Der Lenz ist da! (Spring is here!)

In case you haven't noticed, spring is here! A German song from the 1920s made famous by the Berlin sextet the Comedian Harmonists playfully associates the coming of spring with the growth of asparagus - though it seems this was actually metaphor implying something entirely different! Nevertheless, in Germany this time of year is synonymous with "Spargelzeit" - the short season between May and June when white asparagus is harvested in the various growing regions across the country - including Baden and Lake Constance/Bodensee in Baden Württemberg and Beelitz not too far from Berlin. In the United States we are much more familiar with green asparagus, yet white and green asparagus are actually the same species. The difference in color and taste simply comes from an entirely different way of growing this gourmet vegetable. In order to prevent photosynthesis, which causes the vegetable to turn green, white asparagus is grown under mounds of sandy dirt. The shoots are then harvested individually by hand using a special asparagus picking knife and a trowel.

I had my first taste of white asparagus as an exchange student my senior year of high school. Before that I had only ever had green asparagus and didn't know that any other kind existed. I was a bit skeptical of the white vegetable and couldn't understand why asparagus had to be peeled. Unlike green asparagus, white asparagus has a much thicker skin and must be peeled before cooking in order to be tender. Once I tried it, I was hooked. After that, I always made a point to have asparagus whenever it was available. When I worked at Siemens in Berlin the company cafeteria served local Beelitzer white asparagus almost every day during "Spargelzeit" - traditionally with potatoes, ham (optional) and hollandaise sauce. Since I am not a big fan of the peeling aspect of preparation, I used to eat it almost every day that it was available.

Now that I live back in the United States, it can be much harder to find white asparagus, much less a restaurant that will serve it. However, the German American Chamber of Commerce usually sponsors dinners in the chapter cities, but this would mean traveling to Charlotte or Atlanta.

How excited I was when I saw that a local restaurant here in Raleigh - Capital Club 16 - would be serving a "Spargelzeit" dinner paired with delicious Austrian wines. I simply had to go! The dinner was held this past Thursday and I invited my dear German friend Mea (81 years young!) to come along with me. The chef had spent time training in Germany and was excited to bring the Spargel tradition to Raleigh. He found a farm in Ohio that grows asparagus in the traditional German style - complementing the white asparagus with locally grown North Carolina green and purple asparagus. Mea and I had a wonderful time treating our palates to delightful dishes featuring the ultimate vegetable of spring, perfectly paired with superb Austrian wines. Even though I had lived in Vienna for a summer in 2004 and certainly tried a good bit of Austrian wine, I really was not familiar with it beyond that. It was wonderful to become reacquainted with wines that pair so marvelously with foods - in a dinner in which this was precisely the intention! The wines are available locally through Seaboard Wine or through importer Klaus Wittauer, who was at the dinner to explain each of the wines with ardent enthusiasm. Mea and I had a wonderful evening this past Thursday! I'm already looking forward to the next wine and German-themed dinner - hopefully soon!


Thursday's menu (copied from the e-mail sent out by Capital Club 16)

Reception:
White Asparagus "Reiberdatschi"
Bavarian Style white asparagus and potato pancake with goat cheese and chervil

Lump Crab Cake Bites with slivered pickled asparagus and Gruner tartar sauce

Tegernseerhof Grüner Veltliner

First Course:"Spargelcremesuppe"Traditional cream of white asparagus soup with nutmeg, spring chives and Morel mushroom saute

Steininger Loisium Grüner Veltliner

Second Course:
Marinated White Asparagus Salad  Basted quail egg, planed reggiano, grape tomatoes, frisee and tarragon vinaigrette

Anton Bauer Rosenberg Grüner Veltliner

Third Course:
"Spargelessen auf Lazarus-Stube art"
*This is the preparation found in most taverns, beer gardens and homes during the harvest season.

Simmered white asparagus, NC Country Ham, dill new potatoes, blood orange hollandaise
(Veggie option: Simmered white asparagus, spring vegetable florentine, dill new potatoes, blood orange hollandaise)

Steininger Grand Grüner Veltliner

Dessert Course:
White Asparagus and Rhubarb Crisp with oatmeal crust and white asparagus lemon cream

Anton Bauer Frizzante Grüner Veltliner

A brief guide to the soft-boiled egg

Gluten-free toast with
delicious toppings

Fresh fruit: local peaches, local
blueberries I picked myself and
organic kiwi.

I love eating outside, especially when the weather is as perfect as it is today. No humidity, sun shining brightly, temperature around 80 F (27 C). I had one of my typical breakfasts consisting of fresh fruit (local peaches from The Produce Box, blueberries I picked from a local farm this summer, which I had frozen and thawed, and non-local, but organic kiwi), 2 slices of gluten-free toast - one slice topped with lemon curd and homemade blackberry jam from Germany, the other with whipped cinnamon honey from a local beekeeper, and finally my ultimate favorite: a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg (with an egg from my local farmers' market).

My breakfast companions
(One hiding in the back)

Perfectly cooked
soft-boiled egg

Eating soft-boiled eggs is an art that begins with proper preparation. Most importantly, you should be sure to use fresh organic or free-range eggs from a source known to you, ideally from your own chickens or from the farmers' market. This way you'll not only be eating much healthier eggs, but can also be quite certain that they are free from the problems with industrially produced eggs as seen in the news lately. In Germany soft-boiled eggs are quite popular, with special spoons and egg holders created especially for their consumption. Nevertheless, there is still some disagreement on the right way to prepare them. There are special egg cookers, but the simplest way to prepare a single egg is to place about 1 inch of water into a pot, add the egg, cover with a lid, and once the water begins to boil set the timer to 5 minutes for large eggs or 3.5-4 minutes for smaller eggs (times and amount of water may need to be varied for multiple eggs). There is no need to cover the egg with water - the steam from the boiling water serves to help the egg cook and goes much faster than waiting for an entire pot of water to boil. In fact, put your toast in the toaster around the same time as you set the pot with the egg on the stove and your toast and egg will be ready almost simultaneously. When the timer beeps, take the egg out with a large spoon, run the egg under cold water to stop the cooking process, place the egg into an egg holder (as in my picture, though the varieties are endless, my favorite being the ones with feet coming out of an egg), "decapitate" with a knife, lightly salt, and enjoy (ideally with a special egg spoon as seen in the picture). Some people beat the tops of their eggs to crack them all over and then peel, while others use a special device known humorously in German as a "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher" (egg shell breaking and perforating device), which also happens to be one of my all-time favorite German words.

Hope you are now inspired to try your own soft-boiled egg in the near future!

Egg before

and after "decapitating"