Okay, this is weird, I know. But there’s something I don’t understand about British produce (well, apart from the fact that they love to wrap every piece of produce in plastic film). It’s their green (or spring) onions. They’re dirty.
I love spring onions – I cook with them pretty much every day. I like the nice, fragrant, bright green tops that I use in salads and Asian recipes and as garnish, and I like the crispy, flavourful, white parts that I use in recipes. I’d never thought of it until now, but they’re probably my favourite vegetable.
But the ones sold here are filthy. They’re full of dirt. Yes, before anyone feels a need to point out the obvious, I do know that onions grow in dirt. And like any produce should be washed before using. But I don’t mean the exterior of the plants, or the root. I don’t even mean those hinge-y places where one layer grows out of the main stem (altho, in Canada there’s not dirt there either). I mean the inside of the ‘tubes’. They’re open (cut off at the top) and full of grit. That isn’t the case in Canada.
It’s not as if during my entire adult life I’ve been buying hydroponically-grown green onions; I buy regular bunches at all the grocery stores and farmers’ markets and I’ve been growing them in my garden for the last two decades. Both the green onions I buy, and the ones I grow are closed at the top, pointed as they grow. And therefore, grit-free.
I can (and usually do) slice the green tops open and wash the centres of the tube before using them here, but it’s annoying. And odd. How are European onions dirtier than North American ones? Ah, well, the things I lie awake and think about are endless, it seems.