Some foods just don’t get a fair shake. I’m thinking about how cooks scarred by, say, the canned beets or mushrooms of their youth can’t bring themselves to revisit the root vegetable or funghi, even when in its fresh form it bears little resemblance to what tormented them.

We all do it. I’m not a purist (anymore) about too many dishes, but tabbouleh is one of them. Ever since I had the Levantine original, with its bounty of parsley combined with a fairly small amount of bulgur, I haven’t been able to stomach American versions that get the proportions so backward. It’s an herb salad with grains, not a grain salad with herbs, I would say to anyone who would listen.