Asparagus are the crocuses of vegetables, the very first edible herald of spring. Of course, like most exotic luxuries, asparagus can be seen in fancy food shops as early as the January white sales.

It is too big, too awful, too otherworldly to comprehend without being surrounded by it. Standing at Ground Zero, breathing the mingled rot of burning chemicals, cooked plastics, and the unspeakable, I realize why it will take months if not years before we can begin to rebuild.

Every day since terror found its targets in New York and Washington and was intercepted by heroism in Pennsylvania, worship services here have drawn hundreds of people, some in business dress, some in beach sandals, parents carrying infants, a few elderly in wheelchairs, and almost all with tears welling.

The gate in the high fence that surrounds the Montauk Coast Guard Station was shut tight on Tuesday morning -- the station's people and the crew of the 87-foot cutter Ridley on high alert like all of this nation's military. Without radio and television, the closed fence would have been about the only indication that something terrible had happened 118 miles to the west.

War news, which increasingly comes in curt briefings from the Pentagon, rivets the country's attention and also serves to distract citizens from what is either a recession or a depression depending on whose ox is being gored. Sales of yellow ribbon may be up around here but nothing much else is. And February. Can't something be done about this wretched month — like shortening it to 10 days?

"The older it is, sourdough fanciers say, the better bread it makes; some Alaskan families have sour­ dough 50 years old." — Waverly Root and Richard de Rochemont, “Eating in America” 

“By the beginning of the 18th century . . . all the arguments which were to sustain modem vegetarianism were in circulation.” — Keith Thomas, “Man and the Natural World,” 1983

This combination of fresh haricot beans and dried garbanzos (chickpeas) is beautiful, nutritious, and delicious. Even the crankiest of eaters will find nothing to object to.

This amazingly tender and juicy pork roast is the result of cooking at high temperature a relatively short time in a covered Weber grill, and butterflied leg of lamb has been seen on fashionable grills for over 20 years but whole leg of lamb is far less commonplace.

Trout with bacon and vinegar sauce is a sophisticated dinner version of an old-time fisherman's breakfast, while flounder takes on an interesting flavor and appearance when stuffed with herbs.

“Man is an epicure just as he is an artist, a scholar, a poet. The palate . . . is as delicate and susceptible of training as the eye or ear, and equally deserving of respect.”  — Guy de Maupassant, Madame Husson’s Rose-king 

This spicy blend of fish, shrimp, and okra isn’t at all difficult to make, but the timing of each ingredient added must be adhered to precisely, because cooking times are brief and overcooking ruins the dish.

"Memory recalls dishes that have pleased the taste; imagination pretends to see them; there is something dreamlike about the whole process." — "On Appetite," Brillat-Savarin

This fudge pie is a “gooey-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside, heavenly piece of chocolate wickedness,” and the lemon-curd tarts have a rich filling that can also be used in lemon meringue pie or a layer-cake filling.

This is one of the world's great peasant soups, the emblematic soup of Quebec, in fact. Despite this, with our normal maddening indifference to our 'friendly giant to the north,' Canada, there are no recipes to be found for this great soup in any American cookbook I've seen. I tracked it down through a friend in Montreal.

The bald eagle may be the emblem of the United States, but I think Benjamin Franklin got his wish even though it has not been proclaimed by any official source: Turkey is the national bird.

“Often called 'poor man's meat' and, in one form, 'poor man's caviar,' the eggplant is one of the staple foods of the Middle East. It is extremely versatile." — Claudia Roden, “A Book of Middle Eastern Food”

Corn has ears and we’d all better sneak up on it as rapidly as possible.

“The varieties of plum are legion, and have been at least since Roman times when Pliny spoke of the ingens turba prunorum, the enormous crowd of plums.” — Jane Grigson’s "Fruit Book"

"Lake shrimp are always used in making this gumbo, the river shrimp being too small and delicate. Purchase three to four pounds, or about 100 shrimp, for there are always smaller shrimp in the pile which, when cooked, amount to little or nothing.” 
- "The Picayune Creole Cookbook," 1901 edition