Have you ever seen this type of broccoli? I found it in a hypermarket in Ipoh a year ago. Later I also found it in Kuching supermarket. Now, I can’t find it anymore.

The Romanesco brocolli has a special cone shape in fractal form. If you notice it carefully, it is spiral like the snail shell, small at the top, and getting bigger at the lower part. This is called logarithmic spiral. [In nature, we can always notice many things also have a logarithmatic spiral shape, such as snail shell, spiral cloud with low pressure in the center, spiral galaxies, and the terrible cyclone. You can find more information on wikipedia about logarithmatic spiral.]

This Romanesco broccoli tastes a bit different than the normal broccoli. It is a bit harder, and it is not as sweet as the normal broccoli. The price is also very different; it costs RM 6+ per kg. I think that are the reasons, it disappears from the local market. Even if it appears, I think the quantity will be very little. Many people will buy it because of its special cute shape for the first time, and will not buy it again because of its taste and price.

I have learned 2 things.
(1) The less frequent you see a thing, the more special will the thing becomes. It may actually be a very common thing in other places.
(2) A food that has a nice shape does not necessary taste good.