Asparagus is one of the most appreciated plant varieties growing in the Adriatic, and it is high season now. From mid-March to late April the homes and restaurants of Croatian coast will make omelettes, soups, homemade pastas and risottos, as well as the ingenious combinations with meat and fish.
This wild plant grows in less accessible places, often within thorny bushes, rocks, and macchia, and requires expertise, an eye of a hawk, lots of scratches on hands, and iron will under already hot Adriatic sun. But everything is worth of, as asparagus keeps health and is very balanced both in taste and in nutrition. It brings vitamin E into our organism, known as the fertility vitamin.
Asparagus was a sacred plant to the ancient Egyptians so they would put it, along with the celery, in tombs as a gift for the dead. Asparagus originated in the East, and it was used in China back in 3000 BC as a cough, ulcer and anti-swelling medicine. It was believed to ease the feet pain, and it was used in baths. On French courts it was popular as a diuretic, and it was also used as an aphrodisiac.
Taste of Adriatic team ventures round the Northern Adriatic, where asparagus makes indispensable part of the spring’s cuisine. Click on the stories below for more: