One cartoon character that amused me when I was a kid was Popeye the Sailor. I was amused and at the same time amazed that he so skinny could win over his muscular rival Brutus in capturing Olive Oyl’s heart. The source of Popeye’s super strength as we all know is spinach.
In spite of being brainwashed by the countless episodes of the paramount importance of spinach, I only ate spinach (as well as sweet potato tops) then when forced and watched closely by my father during meal times.
The story changed however when I became a health freak. Knowing that spinach is rich in calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, vitamins C and A, and etc., spinach now is a regular constituent of my diet.
I do not have to shop for it because it grows like weed in my garden. My father planted it in my backyard and told me to take care not to lose it come what may. I wondered why, I don’t look now so he said when I was in college like a hanging skeleton in the air. Or did he want me to grow really big biceps like Tyson?
The type of this spinach is what we Filipinos called Baguio spinach. When I asked my father how I’d cook it, he said I could steam it like I do with the sweet potato tops or else put it in sinigang na isda or ginisang mungo.
Having eaten a different species of spinach when I was a kid, I was not really familiar with Baguio spinach. So on one occasion when I had a court interpreting job, I called in the State Library of New South Wales and research on this spinach. I learned that it is also called New Zealand spinach. I went away with photocopied material about the vegetable including some recipes of how to cook it.
I read most of all that this particular spinach should not be eaten raw. Why, because it is abundant in oxalates which could interfere with the absorption of calcium. Reading other materials on spinach, I read that one can benefit from it if it is cooked properly. One thing common with many recipes I read is to squeeze as much water from it after steaming it.
As this vegetable is hundredfold more abundant in my yard, I gave away heaps of these time and again to my church mates and also few neighbours who in turn also grew it in their yard. Funny, however, at a later stage, a few of them told me how this spinach grows uncontrollably in their yard that they had to kill it. I did not say anything. After all they have the liberty to do as they please in their backyard. My friend Goodie, however, since she was living on her own grew it in a pot and told me with satisfaction how she just cut few stems to cook. As for me, I just let it grow as they please in my yard giving most of it then to my sister-in-law who makes really beautiful quiche out of them.
As I grew tired of eating it steamed or in sinigang na isda or ginisang mungo, I explored other ways I can use it for cooking. So I have used it time and again in making omelette, quiche, spring rolls and later in making pizza and gozleme.
Apparently, have I loved eating spinach? Yes, by compulsion. I regularly eat spinach now-- that I feel all sorts of pain in my body and weakening of my knees.
So I make time to pick it from my garden once or twice a week, go through the tedious chore of selecting only the nicest leaves, washing each individual leaf in running water till I could not see any more grain of soil in the basin that collects the water from the tap. Afterwards, I store them in the fridge or even freezer by batch so that I could just take them out when I need it.
As I happily work in my spinach station, I always tell my mother (who technically does not eat this as she is on warfarin), it is important for me to eat spinach because Popeye eats it. If I don’t how could I win over the Brutuses in my life.
As my mother does not seem to have any idea of what I am talking about, I always repeat myself and say... you know Popeye as I sing Popeye’s theme song...
