Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with spinach

uh, waiter...

bitteroldman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:48:34 -0800

There's a live moth living in a package of unopened, spinach. Should I cause a stink with the packing company? I purchased Certified Organic Triple Washed baby spinach and just as I was about to open the sealed package, discovered that there is a live moth crawling around. It can't get out, because the package is sealed, and I guess it has been living off the spinach all this time

The Spinach was packaged in California, and I live in the cold, white North, so it can't be from around these parts this time of year.

Heck, stuff happens, but what really upsets me is that the packaging states that it is triple washed. How the heck did someone miss the moth?

Anyway, I wrote to the company when it happened and still have received no answer three days later. So the bad customer service is making me mad too. Is it worth making a stink about it? If so, who do I stink to?

I'm not looking to make a million dollars suing for emotional trauma (although we were looking forward to a spinach salad that evening), but goddamn, a live moth living and pooping in one's food is pretty darn gross. All I really want is an apology and a commitment to improving their washing processes.

What would Popeye do?

dm_nyc — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:40:56 -0800

Sauteed spinach snafu! (bubbling spinach and fishy smells!) What am I doing wrong? I had a strange experience while trying to cook some spinach last night and wanted to know if anyone has experienced anything similar, whether it was safe to eat, etc.

I bought a bunch of fresh baby spinach and stored it in a "Debbie Meyer Green Bag" in the produce drawer of my fridge for a couple days. This was the first time using one of these green bags, fyi.

I took the spinach out yesterday and was going to saute some in a frying pan with olive oil and garlic. The spinach looked and smelled perfectly fresh, but I wasn't sure if it was pre-washed so I decided to rinse it with cold water. I didn't dry it completely, just sort of shook handfuls of it over the sink to get some water off, then dropped it in the frying pan with hot oil in it (not boiling hot, but sauteing-greens-hot).

Here's where it got weird....the spinach started to bubble. The 'skin' (outside layer?) of the spinach leaves started to balloon up as though gas was trapped inside. The bubbles formed on the surface of the spinach leaves were somewhat large and transparent. (Wish I had taken a photo) Then it started to smell like fish. It was so strong that I lost my appetite. (Although, it should be mentioned that I'm a vegetarian and don't eat fish, so this may have contributed to my strong aversion to the smell).

Anyway, this seemed really weird to me. But I had never sauteed spinach before (just other greens such as broccoli rabe). Maybe it had something to do with the debbie meyer green bags? Their website states that they"absorb the ethelyne gas that is released by the food, which prevents the gas from staying in the fruit, and thus helping your food stay fresher longer." Maybe there's some weird gas thing going on with the food? Maybe it had to do with the water/ hot oil combo? Or perhaps this is something totally normal and I just never experienced it before. If you know what I'm doing wrong or how to avoid that fishy smell please let me know! Thanks!!

Big Field of Greens

*s — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:54:52 -0800

Due to an unfortunate mixup at the bulk food emporium, I find myself in possession of a metric buttload of spinach. Help me use it with your favorite spinach recipes. I have many, many pounds of spinach. More than I can give away. More than I can use in my daily spinach salads or in omelettes, or stir-fry, or rice. I'm open to all kinds of dishes, any ethnicity or spice level. The only thing I cannot abide is cinnamon. I have access to recipes on the interbot, but would like something that you have tried and loved rather than my own trial and error.

the perfect spinach salad

Espoo2 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:02:32 -0800

How do you make the perfect spinach salad? I'm becoming a big fan, and I'd love to hear how you build yours.

Spinach/baking powder-allergy

pica — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 12:03:50 -0800

Is there any chemical link between spinach and baking powder? I'm (mildly) allergic to both of them and - as far as I know - nothing else. They both give me an unpleasant feeling in the mouth, the palate becomes sort of rough. It doesn't hurt and I haven't started avoiding them, I'm mostly beeing curious about the chemistry/medicin. Any clues? (Until quite recently I thought this was something that happened to everyone, but now I've come to understand that it's more of a personal allergy thing.)

Iron giant

ohio — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 07:45:05 -0800

How do I get more iron in my diet? I am a vegetarian runner and everyone tells me I'll run better if I have more iron in my body. But I can't take pills. Well, I can take then but then I immediately vomit them back up. What are some good ways besides overloading on spinach to get some more iron?