#1000 Broccoflower

Neil Pasricha

About two years ago I noticed something funny as I flipped through a grocery store flyer. On the produce page was an ugly, green-looking cauliflower, with the caption “$2.99! Broccoflower!” It was hilarious. A green cauliflower labelled as a Broccoflower. The bizarre misfit child from two of nature’s most hideous vegetables. The best part is that people usually don’t believe me when I mention it and, to top it off, I’ve never seen it advertised since — like the mutant Broccoflower was shunned by society and has since flown home.

AWESOME!

323 thoughts to “#1000 Broccoflower”

  1. Ahhh.. Trusty Broccoflower. Up there on my list of favorite mutants along with the Liger/Tigon, the Pumapard (exactly what you think it would be), the Zeedonk, the Wolphin and Donatello.

    I wonder if you could be a good Broccoflower Au Gratin.

    1. I’ve totally had this!! Funny thing is, mom doesn’t remember bringing it home when we were younger. Being the creep that I am, I just smothered it with ketchup (like I did with both broc and cauli) and it was fiiiine.

    2. OMG, finally someone that actually knows the truth about ligers tigons ligons tiliger tiligons etc. no one actually believes they’re true.

      1. In Pereira, a Colombian city, there were a couple of Ligers some 25 years ago. They had a size between a Lion and a Tiger, amber fur with very thin and subtle stripes, and they were VERY beautiful animals. They were well cared for and died of old age. I think they were the result of accidental (?) sharing of a habitat. I saw them.

        1. There is an animal sanctuary that we have here in Oklahoma. It’s specifically for the rescue of exotic animals and they have a Liger. What we learned from the guide is that they lack the gene that tells their body to stop growing, so they actually pass away because their hearts explode. Sad to think about, but a very beautiful animal.

      2. when my son was around 6 3o plus years ago we saw a tigerlon at a wildlife zoo in florida. When we got back north the teacher would not believe him so his grandmother has to track back to wild bobs and get pictures and literature.

      4. ya i know there was a show on tv like 5 years ago saying there was like 13 left and the liger has stuck in me brain ever since. i would love to see one up close

    3. I live in Germany and this is super popular. They call it Romanesco broccoli here.

      1. Romanesco is prettier that cauliflower or brocccoli – it looks fractal, man!

        Plus it tastes competely brilliant. Is it really totally unknown in the US? Not from what I’ve seen online.

        Sometimes just looking at a picture is not enough. Surely someone somewhere in the publishing process could’ve at least googled this?

    4. There’s a small zoo near us in Nova Scotia that has a Zonkey! It’s AWESOME! It only has stripes on its legs… so cool. It’s one of those animals that makes me smile, and I always make sure my 4-year-old son sees it before we leave the zoo. It’s one of those things you can’t miss!

        1. There’s a difference between a Zonkey and an Okapi. A Zonkey is a crossbreed and therefore cannot mate. An Okapi is its own species and extremely rare. It’s actually more likely that you’d see a Zonkey (:

    5. I solve the mistery: this is a Broccolo Romanesco (Roman Broccoli). It is very common here in Italy and you can eat it as you prefer even au gratin (but before you have to stew it!). Sara

    6. fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddb…………………………………………………………………….brocoflower?!?!?!?!?!

    8. Now that is funny, my 6 year old and I love catchup on just about every thing. He loves Broccoli and asked where we could buy one of these plants and grow our own.

    9. Hey Freddo, did you ever realise that you were the VERY FIRST PERSON to comment on Neil’s blog? What an honour!

    10. this sucks sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

      hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* )

      1. i know ,this sucks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        1. i’m with you guys this sucks ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. My policy is to avoid all foods that look to be from outer space.

    Eggplant.
    Mushrooms.
    And, apparently, broccoflower.

    1. Actually, mushroom are deeeeeelicious from my point of view. Slap some black olives and Shitaki mushrooms on a cheese pizza. mmmmmMMM!

    2. Mushroom are incredible. I have yet to try eggplant and I don’t think I would like broccoflower, simply because I hate cauliflower.

