Читать книгу We’re British, Innit: An Irreverent A to Z of All Things British - Iain Aitch - Страница 27

According to just about every poll ever taken, the Brussels sprout is Britain’s most hated vegetable, which is going some as we really don’t like vegetables all that much at all. Even the country’s vegetarians are pretty ambivalent about veg. The correct way to cook brussels sprouts, or any other vegetable, is to score, soak for a week and then cook at a rolling boil for one hour. Don’t pay any attention to what Nigella says, just because her dad used to be a really corpulent Chancellor of the Exchequer and is now really quite skinny; you don’t want to risk your vegetables being al dente (which is Italian for recognisable). When Brussels sprouts are grey they are ready to serve. It is mostly the taste and gas-giving after-effects of these vegetables that we dislike, but the fact that they bear the name of the Belgian home of the EU adds to our hatred, as this is the place that sneers at our apple varieties and wants to impose straight fruit standards upon our native banana growers.