Plain endive is also a bitter chicory with lettuce-like leaves which curl at the ends.

Radicchio also called red or Italian chicory, is bitter like other chicory family

members. It forms small tight heads like miniature head lettuce. It owes its popularity

particularly to its beautiful colors, red with white tinges.

Escarole, another chicory, has broad leaves and is easily confused with curly endive.

The two are very similar in their looks and flavors, but escarole has plain, lettuce-like

leaves.

Watercress is a mild-flavored green, has tiny leaves that add a small tingle with a

touch of piquant to salads.

These are the greens that are frequently available in a good produce department, though

they are not all in daily use in many households. The lesser-known greens tend to be more

available in grocery stores in ethnic areas of a city or in supermarkets of wealthier

neighborhoods. They include:

Mâche, also called lamb's lettuce, corn salad or field salad is popular in the

Mediterranean, though it grows wild in most corn or other grain fields. It is a bland

green having small leaves. It adds hardly more than variety and interest to your salad.

Nasturtium flowers and leaves are edible but rarely available in the produce section of

a supermarket. They have a wonderful peppery flavor. Both the round lush-green

leaves and multicolored flowers look beautiful in any salad, and your taste buds

definitely perk up and notice the punch.

Sorrel or sour grass is more a European favorite. There cooks serve it cooked as well

as raw in salads. It looks like spinach with smaller, dark green leaves. This green is

quite tart. Use only a few leaves in each salad. In small quantity it gives a truly jazzy,

sour flavor to your blander greens.

SOUPS

There is no cuisine in the world that does not include a large array of soups. Western and

Eastern cultures, African nations from primitive tribes to those with elaborate culinary

repertoires and all Latin American countries have many favorite soups. But the countries with

probably the largest soup repertoire and greatest popularity are those in Eastern Europe—

Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Russia. In Hungary, a meal is not a meal without soup

and bread, just as a meal is not a meal without rice in Asia. Eastern European soups range from

light to very robust. Mediterraneans favor lighter first-course, instead of main-meal, soups.

In the Orient, on the other hand, they tend to serve first-course soups more in celebrations

and feasts, not in every-day meals, except for the full-meal soups in noodle shops. Oriental soups

consist of a full-flavored poultry or meat broth with few added ingredients. The focus is on the

full-flavored broth and anything else is merely embellishment, garnish and texture. Take, for

instance, Chinese hot-sour soup. It starts with a full-bodied no-compromise meat broth to which

the cook adds Chinese mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bean curds, a little pork, and even eggs.

These ingredients cook in the broth for just a few minutes, so their flavors have little impact on

the soup. It is the broth that provides the taste buds with a jolt of pleasure, other items add to the

complexity, provide body and mouthfeel.

Most soups pack plenty of nutrition. A wisely chosen pair of soup and salad can give you

the healthiest meal of the day and virtually your complete daily nutrient need. If you make your

Serious Kitchen Play