      1. Broccolli and the Broccoflower is actually a fractal.

        When I was a child, my mother taught me about fractals (she did her PHD in Chaos Theory), and the way she explained it to my little 5 year old mind was using broccolli, so you are right! it is a fractal!

        1. Hi guys,
          Hate to rain on your broccoflower parade, but this is a cauliflower called romanesco, quite common in Italy, and yes, it is a fractal. They are actually quite beautiful if you look at them carefully. They are slightly more bitter than normal cauliflower so not a great favourite of mine, but definitely one of Nature’s wonders. I still vote them on the Awesome list because of their shape.

    3. fractal is my new word I had to look up the definition on Wikipedia. I wonder if I will see it everywhere now like # 523.

  4. I first discovered broccoflower when I spent the summer of ’91 in Deep Cove, B.C. I just figured everything out west is “green”, even the cauliflower.

  8. I like the stuff, but then I like Broccoli and cauliflower anyway. It also comes in Orange and purple, but those colors don’t have catchy names. I see it in Orlando fairly often. Whole Foods has it occasionally.

  11. I was a student at the University of Guelph when they were developing the broccoflower. They kept telling us that it was the beginning the bio-technical future of agriculture. They made us eat it. I apparently survived.

  12. Broccoflowers are beautiful. They look like fractals. I had one for my desktop background for the longest time and would stare at it often.

  14. You’re completely retarded, and evidently so is your grocer, that is a romanesco. Read a book!

  16. To Paul: bullshit, broccoflower has always existed here in Italy, there is no artificial “development” behind it. Here you can find it in every grocery store, and I find it astonishingly beautiful, and tasty as well. Here we call it “cavolo romano”.

  17. This is NOT a Romanesco, it is a Broccoflower. They are different things, and in fact each have a fairly distinctive look. I have seen them both sitting next to each other at the store.
    While I would love to read a book about the
    Romanesco, Johnny, they appear to be difficult to find. Maybe your giant brain can tell me where I can learn as much about food as you know.

  18. Go to Italy. This is the only kind of Broccoli they sell. They call it Romanesco (yes Moomar) or Roman Broccoli… neon green and castle shaped. Awesome and awkward. Praise nature.

  20. Before you guys start a food fight (har har), you should check out the Wiki article on the topic: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoflower).

    Here you will see that there is actually two types of Broccoflower – one that has the physical attributes of white cauliflower (as pictured in the original blog post), and the other is the Romanesco variety. A quick good image search of both terms will show that they do indeed look quite different.

    1. Wow, the world certainly needs more Freddo’s in it :) keep up the beautiful work, very tastefully done!

      1. We’ve not been hearing enough from Freddo lately.
        Remember what Jack Nicholson said in “The Shining!”
        *Your regular presence and brilliant comments are missed!*

  21. It looks just like form out of space. I love it :)
    when I firs saw it I couldn’t help the impression that it was dropped down on the Earth by some Little Green Spaceman.
    It really is awesome for it’s so very unusuall as for a vegetable :)

  22. Was just out to the store and we saw Brocoflower and a “novelty colour” one. My girlfriend took some pics as well.

  23. omg! two of my favorite foods in one!?! I’m not even being sarcastic. that sounds awesome!

  24. I love this broccoli. We eat it all the time here in Rome and you can find it anywhere. I love the fractals…it makes me think nature has some sort of rules!

    1. Yes, nature has some rules. Look at the Fibonacci series and its application in nature, as in the swirls of a seashell, petals of a pinecone, a flower, etc. Nature definitely has rules.

      2. well i am in India & can assosiate with it. broccoli looks nice in the veg market ..but personally never tested them..:)

  26. Omg I saw this in the supermarket once when me and my mates were groccery shopping, I’d never seen it before. I flipped i still can’t figure out why they would produce something that unnaturally green, i mean it looks radioactive :)

    Me and my mum have a similar oddity that nobody believes is real. It’s the Giant Otter, it grows to 6 foot, and lives in the Amazon. My mum saw a doco on it once, and I’ve discovered it through research on the Amazon at school, but no-one believes it’s real.

