Seasons' Eatings

 

A traditional German restaurant discreetly promoting its Spargel menu.

 

In these days of global commerce, when it’s possible to buy daffodils and gladioli, strawberries and apricots all year round, it’s great to see the enthusiasm with which the Germans embrace seasonal produce. The annual frenzy of ‘Spargelzeit’ – asparagus season – never ceases to amaze me. Although England’s asparagus season is quite an event in the culinary calendar, it’s nothing compared to the mania that surrounds it here. Pop-up Spargel vendors appear in the streets with piles of the swollen white Beelitzer Spargel on trestle tables. Supermarkets begin stockpiling Hollandaise sauce, selling ‘Spargel Kartoffeln’ – potatoes deemed particularly asparagus-friendly – and frozen pizza manufacturers produce seasonal asparagus specials which, for me, is a tribute too far (a bit like Landliebe's Christmas yoghurts).

 

 

Wagner's seasonal asparagus and ham pizza

 

Restaurants of course get in on the act, supplementing their regular offerings with specially devised Spargel menus featuring asparagus soup starters and mains in which it seems to be the principal ingredient, the accompanying schnitzel or salmon playing only a supporting role. It’s even used in desserts, especially at that magical point in the season when Spargelzeit and strawberry time overlap.

From around the end of May the strawberry-shaped Erdbeer Hütten are a familiar sight on street corners and outside supermarkets and stations.  The strawberries are of the highest quality, perfectly ripe and delicious. I always feel a little sad when I see the huts being closed up and towed away to wherever it is they spend the cold months, signalling the end of summer.

 

Strawberry hut on Prenzlauer Allee

 

Autumn is the season of Federweisser (still-fermenting white wine) and mussels but before that it’s the turn of ‘Pfifferlingen’ (chanterelle mushrooms) to have their share of the restaurant menu limelight. There isn’t the same level of excitement over Pfifferlingen as there is over Spargel though (last year a ‘Spargelfest’ had to be cancelled on safety grounds because about ten thousand more people than expected planned to attend and a larger venue couldn’t be found in time) and I’ve yet to see anyone creative enough to work them into a dessert but who knows, maybe there’s an imaginative (or mad) chef somewhere plotting a mushroom and mango mess or a Pfifferlinge parfait?

Spargelzeit is coming to an end now. The sandwich boards which have stood outside restaurants tempting passers-by with their Spargel-heavy specialities will soon disappear for another year as barbecue season gets under way and Berliners take to the city’s green spaces with disposable grills and never-out-of-season sausages.