Tags
Benjamin Walker, Ciarán Hinds, health food, kale, kale chips, nutritional yeast, smoothies, Stephen Holt, The Green Symphony, Vegetarianism
Ciarán Hinds has very decided opinions on kale.
“I prefer my kale with a knife and fork,” says the revered Irish actor. “I adore kale, but I don’t want to drink kale. I just don’t. It’s not right.” Diplomatically, he adds, “But for some people… it does the job.”
Ciarán Hinds and Stephen Holt discuss their kale preferences. Screencap by Linnet from the Stephen Holt blog. Click for source.
While in New York over the holidays, the Long-Suffering Husband and I made it a point to visit the restaurant that prompted Hinds’ discussion of cruciferous vegetables with New York arts critic Stephen Holt. The Green Symphony is a tiny spot in the theater district that serves Asian-inspired health food like the Dalai Lama Bowl ($8.50):
Organic brown rice, chopped greens, spinach, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, kimchi, soybean sprouts, seaweed, dumpling and sesame-ginger tamari sauce. A vegetarian Korean style home made dumpling platter.
The entrance to kale Valhalla.
According to Mr. H., Ben Walker “was never out of the Green Symphony” during the run of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, which made me wonder whether he’s a vegetarian. Or maybe he just needed to stay in shape for his (highly memorable) nude and shirtless scenes in the play…
Beautiful Man Benjamin Walker with Scarlett Johansson in Cat. Click for source.
I had the Tofu Mania Bowl, which was a similar combo of salad, plain tofu and a hard-boiled egg. The food was tasty and very fresh, but under-seasoned (a perennial problem with “health food”). What really caught my attention was the special green smoothies, most of which use kale. For example, the Hawaiian Dream Smoothie ($5.75) includes kale, spinach, banana, coconut and orange. We tried Stephen Holt’s Special Smoothie ($5.75), which is kale, green apple, ginger and spirulina. Delicious!
Stephen Holt’s Special Smoothie. It’s green.
At some point when I wasn’t looking, kale achieved the celebrity cachet that used to be awarded to foods like caviar and foie gras. Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and chefs like Jamie Oliver have all promoted kale, causing sales to soar. Cooking blogs exploded with recipes for kale chips, and debate raged over whether to cook them “California style” at high heat, or longer at low heat. The Green Symphony sells containers of kale chips coated with designer flavors like Bombay Ranch and Spicy Miso.
Mr. Hinds, how about eating kale with your fingers? I promise this is the tastiest, most healthful vegetable you’ll ever eat. I could easily eat an entire bunch of kale cooked this way in one sitting. And wish for more.
The secret is to get the kale as dry as possible before baking. Drizzle very lightly with olive oil and use your hands to make sure each leaf has a thin coating.
Bake at 350F for ten minutes, then rotate the pan and bake another 8-10 minutes.
Sprinkle with good salt, or nutritional yeast. Light as a feather, and crispy as your favorite potato chip. What could be better?
Kale is having its fifteen minutes of fame. I hope that in the future, every vegetable will be famous for (at least) fifteen minutes.
Linnet Moss 
Love kale 🙂
Rapini is my favorite, but I’ll never say no to kale!
Your blog never ceases to interest me. I will both eat and drink kale. I have heard of crispy kale, but have yet have it. I have had a few different types, and all have had a nice nutty flavor, so I can easily see the crispy kale being tasty. The spinier kale is just a little more prickly to eat fresh, but it’s still delicious. A local market (and your local Whole Paycheck) make a salad with kale, pine nuts or sunflower seeds, feta cheese, dried cranberries and a sprinkling of shredded carrot. A 2 pint container comes out to be a cheap lunch because it is so very light eating.
Whole…um Foods will juice organic vegetables free if you buy them there, but I have elsewhere had a kale, spinach, carrot and beet juice mix that I love. Liquid salad. It is so nutrient rich it often makes me a little high.
Thanks! I’ve thought of buying a juicer or maybe an expensive Vitamix machine. I’ve never been in the habit of drinking my veggies, except in the form of soup, or salt-laden V-8. The fresh stuff would be so much better. But nothing can beat the crispy kale. It becomes light as a feather and melts in your mouth!
My first attempt to bake it didn’t work out, but I tried again and I’m glad I did. I suspect that everyone’s oven is a bit different, and of course the different kales may need a slightly different treatment. It can quickly turn dark brown if left in too long. A perfectly cooked batch will still be somewhat green, yet completely dry.
Actually I was intro. to kale only last year, by my twenty-something son, never heard of it before, I admit. When I’m in NYC next time, I’ll check this restaurant out. As for C. Hinds, I saw him at TIFF last Sept. in Toronto. Saw a couple of his films there. After one screening, the cast and director went on stage for a Q & A. That means C. Hinds, Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy. Simply mesmerizing.
I watched the coverage of TIFF from afar, agonizing because I had to give final exams instead of being there in person! Lucky you! I’m eagerly awaiting the Chastain/McAvoy film.