We just got back from having breakfast at the market. While the market is always bi-weekly, the special breakfast events are monthly-ish. There is always a theme and this morning’s was “flowers everywhere” or something close to that. Monday is another holiday (Labor Day) so we mosied (how does one spell this word) down this morning to get a few foods and have breakfast.
Having been to the market before, this was more of a “we don’t have a ton on our to-do list, for once” leisure trip. There is always a food stall or two here but what makes Frühstück Samstags more special is the presence of live music. This morning it was a lady with a low, smokey voice and acoustic guitar. Combine that with our gallettes, kaffee creme and a no-where-else-to-be feeling it was lovely.
If you do shop at markets, make sure you know the seasonal prices. Right now Spargel, Rhabarber and Erdbeeren (asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries) are all the rage until about end of June. It’s a bit early, so strawberries are 4 € / schale (container) however this will drop down to less than 2 € in another month. It’s also a good idea to scout the various vendors because some will sell only seasonal and others only local produce (which is actually different, since not every farm will grow the same crops). Finally, if you’re looking for meat, beef is sold separately from lamb, which is sold separately from pork and poultry (probably only chicken). Ground beef is usually a mix of pork and beef but this morning I was able to get about 200g of pure ground beef for 2,75 €.
There’s also numerous cheese and bakery stands at our market and while waiting in line for the beef (snacking on some strawberries) Z was distracted by some spicy cheeses in the stand across the aisle from us. They also had various olives and dried tomato products, basically an all around hor d’oeuvre stall.
At Easter we had dinner at a friend’s and they had white asparagus on the menu. Z and I had tried this before and while we wanted to like it and feel like Germans, it just didn’t do it for us. It was bitter, tough, stringy, all around not good. So when we saw it on our plates we were a bit hesitant until the first bite. It was so delicious, almost sweet, extremely tender and with melted butter was heaven. We also had proscuitto to wrap around it which of course was even better. Turns out, one has to peel their white asparagus before eating and the market has a big machine for this. For 1 € per kilo you can have all your bitter tough shells stripped from the asparagus. It was a fascinating machine to watch.
You may notice that even though May is right around the corner, everyone in these pictures are pretty bundled up. It’s chilly. The sky is mostly blue but we’ve had plenty of cloudy windy days as well. The flowers have burst out and the trees are starting to turn green but it’s cold in the mornings. We’re going to be hovering in the 40’s or so for the next week in the mornings but some afternoons it might be in the 60’s. But the first winewalk of the season has happened and there are images of spring everywhere, even if it doesn’t quite feel like it right now.
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