We’ve been in Vienna for a little over 24 hours and already I’ve had three meals with fat, fresh, locally grown white asparagus as the centerpiece.
Europeans take eating seasonally very seriously. They rejoice the day the first white asparagus hit the market, scarf up as many as they can in the ensuing weeks, and mourn when the aproned lady behind the market table shakes her finger and head with the unuttered news: Season is over.
Last year on this site I wrote about white asparagus in Berlin. In that cutting-edge city the asparagus preparations were surprisingly predictable. Plain, steamed stalks usually sat on a white plate with a bit of butter and some boiled buttered white potatoes on the side. Delicious, yes. Creative? No way.
But here in Vienna, known for ages as a rather stodgy, tradition-bound city, I’m finding exciting, imaginative preparations that bring out the best in these pristine ingredients…and then some.
My first lunch…barely an hour after my plane landed, was at Marktachterl, a casual eatery on the town square where the famed Karmelitermarkt is held every Saturday morning. (This farmers market is considered one of the best in Austria.)
Marktachterl’s menu promised, simply, “white asparagus with grana.” But our server delivered a dish that was dazzling, Perfectly cooked white stalks, moistened ever-so-slightly with melted butter, topped with paper-thin shavings of Parmesan, a flurry of crunchy finishing salt, and fragile wisps of fresh herbs – tarragon, chervil, basil, each leaf a tender miniature. Each bite was close-my-eyes-and-sigh delicious.
Marktachterl’s owners are dedicated to local ingredients (virtually everything comes from nearby – parmesan, no; but goat cheese, butter, herbs and meats, yes) and to the principles of the Slow Food Movement. More about the charming eatery and the Karmeliter market in a later post.
Lunch the next day was more classical – crème of asparagus soup in a tiny tureen at Mozart Café in Albertina Platz. But even this traditional flour-thickened soup was updated with fresh herbs and hefty chunks of fresh white and green asparagus that were al dente and cut on the diagonal.
But the best performance by a white asparagus thus far was the SpargelRisotto at Skopik & Lohn in Vienna’s 2nd District. The creamy heap of perfectly cooked rice was punctuated with asparagus pieces that seemed to melt into the deliriously rich mass. A dusting of Parmesan and wispy baby herbs added to the triumph.
The risotto was served with an entrée of fresh trout, but I asked for a small portion of risotto (sans fish) as an appetizer because, to borrow from Mae West, there’s just too little time and too many great white asparagus to enjoy.
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