What I Learned From a Cartoon Cucumber

Japanese vegetables helped me pick better ones in the U.S.

A still from ‘My Neighbor Totoro.’ Credit: Studio Ghibli

When I was young and lived in the U.S., I really disliked vegetables. I thought they were either bitter, sour, or bland, and compared their consumption to taking medicine. I would always force them down by covering them in ranch, or refusing them unless they were steamed into mush and covered with…