If there is one universally loved vegetable it seems to be asparagus. Even the fussy eaters in my life, or the “no vegetables for me please” freaks, will eat asparagus. I know people who eat it several times a week. Even when it’s off season, expensive and not that great.

So now that the fat young spears are in season here in California, cheap, and really great I thought the time was right to honor it with this weeks Market Matters post from the Hollywood Farmers Market.

I love asparagus. But not all asparagus is the same. There are the very thin types. Often called baby asparagus. Which is mostly a misnomer because the thin spears are usually from older plants and are produced further out from the center of the plant.

Thin asparagus is usually a bit stringier.  It has an earthier, more pronounced asparagus flavor in my opinion too. This does not mean it is not as good as fat asparagus. In fact many people prefer this type. I would say fat or thin are pretty much equally good. If handled properly.  Fat spears almost always need to be peeled. Thick asparagus seems to concentrate its fibers in the skin. Peeling may be necessary because in some methods of cooking they can become a mushy mess by the time they have cooked enough to get the skin tender.

Let's just say the weather made me do it!

I had sorta sworn off soup at SippitySup. That's because I broke my jaw last summer and was wired shut for eight weeks. I was pretty sure I was finished with liquid food for the rest of my life. In fact, I remember making a pact with myself. No more soup. I could just learn to live with out it. Too many bad broken jaw memories attached to soup. No soup for Sup!

But nope, I awoke this morning all nestled under a down comforter (that somehow appeared during the night) and noticed that the weather had turned a bit chilly. The ineveitable Southern California rain started its pitter-patter on the copper roof of the balcony outside my bedroom.

I knew this tune. I've missed this song. I found myself getting a little emotional as I began to hum along to its rhythmic beat. Could I love the rain in Southern California that much? No, its not the rain making me feel this way. Rather it is the sound of the rain– drip, drop, clip, clop... I suddenly realized that the mellifluous drizzle tapping away on my bedroom window was the sound of soup! I have missed soup.

Well I bounced out of bed. A man with a purpose. I would make soup today.

Today I have soup. Or do I have stew? A Spiced Chickpea Stew with Feta Toasts

STEW : (formal) To undergo cooking by boiling slowly or simmering, especially a mixture of meat or fish and vegetables with stock.

(slang) To be in a state of anxiety or agitation

SOUP: (formal) A liquid food prepared from meat, fish, or vegetable stock combined with various other ingredients and often containing solid pieces.

(slang) A chaotic or unfortunate situation.

I don’t know whether to categorize this as a soup or a stew. Which has got me in a ”state of anxiety or agitation” leading to a “chaotic or unfortunate situation.

The Martha Stewart recipe that inspired me was solidly in the soup category. I say that because she called it soup. Flat out, no hemming and hawing. Soup period. Soup!

My version uses the same great flavors, chickpeas, tomatoes, coriander and red pepper. But I have let it cook a lot longer and I have left it a lot chunkier, so I tend to want to call it a stew. But these definitions above make no distinctions concerning texture. Conundrum.

We are already on our third recipe in this Apple A Day series and I just realized we never really talked about choosing a good apple.

You know the phrase about one bad apple spoiling the bunch. That can be interpreted very broadly and metaphorically if you like. But it’s also a literal truism when it comes to actual apples. Ripe apples emit ethylene gas as they age and ethylene gas is a party drug to apples. One whiff of the stuff and perfectly fine apples think the party is ending and they hasten their own ripening process, leading quite quickly to the rotting process. Chilling apples can slow the party down, so it is one fruit I do keep in the fridge. But chilled or no, apples should not be kept in a bag or a pile. They are less likely to pass (ethylene) gas onto their neighbors if they are stored in a single layer.

Since bad apples can be so detrimental to good apples, I usually start my choosing process by eliminating the bad apples.

My interest in Southern Italy continues.

Today I am concentrating on the so-called “heel of the boot”. It is generally known as Puglia. Though I have seen it called Apulia, Puglie and les Pouilles.

The area is perhaps the most contradictory region in Italy. Alternatively, desolate and picturesque. Compared to most of the country, tourists are still quite rare.

Many books I have read claim that the culture of food is less defined here than it is in many other regions in Italy, despite the plentitude of good fresh seafood from the Adriatic. Especially shellfish. I recall tremendous mussels battered and fried that make for a memory to last a lifetime. So I am not quite sure who decided that the region was somehow gastronomically challenged. I think perhaps Puglia's food gets a bad rap because it reflects the rustic ingenuity that its poverty-stricken roots requires. Because the dry soil can be difficult to work with and is not as prolific as other regions, Apulians have had to to make more with less.