Every year just a few days before Valentine’s Day, for the past 10 years or so, I receive a present from the California Vegetable Specialties Company. No, not a bouquet of roses or a box of chocolates. Something more apropos for a chef. Something rare. Something I can actually consume.
A box of tenderly wrapped magenta red and white Belgian endives. Not just endives, but a bouquet of freshly picked endives, with roots attached, cradled in cellophane and a tied with a big red ribbon. And then, for a bonus, three packages of three of these specialty endives, two red and one white bunches in each. Nine more endives to stuff with crabmeat salad (for an appetizer on Valentine’s Day), to break apart and serve in salad with watercress and oranges (another Valentine’s Day course), or to braise in white wine and serve with crumbled Gorgonzola (as a side dish of another dinner party.)
I so look forward to these Belgian culinary treats via California every year. And when that UPS truck drives up to the house every February 11th, I start to salivate. Endive spears. I can’t imagine a more romantic, perfectly delightful gift from the world’s largest producer of California endive.
As their slogan says, “eat more ‘on-deev’ - 10,500,000 Belgians can’t be wrong.” So right.