    But I guess it’s cause a 6 foot otter is kinda unbelievable cause we generally think otters are cute little cuddly things :)

  27. I live in New Zealand, and these are sold normally, along with any other vegetable that you usually find in a fruit and vege shop. Im sure most New Zealanders know what a broccoflower is.

  29. Maybe the geniuses at U of Guelph can splice in cheese, too. I’d definitely eat a broccocheddoflower.

    1. @Camping and equipment: heh. I wonder if “square apples” (if there were such a thing) would be called “squapples”. :)

      I too like broccoflowers.

  32. Now if someone could just crossbreed a mango with a banana! Imagine…the yumminess of a mango, with the easy-to-peelness of a banana. You could call it a banango…or a mangana :-)

    1. I love the idea of a banango! Not to mention it would just be fun to say. Sya it with me, folks, “Banango.” See?! Awesome!

  34. I LLLOOOVVEEE your website i really hope you can make it all the way to number UNO!!

  35. it’s roman broccoli!! who calls it broccoflower?! weirdos :-p

    and nevermind that it is super delicious, its also amazing structurally (you know you’re a nerd if… i know ;)). look at it next time. its phi! fractals within fractals within … you get the point.

    don’t mock it just because you’re ignorant!
    (no offense, i’m just saying…)

  36. Pingback: Neil’s 1000 Awesome Things - Best Blog Ever? at SuperForest

  37. In Québec, it is called ”brocofleur” and it is sold all year round. We also have the purple and the orange ones. They are all very good.

  40. I’ve had my own strange encounter with this hybrid-veggie, that I can only explain with multimedia.

    I picked up this sign at my local grocery chain and became hugely suspicious:

    http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg16/roximonoxide/livejournal/broccoflower.png

    This brings up so many more questions. Not only had I never heard of ‘broccoflower’ before, but apparently the Metro is trying to keep it’s sale under wraps. What was that email about? Why design/print a flyer to be destroyed like a secret message from Chief Quimby? What is this mutant vegetable conspiracy I’ve stumbled upon?!

  41. Broccoflower unfortunately doesn’t taste like a combo, because broccoli is ALREADY a genetically modified food.

    Broccoli Rab (aka rapini) was combined with cauliflower to make what we now know as broccoli, and so this “broccoflower” is 3/4 cauliflower, and tastes nothing like it’s green parent.

    Quite sad, actually.

    1. Yes, I have recently discovered nectacots on sale here in the U.K. They have a smooth skin and are a simlar size to apricots. They have quite a nice mixed apricot/nectarine taste

  43. Man, your website made my day! AWESOME! it’s the 1001 awesomest thing :) Why don’t you make a book ? I’ll promise I’ll buy it !
    Best wishes from Switzerland :)

  44. CRAP. Sorry, i’m not very smart. Just came up the page and seen the “Book” section. Shhaaaamme…

  45. Ah! In work we make a salad with broccoli and cauliflower, and I call it broccoflower. I’ve even got the customers saying it now lol

  47. When I was a kid, the only two vegetables I liked were broccoli and cauliflower, so I was soooooo excited when I first heard about broccoflower!

    I live in California, so you can get it at most grocery stores pretty easily. The purple and orange ones kind of freak me out though.

    About ten years ago, I fell in love with these canned snow peaches, which are a peach/plum hybrid. My friend always referred to them as pleaches. I see pluots (plum/apricot hybrids) all the time, but no pleaches. What’s up with that?!

  49. I saw this as one of the top 1000 Awesome Things, and I smiled so big I almost started crying. My mother LOVES broccoflower, and if it wasn’t for her, I would have never discovered this incredibly sweet treat.

    I am in Iraq right now, and this just made me wish I was home eating broccoflower with my mom more than ever. I can’t wait until the day I am able to!

  50. I’ve totally had this!! Funny thing is, mom doesn’t remember bringing it home when we were younger. Being the creep that I am, I just smothered it with ketchup (like I did with both broc and cauli) and it was fiiiine.

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