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Kale, kale, surely you've heard of kale. Anyone who's anyone is eating it. Any restaurant worth its pink Himalayan salt is selling it. When we speak of trendy foods, kale is it! In a New York Times piece by Kristin Tice Studeman, she writes, "Along with midriff-baring tops and all things Gatsby, another trend has swept the spring social circuit: kale salads."
What? You might protest: "I've been eating kale salads and noticing them on menus for months, if not years." But a D.J. has spoken, therefore the trend is real: “'For some reason when you go to a restaurant and they have a kale salad on the menu, you automatically accept that it’s a cool spot,' said Chelsea Leyland, a D.J. and downtown fixture. 'It’s like playing the right music of the moment. It gives it that stamp of coolness.'” Huh.
It's a nod to Brooklyn, a nod to vegetables, a nod to food. Later in the piece there's this: "Kale salads, of course, aren’t new. But they began popping up on New York menus about five years ago." Ah, yes. No wonder it seemed familiar. After all, NPR declared kale "in the limelight" in 2011, the same year that Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein recommended buying "organic kale" in an interview with Bon Appetit.