Cabbage

"How could a vegetable be so beloved, so universal, and at the same time so disdained? One of the oldest crops in the world, cabbage has provided European and Asian peoples with vitamins A and C, and even with babies - according to folk tales about infants found 'under a cabbage leaf', that is. It has appeared in senators' speeches in ancient Rome and the luggage of South Korean astronauts. Cabbage is both a badge of poverty and an emblem of national pride; a food derided as cheap, common and crass, and an essential ingredient in iconic dishes from sauerkraut to kimchi. Cabbage is easy to…