’d accept peppery, especially if you’re eating the white part closer to the bulb? root? bottom of the plant but not bitter.
Well, celery (esp. raw) sort of tastes to me like dirty cardboard. But I still kinda like it, and we go through at least a stalk/package of it a week. I just cook with it, because it’s what’s in the recipes I make. And I really like raw celery stuffed with cream cheese with a sprinkle of garlic salt. But there’s a lot of vegetables I don’t particularly like on their own merits…it’s just that I don’t think about it too hard, because I love to eat and I want vitamins and such. I think that’s the prime difference between me and picky eaters.
Like carrots. I think they kind of taste like ass, and they take way too long to cook compared to other things, but they’re good for us and colorful, so I make do. And they’re really nice done a la Vichy (I think)…simmered in butter, then tossed with parsley, brown sugar, ginger, s/p. Yum. Parsnips are good like that, too.
Huh. For lunch today I had a sandwich of toast with cream cheese and bell peppers and a little mustard. That’s it. We probably go thru 6 bell peppers a week. I love red and yellow peppers, and I really love ajvar (roasted red pepper salsa), but I couldn’t imagine not throwing a bit of green bell pepper in most of my dishes. I’m a little iffier when it comes to the hot peppers. I do like pepperoncini, poblanos (especially for the stuffed chiles rellenos?) and pickled jalapenos, however.
(Glad we got the zombie thing out of the way already).
I adore arugula by any name, but also completely understand why someone would hate it. It has an odd taste…kind of like radishes, which I abhor. Yet despite the similarity I taste, I hate radishes and love arugula. Go figure.
