Cauliflower: the under-loved veggie.

Dangit. I spent so long reading all of my wonderful friends blogs that I forgot what I was going to write about! It was going to be cool too. Hmmm.

Oh wait I remember, Cauliflower.

We have strange conversations at lunch. Most of my time at work is spent with everyone at their desk working away. There are some conversations that have to do with work and occasionally there are short conversations about spouses or children. But about once a week we go to lunch together, and while we are at lunch we talk about DIFFERENT stuff.

Don't know what I mean?
Remember in What's Up Doc. When Howard Banister says, "Your just different."
And Judy says, "I know I'm different, but from now on, I am going to try to be the same."
"The same as what?"
"The same as people that aren't different."

Well... anyway...that is the kind of different I'm talking about.

My coworkers keep lunch entertaining with topics such as:

• If you could Vulcan mind meld with five people in order to take on all of their knowledge and talents who would it be? or...
• If Far And Away mated with Swiss Family Robinson and had a baby what movie would it be?

I love these conversations. I find them both extremely funny and at the same time intriguing. To pick who you would mind meld with you have to prioritize the talents or skills you wish you had. Five people aren't that many, so you have to choose wisely. It is funny because it is very serious, but yet very silly at the same time.
I wish I could remember all the discussions, or I wish I had kept a journal. But I didn't.

Well anyway, today was not really one of these conversations, today we were talking about cauliflower.
As it turns out no one that I work with likes cauliflower. In fact, it is their least favorite vegetable. Everyone's  least favorite vegetable. I am the only one that likes cauliflower. And I DO like cauliflower.

I find this rather strange and a bit shocking. I could understand it of something like brussel sprouts or cabbage or turnips or even egg plant. But cauliflower? What did cauliflower ever do to deserve this kind of animosity?

The strangest thing to me is when I learned that they all like broccoli, just not cauliflower. I always thought broccoli and cauliflower were almost one in the same. Maybe not the same, but at least they go together, like watermelon and cantaloupe, peanut butter and honey, or cookies and milk.
The thing is my coworkers appreciate good food. We eat all kinds of different food from Indian to Thai. They all grow herbs in their gardens, and use them in the food they cook themselves. Once we had a discussion about our favorite variety of tomato. Another time we were giving each state a state sauce.

Which is why I was so shocked when they were all so resolute in their distaste for cauliflower!
I began to question its goodness, its value. Do other people dislike this wonderful vegetable? Am I the only one who likes it, or is this event a singular fluke? What if it really doesn't taste good and I have just been deluding myself all this time. Maybe it at least has some nutritional value even if it doesn't taste good. Does it have any nutritional value?

According to wikipedia (and we all know wikipedia knows everything).....

    "Cauliflower is low in fat, high in dietary fiber, folate, water and vitamin C, possessing a very high nutritional density. As a member of the brassica family (same family as broccoli), cauliflower shares with broccoli and cabbage several phytochemicals which are beneficial to human health, including sulforaphane, an anti-cancer compound released when cauliflower is chopped or chewed. In addition, the compound indole-3-carbinol, which appears to work as an anti-estrogen, appears to slow or prevent the growth of tumors of the breast and prostate. Cauliflower also contains other glucosinolates besides sulfurophane, substances which may improve the liver's ability to detoxify carcinogenic substances. A high intake of cauliflower has been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.


So it SOUNDS good for you. It is in the same family as broccoli. And I like it, so there.
Is it me, or them that is crazy?
Do you all hate it too???