You Don't Have to Cut the Stem Off Strawberries Before Eating Them
By Kyle Koster
Fruit is, by its nature, a delicate flower. It must be treated with care and respect in order to grow to maturity and sweeten to a point of deliciousness. Consumers take an intimate, hands-on approach when selecting their natural sweets from the supermarket, revealing a primal connection. There's great symbolism to the often complicated order of operations require to prepare fruit for consumption. The peeling of a banana. The surgery of a pineapple. The fastidious detail involved in removing skin from an orange.
With all that in mind, it's clear that revolutionary notions in the market of fruit-based ideas often fall on deaf, closed ears. But folks, I have one and it's going to blow your mind.
You don't need to cut the tops off your strawberries before eating them. Seriously.
Now, I know the first and most obvious pushback. Doesn't the stem taste bad? The short answer is, well, it's hard to tell. Why? Because the overpowering flavor of the juicy red strawberry masks any flavor of the green stem. It's a phenomenon that simply must be tried to be believed.
A word on the texture: yes, it's different. There's a perceptible leafy, natural crunch. Yet I would argue that this is a good thing. Chefs try every trick in the book to create clashing textures in their dishes. Strawberries have that naturally. Humans have robbed themselves of the true experience through ceremonial and completely unnecessary circumcision.
Some trepidation is natural. New things are hard. But the top-on lifestyle is about more than taste alone. Strawberry stems are antioxidants and have been shown to aid in alleviating arthritic pain.
Look, do I expect everyone to rush out and start housing whole strawberries after reading this blog. Not really. If even a dozen people decide they are brave enough to try it -- and half of them like this style of berry-noshing, then I'll feel like I made a difference.
Perhaps this is just about the top of strawberries. Or perhaps it's about tips of icebergs. What other foods are we eating all wrong because The Man taught us to? How deep does our food miseducation go?