Every spring, I look forward to seeing fresh spears of asparagus at the markets, tight, green, waiting to be roasted or stir fried. If I’m not stir frying them Chinese/Vietnamese style with shiitake mushrooms, then I’m usually taking the lazy way out by trimming the woody ends, cutting the spears in half, tossing in olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe another seasoning or two, and roasting in my oven for 18-20 minutes. Unfortunately, I think I’ve purchased way too much asparagus this season to the point where now, when I see it, I just feel repulsed.

The last time I made it a week ago, even the center parts that are usually nice and meaty felt woody and branch-like in my mouth as I chewed and chewed… for what felt like forever. I ended up spitting out a few mouthfuls of the chewed up spears because I was concerned that they may not actually go down and cause me to choke.

Even with food, yes, you can have too much of a good thing, even if that thing is usually tasty to you and nutritious. Asparagus is “it” for me.