Last night Edible appeared on Amy Eddings’ fine WYNC segment Last Chance Foods to talk about lovage, the spring herb now appearing at Greenmarket farmstands like that of New Jersey’s Bill Maxwell. (He’s at Union Square Mondays, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the UN on Wednesdays and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn on Saturdays.) Maxwell is one of our favorite spring arrivals, and when he’s back in the market each year one of his first crops is this peppery, celery-like herb, which we discuss in detail on the show. In our opinion it looks a little like a cross between celery and parsley: A wimpy version of the former and a bulked up version of the latter.
It’s not the easiest plant to cook up in quantity, seeing as how a leaf or two will do you fine, but it’s fantastic sprinkled on soups and stews and in salads, both the green kind and especially the mayo-laced varieties of the tuna, chicken, potato variety. And a growing number of drinks-makers, such as Francine (Franny) Stephens of Franny’s Pizza in Prospect Heights, are using its bracing bite in cocktails. Listen to myself, Eddings, Maxwell and Stephens discuss lovage and its etymology (loveache or no), learn more about the herb and score a few recipes via the post producer Joy Wang did about the show right here.
And an even more exciting read (at least in our opinion) is Eddings’ follow-up post on seltzer in the city, our top drink of choice and one of our favorite things ever to talk about, especially the delivery service that still runs from the city’s last seltzer works in Canarsie. From our discussions while taping the show, it seems Eddings is also a fan of the bubbly beverage, but she goes for the SodaStream rather than Ronny, the last seltzerman in NYC with an old open panel truck literally covered with bottles. (Whew, more of the old-fashioned stuff for us!) Read her piece here in her WYNC.org column called “Food for Thought.”
