The signs all seem to say that spring has finally arrived. There are a few bunches of Hungarian-grown spárga in the market, and lots of tiny eper (strawberries) – though at almost Ft 4,500 (€18) a crate at the Fény utcai piac, I’ll be holding off on those for awhile. And on Tuesday, when I bought my first bunch of medvehagyma of the season, it seemed like spring was here for real.
Although I knew what “ramps” were before I moved to Budapest, they weren’t available where I lived (or at least where I shopped) in the US. But in Budapest, starting in early spring, ramps are sold in big bunches in many of the city’s tiny bioboltok (organic groceries), which is where I discovered them a few years ago. Now, I try to do as many different things with them – and buy them as often as I can – during their short season. It seems like I am not alone. My neighborhood biobolt was out of ramps today when I went searching for them. So I headed to Bio Centrum – the fancy organic grocery store inside the Mammut I shopping mall, where although I found them, my bunch of ramps was a disappointingly flimsy for Ft 450.
Many of the online recipes for ramps which I have found call for sautéing the white bulbs. But, in Budapest, I have never found ramps with the bulbs attached, only the neatly snipped leaves are available. (This is no doubt because Hungarians mostly use the greens for salads, soups and sandwiches; If anyone knows of a place which sells whole ramps, bulbs and all, I’d love to hear about it.) I’ll be cooking this recipe for spaghetti with ramps, substituting the leaves for the bulbs, and using some fancy Japanese soba noodles which I also picked up at the Bio Centrum, instead of spaghetti. Although my tiny bunch will be enough for now, I’ll head back to the Marika Naturaboltja on Tuesday when the next batch of ramps is expected to arrive. And there, they will only be Ft 350 for a nice big, generous bunch, the shopkeeper assured me, and probably sitting alongside even more tasty reminders that winter is finally over.
