Calling me Silently

Does anyone else get excited about the weird, obscure produce at the the grocery store? I've gotten into the habit of doing all of my grocery shopping at Wal-mart, so whenever I venture over to Winco, I love lingering in the produce section and checking out all the stuff I've never eaten or cooked with before. And I decided the other day that a new goal in life is to try, at least once, everything offered in the produce section. I tried mustard greens a long time ago, and used them in a dish with orzo and mushrooms...they were kind of bitter and didn't go over too well with the fam. Earlier this week I tried red chard. I remember eating and liking chard from my Grandma's garden when I was growing up, but I couldn't remember what it tasted like. I also tried buying tomatillos for the first time too. Actually, it's kind of funny why I bought those. Okay, so I love salsa verde and I thought, hey, I could grow some tomatillos in my garden and make salsa with them. Well, it seemed like the plant grew well, and there were tons of tiny tomatillos that were growing...the funny thing was I had no idea when to harvest them or what they were supposed to look like when they were ripe, or even what they were supposed to taste like. Unfortunately it froze before any had a chance to get very big. But I still wanted to make salsa verde, so I just ended up buying some tomatillos.

Anyway, I want to hear what everyone has tried. So tell me what you've cooked with and if it was edible. I've been eyeing a few things for future trips to Winco: leeks, fennel, turnips, cactus pears (?!), rutabaga, bok choy, plantains, endive, etc.

Oh yeah, and the chard was really good! Well, I'm the only one in my family that is eating it, but I like it! It mostly just tastes like spinach, but with a little milder flavor. And of course, anything with a little butter and salt always tastes better!