Daftar Hotel - The last time I mentioned jersey royal potatoes, I was contacted by a sackful of irate spud fanciers. The precocious Channel Island tubers, they said, had long since been toppled from their throne by other varieties with more flavour, and I clearly didn’t know my onions where potatoes were concerned.
Hotel di Hong Kong I’m certainly no potato expert, though I do happen to think jersey royals taste good. What’s true, however, is that there are plenty of other new potatoes that taste good too: the Cornish early, for instance — the first mainland new potato crop — which arrives about now; and even, though I’m loath to admit it, some of those spuds that are grown, perversely, in the Egyptian desert.
But flavour wasn’t entirely my point. Jersey royals are the first new potato harvested in these islands each year — and I happen to think that newness, that marker of seasonal change, is still something worth celebrating and preserving.
That’s why I’m focusing on new potatoes this week, although not to the exclusion of other spring arrivals. It’s also the season for pink-fleshed sea trout, for instance, if you can find it, as well as, traditionally at least, for salmon. There’s British watercress around, and the lance-shaped green leaves of wild garlic are perfuming the fringes of woods up and down the country. The cold winter meant it sprouted later than usual and it’s still going strong. I picked a huge bundle in Somerset a week or so ago. It’s worth looking out for on a spring walk, and it increasingly turns up in farmers’ markets and delis, thanks to enterprising foragers.
These days, you often have to turn to wild food to get a real sense of the passing of the seasons. Many of the edible milestones that used to punctuate the year have lost their impact with the march of eternal supermarket freshness. I think it’s worth making a fuss of the few truly seasonal foods that remain — even if it’s only with a bite of a proper springtime new potato.
Hotel di Hong Kong I’m certainly no potato expert, though I do happen to think jersey royals taste good. What’s true, however, is that there are plenty of other new potatoes that taste good too: the Cornish early, for instance — the first mainland new potato crop — which arrives about now; and even, though I’m loath to admit it, some of those spuds that are grown, perversely, in the Egyptian desert.
But flavour wasn’t entirely my point. Jersey royals are the first new potato harvested in these islands each year — and I happen to think that newness, that marker of seasonal change, is still something worth celebrating and preserving.
That’s why I’m focusing on new potatoes this week, although not to the exclusion of other spring arrivals. It’s also the season for pink-fleshed sea trout, for instance, if you can find it, as well as, traditionally at least, for salmon. There’s British watercress around, and the lance-shaped green leaves of wild garlic are perfuming the fringes of woods up and down the country. The cold winter meant it sprouted later than usual and it’s still going strong. I picked a huge bundle in Somerset a week or so ago. It’s worth looking out for on a spring walk, and it increasingly turns up in farmers’ markets and delis, thanks to enterprising foragers.
These days, you often have to turn to wild food to get a real sense of the passing of the seasons. Many of the edible milestones that used to punctuate the year have lost their impact with the march of eternal supermarket freshness. I think it’s worth making a fuss of the few truly seasonal foods that remain — even if it’s only with a bite of a proper springtime new potato.
No comments:
Post a Comment