Finding my head again or losing it completely

[muckefuck]

While we're on the subject of German food, here's something fresh and light that should get that spleeny taste out of your mouth:

I can't tell if I'm closer than ever to rediscovering one of my favourite dishes from my student days in Germany or if I'm only mired deeper into confusion. One of the regular side-dishes as the Mensa (university cafeteria) I regularly ate at in Freiburg was a salad consisting of entire heads of lettuce. They were small--bite size, in fact--and consisted of smooth-edged, spoon-shaped leaves. I remember this being called Kopfsalat ("head salad") and assumed it came from the fact that the heads were eaten whole rather than being plucked apart.

But an article I was reading on Badener cuisine mentioned Nüssli (Standard German Feldsalat) as a popular local green. A trip to Wikipedia informs me that this is a dialect name for what in the States I've always heard called mâche. But I was startled to see in the pictures of it the closest similarities to this aforementioned "Kopfsalat" I've ever seen. It's been so long, I can't remember the taste well enough to confirm that it had the "nutty" flavour supposedly associated with mâche (the Badisch name actually means "little nut"), but that would explain why I ate it so readily. If I've had mâche in this country, it's only been as leaves in a mix, never as whole heads, which is why I would never have made a connexion earlier.

But, so far, my research hasn't turned up any instances of "Kopfsalat" being used to describe Valerianella locusta, only Lactuca sativa var. capitata which is--of all things--a close relative of iceberg. Now you know that the tasty green I've been pining for all these years couldn't possibly have anything to do with nasty old iceberg, so I'm vexed. Where to turn now? To a friendly greengrocer who will sell me whole heads of mâche for a pretty penny for a tableside taste test, I guess.

Comments

"Die Pfalz ist ein schönes Land."

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

When I first realised you weren't American, I thought you were Irish. Then you posted something that made me think you were English. Now this! Are you one of them limey-kraut mongrels like the Swiss Miss (hmm, guess that makes him technically a limey cheesehead) or pne? Or do you simply like messing with me?

Re: "Die Pfalz ist ein schönes Land."

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

You got me bang to rights, I'm a limey-kraut mongrel - though I spent most of my childhood in Cornwall, which might make me a pasty-kraut. But my mongrelitude pales in comparison with that of my kids, who also add Brazilian, Russian and Serbian to the mix - so I don't often get credit for it.