Artichokes
Artichokes were born in the Mediterranean region, where a wild cynara cardunculus got slowly domesticated. Domesticated or not, the artichoke is still not an easy veggie to navigate. An artichoke is a fortress—well, more technically a thistle—presenting something of a challenge to pull apart and eat. But the challenge is part of the allure. The artichoke is a wonderful thing, whether fried in a golden dust of crumbs, marinated and grilled, or whipped into the swirls of a spinach-artichoke dip. But before artichoke became an American staple (see the aforementioned dip), it had former lives. Mentioned by Homer and Hesiod, eaten in Phoenician Carthage and Spanish Cordoba and 15th-century Venice, it was finally in the 19th century that the artichoke was embraced on a journey to the New World. Traveling with French immigrants to Louisiana and with Spanish immigrants to California, the Mediterranean vegetable has become the favorite of Monterey County, where this potassium-, fiber-, vitamin C-rich crop is celebrated with an annual festival.