What is in season in Strasbourg. and what to order when the market changes.
Spring
- White asparagus: Alsace white asparagus runs from April into June, served warm with ham and three sauces. Markets and winstubs build whole menus around it during the short season.
- Wild garlic: Ail des ours carpets the Vosges foothills in spring and turns up in soups and tartes on Strasbourg menus through April and May.
Summer
- Cremant d'Alsace: The region's sparkling wine is the easy summer pour, drunk on canal terraces across Petite France from June through August.
- Mirabelle and quetsche plums: Late-summer plums from the orchards of Alsace and neighbouring Lorraine become tarts, eaux-de-vie and the filling for sweet tarte flambee.
Autumn
- New-vintage Alsace wine: September and October bring the grape harvest along the Wine Route, and the first Riesling and Gewurztraminer of the year reach Strasbourg's wine bars.
- Game and Munster: Autumn turns winstub menus to game and to washed-rind Munster from the Vosges, often eaten with cumin and a glass of Gewurztraminer.
Winter
- Christmas bredele: From late November the Christkindelsmarik fills the old town with bredele biscuits, pain d'epices, mulled wine and roasted chestnuts.
- Choucroute and baeckeoffe: The cold months belong to the heavy Alsatian classics: choucroute garnie piled with pork and sausage, and baeckeoffe slow-cooked in Riesling.