Smack dab in the middle of spring, asparagus is adorning menus. Here are a three choice dishes (two found at local restaurants, one you can make yourself) featuring the herbaceous, perennial plant.

Gitane: As pictured above, this asparagus dish is classic asparagus with shaved ends, egg yolk, prosciutto and greens. Perfect with a glass or three of rosé.
6 Claude Lane, S.F., 415-788-6686

Gialina/Ragazza: Grab their asparagus pizza with preserved lemon, green garlic, farmer's pecorino and egg. Grab two. They're that good. Reservations are not accepted, but you can call for pick-up.
Glen Park: 2842 Diamond (at Bosworth), 415-239-8500; Divis: 311 Divisadero (at Page), S.F.; 415-255-1133

Raw Asparagus Salad: This is our favorite way to enjoy asparagus. People either love it or hate it in its raw state. We're staunchly in the former category. Kellan Hori, private chef and recipe developer for Blue Moon Brewing Company, suggests a simple chopped asparagus salad (around 1/4-inch cuts, we'd guess) with chive oil, lemon zest, and Caramailzed shallots. "A great raw application to a seasonal ingredient, " she adds.

And as for that post-digestion odor? Here's a fun quote from Treatise of All Sorts of Foods (1745) by Louis Lemery, "[Asparagus] cause a filthy and disagreeable smell in the urine, as every Body knows." Indeed, we all do.

The de Young is paying tribute to local floral designers with their annual springtime mash-up of art and flowers. From March 19 to 23, the show features the work of more than 100 of the Bay Area’s most innovative floral designers, who have created arrangements that draw inspiration from and pay homage to the museum's permanent collections.

Watch the de Young's Bouquets to Art centerpiece rise up like a tower of flower power (we can't resist! It rhymes!) in this time-lapse video:

Bouquets to Art, March 19-23
de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, 415.750.3600

Spring is here, you guys. And it's totally going to be over before you know it and tourists will litter the city with their touristy ways and everything will be simply horrid until the first chill of fall. (Not really. Summer is rad.) Why not take advantage of asparagus' all-too-brief moment in the sun by making a reservation at Michael Mina to wolf down his warm asparagus salad? What's in it, you ask? Hold on, we'll tell you: it's assembled with a slow-poached Jidori hen egg, black truffle, and burrata. It will run you $22, but as always, it's worth it.

However, if you can't swing by Mina's restaurant, any number of places should have the verdigris spears on their menus. Failing that, head to your nearest farmer's market, or any plain market, to grab a pound or two. (Pst, we recommend blitzing up some asparagus pesto.)

MICHAEL MINA: 252 California (at Battery), S.F., 415-397-9222

"In the Spring Hills" shot in Mount Hamilton by andertho.

Happy spring.

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar.

Take the jump to see what other CD's are coming out today...

This afternoon, Cloutier gave his first (though unofficial) victory speech as well as his first public mea culpa. He called his Palm Spring bout of being blotto a "foolish mistake." (Also, he's kind of attractive. Par course nowadays to get elected mayor, we guess.)

Public intoxication and nerve-wrecking close calls aside, it's been a most fascinating race. This election gave the city of Vallejo the chance to land its first ever openly gay or...openly black mayor. (The former nailed it.) It also almost goes without saying that Osby Davis, Cloutier's opponent, has requested a recount. Which? Makes sense. Although the whine of "recount" has some politicians coming off as infants eating a bowl of mashed sour grapes, a race like this seems to warrants another count. Maybe two. Davis tells the Vallejo Times Herald, "I still have a desire to serve as mayor."


image credit: Vallejo Times Herald