#76: Zucchini Loaf
I have some rules when it comes to food (and other things – surprise! I’m really anal and like to control things with arbitrary rules!)
One of my rules is this: everyone is allowed to hate one food to the point where they would never, ever eat it, no matter who served it to them. Like, if Beyonce cooked you that food herself, you would still not be able to eat, that’s how repugnant you find it. For me, that food is zucchini. I can’t handle zucchini. I just truly. can’t. even. And please don’t even, don’t even, don’t EVEN with trying to suggest “new” ways of eating zucchini – I’m firmly disinterested in the whole idea.
So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find zucchini loaf on the BA’s Best list of home cooking essentials. Barf. That’s not pejorative, that’s just a description of what happens to my mouth when I eat zucchini. That is, except for when I eat zucchini presented in any way other than loaf or cake. This is the only acceptable way that I can consume zucchini: under the guise of butter, sugar, and flour. You know that lecherous old man saying – all cats are grey in the dark? Well, all food is acceptable if you cover it in enough baking.
It’s still not really enough for me, however, to eat zucchini loaf if it doesn’t even have any chocolate in it (I’m not really into the ‘loaf’ category of food, so the addition of chocolate is welcome in all renditions of sweet loaves). My favourite zucchini cake is so lewdly fudgy that the addition of zucchini feels like a bit of a joke. BA’s version is as good as something can be when it’s being compared to what is essentially “chocolate cake loaf”. It does have a lovely spiced autumnal-ness to it, and makes for quite a nice teacake type of thing. Neither loaf would disappoint you, regardless of the relationship status that you share with that indecent gourd, the zucchini.
