Not to be confused with the flamboyant awesomeness that is the German Sparkle Party*, Spargel (white asparagus) is something of a national obsession with the Germans-- it's quite seasonal, but when it's available Katie bar the door, because it's positively everywhere, including being featured in ethnic restaurants whose own national cuisine doesn't even have spargel-- it's that pervasive, and I'm just waiting for some enterprising soul to come out with spargel ice cream because it would be a runaway hit here. Meh. I've never been a vegetable guy to begin with, and never much cared for asparagus on top of that, and I find this white stuff on the mushy side. But hey, I'm not from around here.
* A tip of the hat and credit where it's due: German Sparkle Party idea and video link shamelessly lifted from the excellent Still Here Still Foreign blog written by Megan, an occasional commenter here, and also an expat currently living in Nuremberg. Cheers!
2 comments:
I was never a vegetable guy before moving over here, but I've started eating all kinds of stuff I would have immediately rejected backin the U.S.:
- Brussels sprouts
- Peas
- Spargel
I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and my taste buds are getting duller (and formerly yucky foods aren't so yucky anymore), or there's something better about the vegetables here.
Maybe it helps to think of those items as butter / pepper vehicles.
Man am I late to this *sparkle* party! But thanks for the reference! I am so glad to know that the German Sparkle Party continues to live, thrive and spread.
I happened to try a white asparagus chocolate ice cream sundae a few months back and lo and behold if it didn't take on a peanut buttery flavor that worked pretty well with the chocolate. It was like an asparagus take on a banana split. I'm definitely gonna try and make it next season myself.
For what it's worth: I like white asparagus but I usually don't have it in restaurants because more often than not they screw it up. If that's how you've been experiencing it, then that may be part of the problem.
Also you have to prepare it differently than green. Early on, I was taking German classes with a very young and somewhat naive housewife from Utah and she confessed she didn't like white asparagus. Turns out she was buying it too old and dried out, wasn't peeling it first and didn't add sugar to the boiling water. (Actually not sure how good she was at boiling water, but there you go).
The language instructor turned it into a teaching moment for the whole class to her dismay, but she did confess later to having 'seen the light' albeit not super-brightly...
And like Cliff said, it can be seen as a delivery method for hollandaise sauce, which is always tasty.
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