Exotic green cauliflower

I recently purchased in France a pale green cauliflower which had florets which were cone shaped. The whole head had points protruding from the head, spiralling up to the center of the head, getting smaller as they got closer to the center. It had a look of a complex seashell, and was absolutely beautiful. Also tasted fine--not much different from an ordinary cauliflower. I have a digital picture if anyone wants to see it. THe individual florets, when detached, look like little Christmas trees. I would like to know if anyone knows if these are grown in the US, or what they are called, or anything about them. Even the French had not seen it before.
bkebbekus@aol.com

By W.DeBord on Monday, November 20, 2000 - 08:36 am: Edit

O.K., I'm certainly not an expert on all veg.(meaning I could be wrong) but I believe we've had these in the grocery store for years now.

We have had something called "brociflower" (I might be spelling that wrong)a cross between broc. and cali., I know that has been around for years. Your description sounds like the metamorphosis all cabage family members go through right before they flower they bolt upward. Is that what your talking about???? It fit's your description and tastes just like reg. cali. but it's pale green.

Yet, this wouldn't make sense that the French haven't seen it. Hopefully someone else will clarify???

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Monday, November 20, 2000 - 10:43 am: Edit

I was thinking the same thing.

By Ramodeo (Ramodeo) on Monday, November 20, 2000 - 09:09 pm: Edit

I've gotten Brocciflower at the farmers market that had those very distinct spiraling cone shaped florets. The ones at the grocery store often look more cauliflower shaped.

By chefkramer on Wednesday, November 22, 2000 - 04:22 am: Edit

it used to be on the european grocerymarket around 5 years ago and it was very chic to use.
here it is sold as "Romanesco" but it has come out of style for aome time now, and i havent seen it on the market for some time now.