Cabbage Flowers
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Our thoroughly amusing find at the farmers’ market this week: a bouquet of cabbage flowers.
On the sign, it was simply marked “choux” (the French word for cabbage), but a quick Internet search revealed a couple other potential names in English: flowering kale and ornamental cabbage. I’m still a bit confused about these guys, for the name, and also for their form; usually, plants in the cabbage family have short stems, but these ones are at least a foot long!
The bouquet of five oversized flowers was too original to resist: thick purple and green stalks (reminiscent of giant asparagus sprigs), topped with purple cabbage heads and a row of sturdy green leaves.
In French, chouchou is a term that can be both endearing or slightly pejorative. In English, we often refer to a little child or our sweetheart as “pumpkin.” In France, this dear person is often called a cabbage! In elementary school, however, you won’t want to be called the class chouchou. I just started reading the well-known children’s book, Le Petit Nicolas (yes, I know I’m a bit old, but it’s a part of French culture and really funny!). It’s about a schoolboy and his band of little friends. Agnan is the first in the class and made fun of for being the chouchou de la maîtresse (the teacher’s pet).
I just got back from a few days in Alsace, a region known for its cultivation of cabbage and the traditional dish, choucroute or sauerkraut- shredded and fermented cabbage. Most of the cabbage had already been harvested, but I was lucky to see a bunch of tiny blue-green heads bobbing up and down in one last field.
Back in Paris this weekend, it was only appropriate to buy some cabbage flowers to bring home and put in a vase.
Filed in Travel in France | One response so far
AugustinOctober 28th, 2009 1Some French phrases with “CHOU(X)”
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* Faire chou blanc = to obtain a nil result, to draw a blank
“chou blanc” might come from a twist of “coup blanc”
“coup” is pronounced “choup” in the Berry dialect
* Faire ses choux gras = to make profit of
* Aller planter ses choux = to retire to the countryside
* B?te comme chou = very stupd, silly
* Etre, finir dans les choux = to fail in an undertaking, a venture
to be up the spout
* Tonner sur les choux = to make more noise, fear than hurt
* Feuille de choux = little worth newspaper
* Bout de Chou = litttle child
* Mon chou, ma choute, mon petit chou, mon chouchou = darling, dear, honey,
my teacher’s pet as explained above by Seb’s bit old “chouette choute”