On our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, we can tell that it??s spring when we start to see asparagus.

On the home front, I end up cooking just about everything with asparagus. From grilled asparagus to asparagus soup, it ends up being a real celebration. Thanks to the wind that we have here, grilling something outdoors is not all the easiest thing to do, so frequently I end up roasting the asparagus in the oven. I start by breaking off the woody ends. You can usually tell what they are if you just hold the asparagus and bend it until the woody end breaks off. I turn the oven to about 425 degrees, toss the asparagus with some olive oil and roast it until it turns just green enough that it??s done. The good news is that if I??m cooking something else in the oven, this works at whatever temperature that I??m using, 325, 350, 450, whatever. For asparagus soup, I just cut up the asparagus into about a half inches lengths, then saut? some leeks until they are translucent, throw in the asparagus, cook that for about five minutes, add about four cups of chicken broth, bring it to a boil, cook it for 15 minutes until they are tender, the puree it. The other good news is that lots of people are find their way to enjoy asparagus, and we getting to enjoy it. It??s a great way to start the season.