Food Stuff

Last week, my organic produce box had an exotic beauty lurking amid the usual greens and winter squash: a lime-green, pointy thing shaped strangely like one of those studded bustiers Madonna used to wear before she went all Kabbalah. It’s actually Romanesco broccoli, or cauliflower; names for it differ. (I’ve also seen it called minaret broccoli.) Its beauty is no accident; the little spiral of spikes perfectly follows the mathematical Fibonacci sequence. I’ve seen it lately at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op as well as other places that carry specialty produce. Use it any way that you would cauliflower. I like to just steam the florets, to keep their strange and perfect shape intact. It also would be an intriguing addition to a veggie-and-dip platter for the Super Bowl, though I admit that a mathematical discussion of the Fibonacci series might not fit the usual football conversation.