A post from the Archive. Daily Constitutional editor Adam writes… This is one of my all-time favorite DC posts, by one of our best correspondents Ann Jones. What do I like so much? What's not to like about the sound of rhubarb growing? First posted on this day in 2009…
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet.” Thus spake Jakie Rabinowitz, as played by the immortal Jolson, in the first line of the first talkie, The Jazz Singer. He could well have been referring to Ann’s Foodie Walk. She’s been to hear the rhubarb grow, you know. Like the man said: you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. Over to Ann…
“Rhubarb rhubarb… I’ve been to Yorkshire to see it growing in the dark. Inside candle-lit sheds there’s a pink rhubarb forest of two foot tall stalks, and a faint scent of… rhubarb. If you’re very quiet you can hear it growing – a kind of creaking noise. It was first forced here in London at Chelsea Physic Garden in 1817, when builders tipped soil over it accidentally, and found it weeks later, tender and pink.
The premium grade goes to Harrods and Harvey Nicks, the superior to supermarkets. Try a rhubarb tart – a disc of yeast dough (kind of pizza, soaks up the juice), covered with chunks of rhubarb and slivers of preserved ginger and syrup. And buy your rhubarb at Borough Market – where my food walk ends.”
A
London Walk costs £9 – £7 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your
guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all
London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.