Chard Poopers

by Laurie Woolever

I dislike Swiss chard. It’s a visually-stunning vegetable, all canary-yellow and magenta stems contrasting with the green-black ruffle of leaves, but it tastes like wet dirt served on a basement floor.

My feelings about Swiss chard are not facts, and not universally shared.

“The Niçois are so famous for their love of swiss chard,” writes Rosa Jackson in her forthcoming cookbook, Niçoise, that at one point in their history “they became known as caga blea, ‘chard poopers,’ in the local language.” (Jackson’s book also has a recipe for pointy-ended gnocchi called merda de can, or “dog turd.”)