Wild Asparagus: Ambassadors of Spring

It is wild asparagus time again here in the Rockies and I have taken to scouring road-side ditches and fence lines. The green stalks, members of the lily family (along with onions, garlic and leeks), can grow up to ten inches a day under ideal conditions and can be harvested for a period of 6-7 weeks. There is no discernible difference between wild and cultivated asparagus, except of course the taste and enjoyment offered by a hard sought feast. The wild shoots grow in a variety of sizes, making them more difficult to cook in large quantities than your standard cultivated asparagus. The most tender of these wild creatures are the thicker stalks.

Simple Asparagus Ideas
Steam or boil in salt water for 5-8 minutes until just tender.
Drain, put on a serving plate and drizzle with:

*An elegant, herbaceous olive oil and fleur de sel
Or
* A Sauce of olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of brewer's yeast (flakes), salt and pepper
Or
*Olive oil, shaved, aged Pecorino Romano, fleur de sel, crushed white pepper.

Remember, simply prepared asparagus highlight the flavor of this hard sought wild and tender shoot.

Wine Suggestion
A light rosé, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or an Austrian Grüner Veltliner.

In Defense of Food

In his latest manifesto, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan makes the claim for eating real food. The first half of the book is a viable and just argument against eating food based on health claims. As Pollan astutely points out, fruits and vegetables rarely come with packaging professing their innumerable benefits, yet it is these foods in their simple, unprocessed state that have fed and nourished generations of healthy individuals. Unfortunately as Pollan pleads against the reductive nutritionist argument (nutritional information found on packaging) he does so in the very manner he is advising against: using numbers and statistics that are anything but unprocessed. While his points of contention are clear, they are certainly not concise. As the book progresses it begins to read more and more like someone's biology thesis than an enthralling work of non-fiction. (Yes, I did find myself skimming large sections of the book: Come on, get on with it already).

The second part of the book comes as a welcome relief from the statistical crunching of the first half. It offers Pollan's opinionated justification and how-to for eating real food, and does so in a manner much more accessible than his own reductive arguments of the first half.

The book can be summed up by Pollan's own words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It is a valid and worthy premise; unfortunately Pollan proffers up way too much processed, nutrient-by-nutrient information for his book to stand up to his own standard of eating.

Recommendation: Read the cover and dust jacket and then move on to something more worthwhile.