(To the tune of the Coventry Carol)
Eheu, eheu, my little tiny sprout
Left on your frozen stalk
They’ve made the meal and left you out
Far from a festive fork
Eheu, eheu, it’s your bad name
Drives all the cooks away
Savoy has class, Spanish the same
And French? What can I say?
Eheu, eheu, my little Belgian waif
Left on your stalk to die
The meal has gone but you’re still safe
Enjoy your day, don’t cry!
Boadicea's Chariot 
May one add that in Danish its name means (fanfare) rose-cabbage! By any other name indeed!
But hey! It’s a slow day on the Chariot, folks and we need to keep our spirits up. 🙂
Janus.
I’ve read all these poems with great delight, but I really cannot contribute. There’s something about the “tiny sprout” which stifles poetic creativity.
Sorry. 😦
By any other name, the sprout still tastes horrible 🙂
Aha! Three against one, and counting.
Ara: One should not expect much from anything emerging from Brussels.
FEEG: Toxic little balls of bitterness, poison the house they are cooked in and the plate they are put upon.
I was told as a child “They are best after the first frost” No they are not. They are best after the first composting.
In Portuguese, the sprout is ” Couve-de-bruxelas”, literally “cabbage of Brussels”. Now how can you like cabbage, curly kale, turnip greens, braised little gems and suchlike or even sprout tops themselves and not like sprouts? It’s all in the cooking I tell you.
OZ
LW – I don’t trust anything coming out of Brussels either, but it’s only a name and the sprout is being unfairly stigmatised.
OZ
OZ: No it ain’t in the cooking. I don’t want to know who perpetrated this joke on the eating public, some sadistic Belgian I expect. There is nothing to be said for these excuses for human nourishment. Yes, you can sizzle up some fatback and carefully slice the sprouts and nicely caramelize them but why bother, they still taste like, well… Brussels sprouts. Just fry the fatback and add the shredded brown paper bag the sprouts came in, it will taste better, especially with some good bread.
LW- 🙂 . Well I like sprouts anyway. There, I’ve said it. Out and proud! You have to get over the school dinners and Christmas lunch thing cooked by people who have no idea in the former case and others who try once a year in the latter. Sprouts properly cooked are the oysters of the brassica world.
OZ
A traitor to the world of carnivores! 🙂
And do not forget the effect on the digestive system! PARP!
FEEG – All lupines, canines and even felines need some greens occasionally. Most eat grass, but I have a more refined palate. Go talk to the bovines, ovines and others about PARP! 🙂
OZ
I expect you would all eat sprouts were you hungry.
In Chinese sprouts are 抱子甘蓝 – cabbage spores. In Greek, κραμπουθια – little cabbages…but they still taste the same, blech. However, they are served in Bravo houses at Christmas Lunch because they are traditional. Everyone has to eat at least one…
What a celebration of the humble brassica! Thanks, guys and gals!