Purple Pleasures to Please the Palate

Purple. What a captivating color! What’s your take on violet veggies? Vibrant to view, and vital to good health? Might we have a round of applause for purple foods in general, along with one in particular? Oh, how I’ve been yearning for… Chinese eggplant. Sleek, sensuous, scrumptious sensations for the eye and tongue, and I’ve been craving them for days.

No, I’m not having that kind of craving. But the body does seem to tell us when we need certain nutrients, though what is driving my desire for eggplant, I couldn’t say.

As I’ve tried to stave off snatching up my smartphone and tap-tap-tapping my way to Chinese food delivery, I’ve been pondering purple foods.

Typically, we imagine gorgeous greens when we’re voraciously vying for veggies — at least, I do. Broccoli, beans, snow peas, cukes, zucchini, and all manner of leafy friends like kale, spinach, arugula. That isn’t to say we don’t delight in a rainbow of hues to sate the eye before the taste buds… Don’t even get me started on the reds!

But I do seem to be pondering purple at present.

What purple foods are there? I think of beets, plums, Concord grapes. Can we count “red” onions that are actually purple? Red cabbage that is actually purple? Some berries that are somewhere between blue and purple?

Curious, I looked up purple foods, and was stunned at the number of them! The list of healthy purple foods is extensive.

Newsy nutritional nuggets aside, I have continued craving Chinese eggplant for days. I tried steaming broccoli flourets, which I love and eat often — but I remained unsatisfied. I simply couldn’t couldn’t stave off the preoccupation for that purple pretty I longed for.

Although I cook roughly once a week (which means lovely leftovers), often pots of soup (especially in colder months), I otherwise indulge in interesting salads and healthy sandwiches. But I wax woeful after a while, bored with my own cuisine. And that’s when I start to experience an irresistible itch — often for more colorful (and varied) textural foods.

Interesting about the textural aspect, don’t you think? For instance, I may crave the hard crunch of a carrot, or the gritty coarseness of a bakery-fresh, hearty, seedy bread.

Meanwhile, I do in fact have another purple pal flourishing in my fridge — yes, beets, which I adore. But yesterday, they just wouldn’t do the trick.

So after four days (and nights) of wanting Chinese food — specifically eggplant — I succumbed. I ordered in.

When I opened the brown paper bag, set aside the white cardboard boxes of rice, then carefully removed the container of eggplant in garlic sauce and set it on the table, I didn’t even wait to get a plate. I grabbed a spoon, and tasted…

Oh. So. Good.

How many ways can you say PARTY FOR THE PALATE?

Pure pleasure. Pure purple pleasure.

Perhaps I need to enjoy purple foods more often. After all, nightshades are excellent for our health. And the color! That in itself is, for some of us, the penultimate (purple) pick-me-up.

Now, I wouldn’t be moi if I didn’t pair culinary concoctions (confessions?) with fab footwear. So what about these adorable BP mules with a ruffle? Don’t they look flirty and fun? I know it’s not Spring yet, but can I cop to a craving for warmer weather, too? (I feel a tiny tempting tingling in my tootsies… I wonder if they’re as comfy as they look…)

Any fave foods you’ve been indulging in recently — or wanting to? How many purple foods can you name (without peeking at a list)? Any appetite for purple shoes?

 

Check out these cute magenta mules at Nordstrom.com.

 

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