Mind Your Decisions

Try New Foods to Deal with Rising Costs

15 August 2008

All the things I love to eat are getting more expensive. Simple pleasures like bread, rice, and corn have almost doubled in price. What’s one to do? Try new food, naturally.

There are two reasons to do this. The first is an economic reason. Food prices are the result of supply and demand. Because the standard fare is in high demand and short supply, prices are likely to continue to go up. It’s necessary to think outside the box to try and get a good deal. Strange and new foods offer that opportunity. The second reason is personal. It’s just fun to try new foods. I think it’s okay to splurge a little bit since it’s a healthy form of entertainment. I find fruits and vegetables are among the cheapest but most rewarding pleasures.

Here are some of the foods I have recently discovered:

Champagne grapes

photo credit: Lisa Sanderson

Don’t be fooled by their small size! Though smaller than a pencil eraser, each grape is packed with flavor. It’s great to nibble on one by one. I eat them a bunch at a time. I imagine this is what kings snacked on.

Asian pears

photo credit: WayTru

Asian pears are a wonderful treat. They look like a cross between a pear and an apple, and that’s pretty much what you get. The pears pack the sweetness of pears with the crispness of apples. I’ve tried the varieties labeled “fragrant,” “yali,” and “pear apple.” The “yali” are my favorite so far.

Unfortunately they are on the expensive side and can run almost a dollar apiece. If you’re lucky, you can get them for a much reduced price in your local Chinatown (yes, it’s safe to get food from Chinatown).

Prickly pear fruit

photo credit: Kyknoord

Who would have thought that cactus could bear such pleasant fruit? Prickly pear fruit has a very mild and pleasant flavor. The inside is an even brighter purple color than on the outside. These fruit are made into jams and the vibrant color offers endless culinary possibilities (a mixed drink perhaps?).

The only downside is hard seeds inside, similar to guava. But the seeds are probably why not many people eat these fruit, meaning they are very affordable. When I find them, I enjoy them as a snack after a morning workout.

Young (green) almond

photo credit: ReefRaff

You eat the white nut inside of the green shell. The joy is lost if you wait too long: the nut matures and the skin forms into the conventional brown skin from regular almonds.

These green almonds have a distinct crunch and a lighter and fresher taste than regular almonds. I suspect they have less fat than regular almonds but I could not verify this. But I don’t worry about the fat since it’s very hard to eat a lot of them. I usually get bored after peeling four or five of them. I wonder if that’s how nature intended us to eat nuts–as a rare treat, rather than as something we could swallow down in handfuls from a jar.

Mustard greens

photo credit: Betsssssy

I bought this as an alternative to spinach and I was pleasantly surprised. The leaves smell very strong, like mustard in fact, and that really amused me. I chopped them up really small and cooked them with tomato and onion for a delicious vegetable dish. The mustard taste became quite mild after cooking and it was very enjoyable.

Kohlrabi

this is a cropped version of a photo by libookperson

These odd-looking bulbs are kohlrabi. These things are also called Russian turnips, but they are actually part of the cabbage family. They have a mild and somewhat sweet flavor.

You can get them by the bunch. Here are some shopping tips and recipe ideas.

Calabaza squash

photo credit: benketaro

Expand your collection of squashes to include this treat. You can prepare it like other squashes by baking it or turning it into a soup. It is a pumpkin and has a sweet flavor.

Here is some more on how to select it.

What uncommon foods do you recommend others give a try?