Lovage

Lovage is a plant similar in appearance and gusto to celery. Many parts of the lovage plant are used to flavor food including the leaves, seeds, fruit, and roots. The lovage vegetable is eaten both raw and cooked. In Copenhagen, Chef Rene Redzepi of Noma prepares a vintage potato and whey served with lovage and Prastost cheese. On the menu at Boston's Toro is an escabeche composed of marinated Island Creek oysters with grains of paradise, lovage and citrus. At Poppy in Seattle, an appetizer of fried salt spring mussels is paired with lovage. There's no reason to not love lovage.

Elephant Garlic

Elephant Garlic belongs to the onion genus and is in the same family as leeks; however, it is more similar to garlic in appearance and taste. It tends to be milder and slightly sweeter than regular garlic and is often used when aiming for a more subtle flavor. Salum, in Dallas, highlights elephant garlic by roasting it and marrying it with Texas goat cheese and olive oil. Philadelphia's Ro-Zu restaurant supplements fluke with an osso buco-like sauce, yuzu vinaigrette, and crispy elephant garlic. Many would frown upon a deviation from regular garlic, but there's nothing wrong with a little variety.

Pickled...

2010 Food Trend: Pickled items. This "sub-trend" tends to further the overall trend of returning to cheap, traditional, culturally-rich dishes (i.e. France's pot au feu or the South's liver and onions.) Curiosity lead to find out just how this trend was shaping today's restaurant menus. At Jeffrey's in Austin, a salad is garnished with pickled watermelon rinds, and a pork shank dish is finished with pickled mustard seeds. San Fransisco's SPQR is pairing a salmon filet with pickled rhubarb. Three different pickled items make it on Blackbird's (Chicago) menu: pickled green tomatoes accompany a cheese salad, pickled parsley garnishes an Alaskan king crab tail, and house-made giardiniera is served alongside a stuffed quail.

Any other pickled findings?