Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Just In Case Anyone's Still Interested...

I've posted some sample tracks from a few more of my homegrown albums on my Minstrel's Muse site. I've now covered the full period from late '93 till now. Enjoy...or not.

Continuing the tradition of fruit or vegetables with funny-sounding names, I give you rhubarb :



Red stalks full of puckering zest
Help a pie or a sauce taste its best.
Use the stalks, but do not eat the rest
Because it is not good to digest.
An Asian medicine
Reaming the intestine,
But to us it's a food in the West.

posted by The Moody Minstrel at 11:22 PM

5 Comments:

  • Some old-fashioned Strawberry-rhubarb pie anyone? It's one of my dad's favorites, although I've never actually made one.

    Mom used to, and I think you can still buy them in the summertime as well.

    By Blogger ladybug, at 5:44 AM  

  • MMM RHUBARB!

    Yeah , we used to grow Rhubarb, it was good raw, or in a pie, can't think of the last time I had some though.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:12 AM  

  • "never rub another man's rhubarb"...

    is that where it comes from?

    By Blogger Robin CHAN, at 6:22 PM  

  • Haha! Now you mention it, "rhubarb" IS a silly word!
    rhubarb
    rhubarb
    rhubarb

    I wonder what its etymology is...hold on I will look it up.

    Websters Online says:

    Rhubarb
    Noun

    1. Long pinkish sour leafstalks usually eaten cooked and sweetened.

    2. Plants having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks growing in basal clumps; stems (and only the stems) are edible when cooked; leaves are poisonous.

    Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.


    Date "rhubarb" was first used: sometime around 1390.

    Etymology: Rhubarb \Rhu"barb\, noun. [French expression rhubarbe, Old French rubarbe, rheubarbe, reubarbare, reobarbe, Late Latin expression rheubarbarum for rheum barbarum, Greek rhubarb, from the river Rha (the Volga) on whose banks it grew. Originally, therefore, it was the barbarian plant from the Rha. Compare to Barbarous, Rhaponticine.].

    By Blogger Olivia, at 10:23 PM  

  • Ladybug
    Strawberry-rhubarb pie...mmmmmm!

    Pa've
    I have never for the life of me heard of anyone eating rhubarb raw. I imagine it must be pretty ballistically sour!

    Robin
    Long time, no see, my friend!
    Yes, I imagine that is the source of the expression, though it still leaves quite a bit to the imagination.

    Olivia
    Wow! Thanks for the info! Yes, I can see why some people would consider rhubarb a "barbarian plant". It is actually a weed in some places just like asparagus.

    Hey! There's another funny-sounding vegetable! A-SPAR-a-guuuuus!!!!!!

    By Blogger The Moody Minstrel, at 1:09 PM  

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