Cooking with cactus

In the kitchen with Ed Ruscha

Article

No. 10 • June 2018

Ed Ruscha rarely leaves his hometown of Los Angeles, but when the city becomes too much for him, he seeks out nature and eats a homemade cactus omelet.

text: Sarah Knigge

Fig 1. Ed Ruschka

Ed Ruscha (1937) grows up in Oklahoma City, a place not particularly known for its adventurous, exotic cuisine. It isn’t until later in life that he comes up with the idea to eat cactus, possibly inspired by the desert he often crosses on Route 66 on his way to California. After high school, Ruscha moves to Los Angeles, where he graduates from art school just as Pop Art is about to take off. He breaks through with the exhibition New Painting of Common Objects, where Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein also participate. Although Los Angeles is not yet the center of the world at that time, and in Ruscha’s words, is more like “Australia,” he decides to stay there permanently.

Now, about 60 years later, Ruscha watches the city change at a rapid pace, so quickly that it sometimes drives him crazy. When the city becomes too suffocating for him, he heads back to the desert, toward Joshua Tree National Park. Tradition has it that he eats a “elixir” of cactus omelet when he’s there.

The cactus needed for Ruscha’s recipe is the nopal, which has been an important ingredient in Mexican cuisine for centuries. The nopal is relatively low in calories and high in vitamin C and antioxidants – a win-win. How does it taste? “It’s like biting into a watermelon,” Ruscha says. And, “it’s good for morning, noon, and night.”