h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here in Germany, you eat asparagus with a knife and fork, but I remember it being served on a plate with a finger bowl in England, as you eat it with your fingers there.

I think this may be because of the way silver cutlery, or silver-plated, reacts unfavourably with the asparagus, giving an unpleasant taste.

Also in Germany, asparagus is by default white, whereas in England it is green. The white has far less taste, but it is true that it is treated with great respect from April till June and is usually offered on a menu as follows:

With hollandaise sauce
with hollandaise sauce and new potatoes

- with cooked ham
- with raw (black forest) ham
- with smoked salmon
- with grilled salmon
- with a fillet steak
- with a veal escalope
- with trout or white sea fish.

Also in Germany, the white stuff has to be peeled, or it is too stringy. Special peeling machines have been invented. German housewives hold asparagus-peeling competitions.

Note to self should watch out for this sort of thing in PR!

Will post link to picture of asparagus machine in next post.

This post has been removed.

I'm not sure if the hidden post referred to this, but I understand that there is a common saying in France about women who eat asparagus. It splits up that group by saying some eat it timidly, some with zest and some with gusto!

The hidden post was, as pre-warned in post 1, my link to a picture of an asparagus-peeling machine. I had put it in the separate post in case it would be hidden, beings as the only way of showing this sort of thing would be by linking to a commercial site.

So now you have to imagine what they look like. It's a bit like an electric pencil-sharpener.

For some odd reason, I thought the reference was to teeth.