Every time I go out to eat at a somewhat fancy restaurant, I see they put arugula all over the place. It’s in salads. It’s in sandwiches. Etc.
Why? Not only does it taste horrible, but the sharp leaves make it actually painful to eat.
Just MO, brought on by someone asking what food do you always ask to be removed from dishes, if possible.
Just a fad I guess. I don’t mind bc I like it.
I went to a fancy pants restaurant where they served bacon jam (sounds gross but it’s really good) goat cheese, top with arugula on crustini bread. The arugula really helped bring it together I thought. (It was doused in some sort of vinaigrette)
Some people like the funk of roadkill when it’s been sitting by an Alabama highway for a couple blistering August days. But they live up north.
Some people like the fumes of turpentine, but don’t think it’s safe to eat.
Arugula satisfies both these taste sensations.
It appeals to the snootiness factor, like labeling things “Tuscan”.
Ain’t no arugula at Red State Barbecue, no sirree.
To reduce snootiness, refer to it as “rocket.” Rockets’ red glare, bottle rocket, pocket rocket, etc.
The world is just now catching up to My Blue Heaven. I vote fad. Snooty factor.
Absolutely true story. I stopped in a little convenience store waaay off the beaten path in east Texas. The clerk tried to sell me a road-kill possum he picked up on the way to work.
The Arugula Cartel is large and menacing. Better to just go along.
I haven’t noticed an increase in arugala popularity. It’s my favorite salad green, though, and I’d be ok with more of it around.
What’s this now? I can understand not liking the assertive flavor but painful to eat?
Ediy:fix busted quote
Right…our mouths are evolved to tear up animal flesh and eat it, if you’re struggling with chewing up some leafy greens something may be amiss.
I haven’t noticed it, either. Besides, wasn’t it’s heyday like 15-20 years ago? I seem to remember arugula showing up everywhere then, but maybe we’re just so ahead of the curve here in cosmopolitan Chicago. 
Seriously, though, I have not noticed arugula all over the place and I can’t remember when I’ve last had it eating out. Then again, I don’t usually order salad, and I don’t go to upscale places, for the most part, and I consider it a “standard” salad green, so I probably would not notice if it shows up unexpectedly. I expect arugula, watercress, possibly dandelion, bibb lettuce, baby spinach, to be among the usual salad greens. I’ll probably notice if Belgian endive starts showing up everywhere, but if the other ones are particularly over represented, I’m not likely to notice.
Not threadshitting, but I absolutely love arugula along with other spring greens and kale as well.
Some arugula and fresh spinach added to an omelet brightens up the morning!!
Must have been on a diet.
It defintely has its place but sure it can be overused. It is strong and not for everyone. One of the finest meals I had was in Pisa with a wild rocket and bresaola salad with parmesan and simple vinagrette.
We actually have patches of wild rocket down by our local pebblely beach and that is really strong, great for fajitas though.
No doubt. And later on that evening I had an even stranger encounter even further out in the boonies at a quaint little bar called the Hilltop Inn. No electricity - they relied on ice to keep the beer cold. Generator for lights.
A barefoot guy came in, threw his hat on the “dance floor” and asked who wanted to step on it. I think the idea was he was looking for a fight.
I met a 14 year old girl who invited me and my friend to join her on a deer hunt the next morning. With dogs, on horseback, with shotguns.
I shit you not.
Man, I wish it were in everything. Arugula is delicious. But the only place I ever find it is in dishes I make myself, or that my mom does.
That sounds to me like a perfect mix of complementary flavors.
Nowadays? Seems to me it’s been around forever, and I’m in my sixties.
But maybe that’s because I live in NYC, which has always had a significant Italian-American (and specifically Sicilian-American) population.
So, here, it is, and always has been, a basic salad green. If you have a salad at your neighborhood red-and-white checkered table cloth joint, arugula will be part of it. It has a bit more flavor and a bit less crunch than the (criminally underrated, IMHO) iceberg lettuce more often found in a garden salad.
So, for me, it’s not a “fancy restaurant” thing, it’s just what you get in a salad.
Now I’m imagining the Arugulas and Kales in a gang fight showdown.
Count me as someone who doesn’t get the “strong flavor and painful to eat” factor. I know a couple of people who experience that, so they are always making sure to ask if salads/sandwiches contain it. But I honestly don’t get it. Maybe my taste buds are deader? And my mouth interior less sensitive? Dunno.
I make a recipe often for lemon butter chicken pasta that calls for 3 cups of chopped arugula that my family loves. I’ve tried it substituting spinach but everybody prefers it with the arugula. I thing it has more of an earthy peppery taste.
Montagues and Capulets?
Hatfields and McCoys?
Sharks and Jets?
Or those guys from the Michael Jackson video?
Maybe Clint Eastwood could come in and play them against each other.