Preface To Onions: I Love Onions

(cartoon by Mr. Lovenstein)

This is true: I don't think I ate many vegetables growing up. It might have been because we were poor. It didn't help that my mother worked in a convenience store & brought home mostly junk food - & when I say brought home, I meant stole. It was a weird thing that everyone at the store my mother worked at stole from there, including the owner - he pocketed a hundred dollars at the end of the day which he never claimed, so got it tax-free. But I digress.

When we did have vegetables, they were never fresh, & probably creamed, as was the Southern way. I do remember corn & green beans from cans, but if I had a sandwich I never added lettuce & I absolutely hated tomatoes unless they were in a sauce, preferably over spaghetti or on a pizza. A pizza with probably no vegetables. When I could, I ate junk food & fast food.

Which made it very hard for me when I became a vegetarian in my eighteenth year. I simply didn't know a thing about vegetables. They're not a staple in fast food. & I had never really been exposed to salads. Until I discovered other cuisines - Chinese & Indian, mainly - I think I ate nothing but potato chips, macaroni & cheese, & peanut butter sandwiches for two years.

Slowly I began to try stuff - it may have been out of necessity - including cooking for myself. The first cookbook I got had onions at the basis for most meals - stews, casseroles, etc. I began to appreciate the onion. I probably didn't appreciate the differences between the different varieties, but I knew what to buy when the recipes called for it. & I started putting them, sliced, on sandwiches too.

When my wife & I lived in West Virginia, we decided to become vegan. I had flirted with it a few times but had been too lazy to commit. My wife was desperately unhappy there, so to help cheer her up - & frankly because the vegan options in Huntington were almost non-existent - I started to cook for her. & I found my friend the onion was back & ready to serve.

Onions are a part of about half of every meal I make - sometimes more. It's nice to celebrate them with a radio show. But it's not my love of onions that's the reason for the show - not entirely. More tomorrow.