What do you *do* with artichoke?

[nachturnal]

My mister bought me an artichoke and I had no idea what to do with it, seeing as how I'd never had artichoke before, so I just boiled it (upside down) and ate it dipped in garlic butter.

The heart was pretty delicious, but the leaves?  No.  No.  No.  A thousand times, no.

What did I do wrong?    Nearly everyone I know tells me artichoke is wonderful and delicious and blehh.  I didn't eat the leaves, just the soft bit towards the base of the leaves.

[Antidigger]

I don't believe you did anything wrong: the soft bit is all you eat from an artichoke.

[cinnamon teal]

Yup. Most of each leaf is inedible. And watch out for the choke - the fuzzy part on top of the heart. That part is definitely not edible! I think you can eat baby artichokes whole? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

My favorite way to do artichokes is to boil them in a big pot with a couple cloves of garlic and then to dip them in melted butter with a little lemon juice mixed in. Yum!