ASPARAGUS WITH POACHED EGGS & BLACK TARTUFO.

The botanical name of asparagus comes from Greece and means “young sprout”. But this high-class vegetable has many other “nicknames”: white gold, imperial vegetable, edible ivory. There is a reason for its high appreciation: in the 16th century, asparagus was available only to aristocrats. As a seasonal food for gourmets, it has acquired an air of exclusivity in modern cuisine and is considered one of the most expensive vegetables in the world! The asparagus season is short: just seven weeks, from late April to mid-June. And then the vegetable passes the baton to the cherry. The old agricultural rule comes into play: the cherry is red, the asparagus is dead. But don’t worry: it will only rest to give new shoots next year, because one plant bears fruit for many years. The asparagus season is very short: farm asparagus is only available for 50 days a year. At other times of the year, if you can find it in supermarkets, then only in greenhouses. The history of this plant dates back to the 1st century AD. There are records indicating the cultivation of asparagus in Ancient Greece and Rome. They used the Persian word "asparag", which meant "shoot". It is also known that the Egyptians grew it for medicinal purposes more than 2000 years ago. The plant began to be cultivated in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Then it was used as a medicine and a powerful aphrodisiac, which was mentioned by Hippocrates. The recipe for cooking asparagus is contained in the oldest cookbook "De re coquinaria". Asparagus is the food of kings. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks cultivated it and considered it a symbol of love. In the 16th - 18th centuries. the fashion for asparagus dishes spread, and it was planted in Northern Europe. It was during this period that asparagus was called the "royal vegetable", as it occupied a special place in the royal menu. King Louis XIV ordered the construction of special greenhouses so that asparagus could be enjoyed all year round. His descendant, Louis XVI, went even further and officially forbade commoners from eating it, making the vegetable exclusively a privilege of the nobility. Asparagus, cпаржа, аспарагус або шпараги — is a distant relative of the leeks and onions that are well known to us, and humanity has been consuming it for over 2000 years, because archaeologists believe that this vegetable (and asparagus is indeed a vegetable) was cultivated back in the days of Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Greece, asparagus was considered a plant with sacred properties. First of all, as an aphrodisiac and a medicine for diarrhea and pain in the urethra, which even Hippocrates wrote about. In fact, the ancient Greeks were right about something: asparagus is rich in the substance asparagine, which is known for its diuretic properties. The ancient Romans also loved asparagus, and served it in almost the same way as we do today - as a side dish for fish dishes. Today, asparagus, although it continues to be considered an exquisite and sophisticated delicacy, is still available to everyone. As in ancient times, the vegetable remains a cult object: world asparagus festivals are held, and there is also "asparagus tourism". Even though in the Middle Ages the use of asparagus faded into the shadows, with the beginning of the New Age its former popularity instantly returned - strange sprouts were brought from campaigns to Greece and began to be planted at royal courts. At the same time, in the country where asparagus is most common - in Greece - this vegetable was not eaten in ancient times. According to legend, the hero Theseus, seeing the beautiful girl Perigona, fell in love with her, and to get rid of the obsessive admirer, the beauty promised a field of asparagus: if it covered her, she would never eat the plant again. The story ended happily. Since then, Perigona, and with it the inhabitants of Ancient Greece, did not eat natural products, but decorated the bride's bed with their branches. But here is another interesting fact: if you eat too much asparagus, your urine can acquire a special smell. This is due to methyl mercaptan (a sulfur-containing substance that breaks down and eliminates certain nitrogen compounds in asparagus), and Marcel Proust, for example, described this strange biological process in his prose. If asparagus doesn’t have that effect on you, it’s down to genetics: scientists have found that most French people experience a change in the smell of their urine after eating asparagus, while almost half of the Britons surveyed don’t. By the way, there’s an interesting urban legend about the American army associated with this specific feature of asparagus: supposedly, during operations in the Pacific, asparagus was added to soldiers’ dry rations so that in the event of an emergency landing on a deserted island, they could eat it and attract fish to the shore with the smell of their own urine.