Brussels Sprouts Are In?

When a 20-something girl riding a Bolt bus to New York with me in September pulled a container out of her bag for a mid-ride snack of brussels sprouts, much to the surprise of the middle-aged woman sitting in front of her, I knew something was up.

Everyone has those foods they detest as a kid that they come to like once they hit their twenties and their palettes mature -- for me, mustard is one -- but brussels sprouts is the quintessential example. How many lame jokes are there about them and recipes promising that you'll actually like them this time? Yet brussels sprouts are having a better fall than even Sarah Palin's. I'm eating them at least once per week, thanks to my fiancee's near-obsession with them, and when I tell my friends this they seem to understand totally. When a few came over for dinner and I served brussels sprouts, they exclaimed about how much they like them (though maybe they were being kind about what I cooked). The Times recently included a recipe for them, via hipster chef Zak Pelaccio, in its annual edition of cooking for Thanksgiving.

Really, they're everywhere, which is intriguing because they don't rank high on a list of tastiest vegetables. Something about them is downright funky, though also filling and satisfying. Cool cycles are hard to understand, though it seems brussels sprouts, just like 42nd street, reached the point that they were so uncool that they were uncool again, perhaps even without irony. A mouthwatering photo of roasted sprouts is above.

Update: The Times writes that it's actually sweet potatoes experiencing a renaissance.