When it was around 2007 I remember a coworker mentioning he hadn’t had “fresh” asparagus all spring. He’d eaten asparagus, but it was “from California, or wherever.” This was when the food trends we know today were just getting started and it was probably the first time I’d ever even thought about associating whether a food is “fresh” with its place of origin. As it happens, it also wasn’t the best example; I find that asparagus tastes the same no matter where it comes from or when you eat it, though nonetheless, I have little desire to eat asparagus outside of the small window in the spring when not many other vegetables are available and “fresh”; I don’t like asparagus for its taste so much as its way of marking the time of year. Lettuce is different. The season and the location always make a big difference with lettuce, unless it’s just the placebo effect of buying salad greens at a farmer’s market or in the eternally misted produce aisle at Whole Foods. Eating a fresh bowl of lettuce makes me think of the wet spring soil where it was grown, an idea I find lovely even if you may find it absurd. Today I had romaine lettuce with olive oil.
(Photo: Restaurant Nora, Washington, D.C.)
365 Days of Food 