The season of sustenance has given way to the simple joys of spring.
Spring is here; the magnolias are blooming. When the wind kicks up, they drop gently curved petals, creamy white on one side and a deep, secret pink on the other. You can feel the change of season in the air, the way the chill of night gives way to mid-morning warmth. Fingers of sunlight on a bedroom wall. Outside, the grass is Astroturf green. A season of renewal, of the earth reinventing itself.
In winter, it is proper to eat for sustenance; in spring, for pleasure alone. At this time of year, I am lured by glossy curls of silverbeet, tiny new potatoes, the fine, sharp scent of spring onions. Piles of lemons, waiting for a fingernail to release their fragrance. It is a season of green on the plate as well. Delicate zucchini flowers, destined to be filled with ricotta and seared in a pan; frothy fronds of dill; pungent basil, so easily bruised but none the worse for it.
I want simplicity in spring; I want what’s easy. Broad beans tumbled into lemony pasta and scattered with ribbons of mint. A thin clear broth of ginger and garlic, its surface shimmering with sesame oil. Good bread, generously spread with butter and topped with whisper-thin slices of radish and cracked black pepper. Eggs from the farmer’s markets, their yolks so orange they seem somewhat unreal, boiled and served with nothing but a little flaky salt, eaten straight from the shell with a spoon.
It was still early. To me, this is the ideal time to dine, when the sky retains a little colour and most of the seats are empty. Through the open door to the kitchen, I could see the chef tending to several large silver pots. On the menu: tagliatelle with morel mushrooms, roasted cauliflower with saffron agrodolce, a salad of shaved cabbage and dark leaves of treviso. The last of the winter vegetables, all earth and bitterness.
Craving the new season, I asked my waiter if he could bring me something fresh, whatever tasted most like spring? Of course he could. A slab of leek pie, pastry buttery with sour cream, leeks reduced to melting sweetness, topped with bright stems of watercress. A salad of late beurre bosc pears, fennel and Roquefort, its salty richness cut through by a bright lemon vinaigrette. I drank a glass of muscadet, light and cleanly acidic, as lean as a new, green stem. I ate slowly.
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