The other day I made some illustrations for Steen Hanssen‘s article about White Asparagus, or Spargel as you call it in Germany. Steen is a food writer living in Berlin and a weekly contributor for Serious Eats. Like me, he also writes for Honest Cooking, where the current article was published.
Did you know that White Asparagus is dead when the cherries are red or that your pee smells funny after eating them? I always learn something new from Steen’s food stories and best of all they makes me hungry. Steen recommends to eat the asparagus with some cured Schinken, fresh new potatoes and Hollandaise sauce or just plain, simple and buttery!
Read the whole story about Germans culinary spring delicatess here and get hungry like me!
I didn’t know some of that stuff either. Great looking illustrations.
Thanks Tender B!
Always great to learn new stuff!
I have a confession to make – I’m a foodie who has never made white asparagus. But with your simple but lovely recipe I feel ready to make a leap and give it a try. 🙂
hey johanna!
love the asparagus. when i lived in vienna, spring was celebrated with sooo much asparagus! all the restaurants had these giant signs out front saying SPARGEL ZEIT!! (german for ASPARAGUS TIME!) i thought it was so funny.
recently, i had a swedish student… mid-50s, probably… who had also lived in vienna before, and she took a vacation in the last week of april to northern germany just for spargel zeit! we had a lesson the day after she came back, and of course, she had to tell me about the smell of her pee after every break. too funny.
hope your garden’s going well!
kramar – kate
Ann-Louise,
I totally agree with you that Steen’s recipe is great! I’m not that used to white asparagus either. However that will definitely change.
Hi Kate,
Thats so funny! I love stories like that! Thanks for sharing it here 🙂
Love the illustrations. You’ve inspired me to cook some white asparagus this weekend. Will track down a suitably Swedish recipe.
Thanks Johan! And please come back and tell me how it worked out 🙂