Ah, the Joy of Spicy, Intriguing Rhubarb // Vegetable Ideal For a Variety Of Muffins, Pies

I was the first kid on my block to eat rhubarb. For that matter,I was probably the only kid on the block to eat rhubarb. Myplaymates - and their parents - mistrusted this strange vegetable,whose stalks look like fat, green-red celery. Perhaps they weremindful of the meaning of rhubarb in colloquial speech: "an argument"or "quarrel."

My childhood companions were no better than the ancient Greeksand Romans, who believed rhubarb to be a food fit only forbarbarians. The Greek writer Dioscorides called it "rha barbarum,"which loosely translated means "plant of the barbarians who livebeyond the Volga River."

(Rha was the ancient Greek name for the Volga). As …