Rustan’s Supermarket in Makati has always something new in the shelves to attract foodies. One time I got hold of a furry-looking fruit labeled as “Bayberry”...and it is a tart little dark red fruit with a small seed inside. Had not seen anything like it in other stores at the time. Now it’s everywhere. It’s exciting to discover food one has never encountered before. When I shared it with a foodie friend, he right away got the right connection to the bayberries: they’re none other than fresh champoy fruit, which when preserved, shrinks in size and turns black and sticky and yummy. The giveaway was the furry texture of the fruit and the small seed.

Today I picked up an ugly-looking vegetable which I had always planned to buy if ever I saw one—the celeriac. It had been in my mind to find out how it cooks and tastes. Celeriac looks like someone’s bad, bad kneecap...corrupted with arthritis and scales and wrinkles (see photo) and compared with the robust-looking fresh celery, there’s not a clue that these two may be related. Look at them!

Celeriac is also called celery root and rightly so—it could well be the base root of the celery stalk, growing underneath the soil to fist size or bigger. When sliced through, it is ivory-white and turns brown shortly if not covered. The texture is tender-crisp and firm to the bite. In its raw state, it is like salsify or a carrot in firmness. But it is hardly enjoyed fresh except when grated into salads, which Europeans would do with it.

Wild celery, cousin of the carrot

WE do not grow this locally, at least for now. Celeriac is from France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The root crop is a cousin of the carrot, parsnip and fennel. Its texture is similar to a big old carrot. In taste, it’s a different story. When peeled, celeriac can be sliced into sticks and then quickly sautéed in butter, which is what the Europeans would do. The taste is three times stronger than celery, very vegetal, so if you don’t fancy celery, the more you won’t take to celeriac. In fact, when we took a bite of it raw and also after it was boiled, celeriac was still strong celery in taste and aroma. There is a slight licorice note in the end similar to the taste of its cousin fennel, which has a strong licorice-anise flavor. After taking a bite, I felt that the taste stuck to the roof of my mouth and the tip of my tongue. The sensation is between refreshing and offensive. If you still can’t get a liking for it, consider the health benefits—celeriac is packed with fiber and does not contain starch.

So...what to do with celeriac? How to do it?

We got a tip from Chef Joey Hererra to plainly boil and then mash it. In fact, recipe books say it is best to mash it with potatoes to weaken the celery taste. So we boiled and mashed it...and it still was too strong for my Pinoy taste buds. It really needed a neutralizer like boiled potatoes, but we were out of potatoes. Besides, we didn’t want starch. Instead, we added some diced Fuji apple, hoping to diffuse the strong vegetal taste. And it slightly improved. Then we tried a citrus dressing to go with it—some lemon-patis and a pinch of muscovado sugar and that clicked. We finally got to enjoy it.

However, if you’re planning to check out celeriac for yourselves, use it with mashed potatoes as advised. Maybe even add some mashed carrots for color. I should have done that in the first place, but then I wouldn’t have been able to tell you how to not enjoy this vegetable which I now know better.