There, I said it! I love curly parsley
Anyone who dares to ask the greengrocer for curly parsley with a straight face can expect, at the very least, disapproving looks from the customers behind them in the queue. After all, everyone knows that a true foodie/gourmand/Burgundian swears by flat-leaf parsley? Curly is for the ignorant masses. Flat for the connoisseurs.
A foodie-in-the-making soon learns that in the culinary world there are possibly more things that are not done than things that are done. Using packets and sachets in your food? Not done. Not whisking your mayonnaise yourself, but getting it from a jar? Unheard of. Margarine? Blasphemy in the culinary church. And don’t you dare put the cheaper cassia from China, rather than Sri Lanka, in your cocktail! Using this ‘fake cinnamon’ could get you expelled from the Holy Culinary Club.
And then there’s parsley. Or rather: there’s parsley and there’s parsley. Flat-leaf, also known as Italian parsley. And curly, also known as curly parsley or ‘ordinary’ parsley. The former is said to have a slightly spicier, even pepperier, flavour. The other is somewhat flatter in flavour. The more curly, the flatter, seems to be the consensus.
Cheerful curls
That’s why flat-leaf parsley is a welcome ingredient on our countertops and in our food. In both cold and hot preparations. From soups to stews and even salads. And curly parsley should serve as decoration at most. Because it curls so cheerfully.
There have been blind taste tests, of course, from which it would have emerged fairly convincingly that, because of its structure, the flat variety releases its flavour a little more easily. This may cause the taster to mistakenly think that the flat variety actually has more flavour. But in reality, there is a rather negligible difference in taste between the two. Think: Heineken and Amstel. Even so, that foodie must not be swayed. Unless absolutely no one is looking, no curly parsley makes it onto the countertop at Culinary Delight House.
On the floating garden
But it does at my place. In broad daylight, no less. I even grow curly parsley on the floating garden, my floating vegetable patch. There, I said it! I love curly parsley. I like the bite . I don’t think the flavour is inferior to the flat variety. I think curly parsley dries better—making it usable for longer—and is more pleasant to chop. Or rather, snip. Simply with a pair of ordinary household scissors: it works perfectly! The stems are excellent for making stock. And, perhaps the most important reason, curly parsley is indispensable with the obviously home-peeled and homemade shrimp croquette. Or did someone want to deep-fry flat-leaf parsley to go with it?
Deep-fried curly parsley is such a brilliant invention anyway that it deserves to be paired with many more dishes. Simply crumble it between your fingers after frying. That crunchy texture, entirely thanks to its curls, is fantastic over soups, salads, noodles… What doesn’t it go with? Try doing that with flat-leaf parsley.
Parsley potatoes are also, incidentally, unimaginable without curly parsley. Just like herb butter. (Make that yourself too, right? With butter, not margarine.)
So give me ordinary parsley. And I think the crux lies in the name ‘ordinary parsley’: foodies don’t like ordinary. In that case, they’d still rather have flat-leaf.
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