Death on a Plate: Poke and Pork

What does one do with fresh beets? Fresh oregano (and by "fresh," I mean "still growing in the ground")? If you cut off the leafy tops of beets, does it turn into swiss chard? Cause it should. It looks like it should work.

Except then I remember my grandmother admonishing me about cooking poke greens and how it can be poisonous unless you do...well I can't remember what that is, which doesn't really seem to matter as I doubt I'll ever recognize it in the wild and be seized by the urge to grab a bag and start picking. But I have - in the past - with my grandmother, and I know not to do something with it, if ever that should come up. Also, I have the internets (which tell me that raw poke is very dangerous. How raw is too raw? Is this like that episode of House where the girl has the tapeworm in her brain? Cause seriously, I can't eat pork anymore and I miss porkchops. Wait. I still eat bacon - that is pork. Who am I kidding - I'll never be able to give up pork, tapeworm on the brain or not. I am Southern, yo. The Pig is a Magical Beast).

But are beet tops like poke?

This entire post is brought to you by my day off (but still on call. *eyes pager*)