Shungiku

I paid a visit to Arlington Heights today to watch the Bears game, and on the way home I stopped at the huge Japanese grocery store on the edge of town. In my on-and-off-again effort to try new vegetables, I picked up some shungiku. I discovered—when I got home—that shungiku are chrysanthemum greens. My "World of Vegetable Cookery" says: "Everyone is familiar with the pleasant pungent scent of 'mum flowers and foliage, and this is precisely the flavor of these unique greens when offered at table." Following the instructions, I cooked them up, and found that assessment to be absolutely true. They tasted a lot like flowers, but that was not entirely a bad thing.