What’s that wacky German food? Spargel

It’s here! Spargelzeit is here! What, you mean you don’t celebrate asparagus time where you live?

The Germans are crazy about white asparagus, a special breed that grows underground and is only harvested for a couple months each spring. Restaurants have special menus featuring white asparagus done every which way, and all the fruit and veggie stands display big piles of it, as if it’s the only thing worth eating this time of year. Preparing this Teutonic vegetable is relatively easy, but there are a few things you should know before doing it for the first time. » Read the full post

Tags: cooking, food, German, German culture, Germany, Spargel

Something I love about Germany:

The national obsession with asparagus.

This week a newspaper in Munich was promoting a feature on “the first asparagus (where it comes from, how it grows, how much it costs).” Never mind that German asparagus season is still a month away – anticipation is part of the pleasure.

Tags: food, German culture, Germany, Munich, Spargel

Getting there…

After months of turmoil, my new computer has arrived. It’s a shiny new MacBook. I’ve gone back to my roots – no more Windows for me!

In the process of migration, I have managed once again to lose track of which emails belong in my “reply to” folder. If you have written to me recently (or not-so-recently) and are waiting for a reply from me, please shoot me another email to remind me. I know I had over 50 messages in the queue, but I’ve only been able to identify 20 or so.

I should be back to regular blogging very, very soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of asparagus tempura sushi. It is Spargelzeit, after all…

ETA: Pictured sushi is from Nomiya (Wörthstr. 7; Tel. 089 4484095), a lovely little restaurant in Munich with Japanese food and Bavarian decor and beer.

Tags: Munich, restaurants, Spargel, temporary insanity

Spargelfest!

That’s right, boys and girls, it’s that time of year again: Spargelzeit. The celebration of asparagus is in full swing in Switzerland. Thanks to a tip from Jack at Laughing Lemon, some friends and I headed outside the city last Sunday to check out the Flaacher Spargelfest (an asparagus festival held on a family farm in the town of Flaach).

We arrived around lunch time and headed straight for the food. We sampled pretty much everything that was on offer: asparagus risotto, sauteed asparagus, cream of asparagus soup, asparagus pizza, asparagus sausage (OK, I passed on this last one). There were even asparagus-shaped desserts (which to my knowledge didn’t contain any actual asparagus).

Then it was on to the tour of the farm. This was conducted by the farmer in Swiss German, but we were still able to follow some of it. We learned that the asparagus seeds are sprouted somewhere else, and then the bundles of live roots are delivered to the farm for planting. They grow into bushes for the first two years, and then starting in the third year the asparagus can be harvested.

The farm grows three varieties of asparagus: green, white, and purple. The green and purple grow above ground, whereas the white are grown in mounds of dirt covered with tarps to keep the light out.

The farmer demonstrated how a white asparagus is harvested, all by hand:

The tour concluded with a demo of the machine which washes the asparagus and cuts each stalk to exactly 22 centimeters. This length is a standard throughout the area, and was decided upon based on the size of the pans most people have for cooking. The is supposedly a farm in Germany that makes theirs 27 centimeters; they sell extra-large pans there, too.

This guy is apparently the farm’s mascot, as he appears on all their signs and on the website. I call him ‘Spargi’. I was really disappointed that there wasn’t anyone at the festival dressed up as a giant white asparagus. At the very least they could have sold hats or dolls or something, but alas there was no merchandising of Spargi whatsoever.

Our last stop was the asparagus shop, where we picked up a couple bundles of fresh asparagus and other asparagus-related paraphernalia. Then we came home and made asparagus for dinner. I’ll spare you the details of the pee-related consequences of this particular day.

Tags: day-trips from Zurich, food, Spargel, Switzerland

Spargelzeit!

Ever since I first experienced it in Germany eight years ago, I have been endlessly amused by the enthusiasm with which Spargelzeit (asparagus season) is welcomed in this part of the world. Placards outside of restaurants and markets scream about its arrival. Grocery stores pile up half their produce section with bundles upon bundles of the spears, both white and green. Bookstores prominently display asparagus cookbooks, and kitchenware shops offer special asparagus serving plates and storage containers.

It’s yummy and all, but of all the vegetables, asparagus is hardly the one I would choose to celebrate with such reverence. Artichokes, maybe. Porcini, definitely. But asparagus? Come on now.

I’m not sure if white asparagus is a relatively new invention, or if it just never caught on in the US the way it has here. In Zurich it’s almost as popular as the green variety, and the Germans downright worship the stuff. I hear they are grown in the dark to keep them from turning green. From what I understand, with the white kind it’s the fatter the better. Maybe this is because you have to peel them before you cook and eat them, and peeling a whole bunch of really skinny stalks wouldn’t be all that fun.

Countless Zurich eateries add an entire Spargel menu to their offerings during the spring months. From asparagus cream soup to pig leg with asparagus, you will have no problem getting your Spargel fix in this city. Earlier this week I dined on a creamy green asparagus risotto at Le Dézaley, a popular restaurant near the Grossmunster that specializes in Franco-Swiss cuisine. Now that the weather has gotten warmer, I’m looking forward to enjoying a couple more Spargel-centric meals at one of the countless outdoor tables that have mushroomed up all over downtown.

(ps – Doreen, this post was for you.)

Tags: food, Spargel, Switzerland, Zurich