Three centuries ago Dr. Nicolas Venette wrote
that the globe artichoke "produces ... much semen and vigor... which according
to the reports of sailors, is why Swedish women today give it to their husbands
when they find them negligent in the indulgence of love." Many agreed with him,
including Catherine de Medici (who fed her men kidneys and artichoke hearts),
which explains the old French saying that artichokes, like wine, are good for
ladies when gentlemen partake of them. Paris street vendors no longer hawk them
with the cry Artichokes! Artichokes! Heats the body and the spirit! Heats the
genitals!" And debauched dissolute women aren't called artichokes in England
anymore. But some medical authorities still believe that the vegetable does
cause urogenital stimulation. The Dutch gynecologist Van de Velde, for one,
recommended artichokes (as well as celery and asparagus) because their acids are
separately eliminated by the kidneys, thus exciting the urinary passages.
The globe artichoke, as it's better called, is actually the flower bud of a
thistle picked before it flowers and bears no relation to the Jerusalem
artichoke, a North American tuber that neither comes from Jerusalem nor is a
true artichoke. Small tender globes are much tastier stuffed and steamed as an
appetizer than large, woody specimens. Follow any reliable stuffed artichoke
recipe for your Stuffed Artichokes Aphrodite, a sensuous dish to begin any love
feast, pulling off a petal at a time and scraping off the stuffing and tender
flesh with your teeth until coming to the tenderest petals, which can be eaten
whole. Then remove the needles covering the base or heart and mash it in a
little olive oil and vinegar. You'll find that this is the one vegetable that
you'll have more of when you finish, so compact are its petals.