Where can I get lamb’s lettuce and other mysteries of life

The last time I was in the UK, I was in Marks and Spencer assembling ingredients for dinner.  Those of you in the US may not know about Marks and Spencer, but it is the absolute British equivalent of giant old school retail, except that it only carries food and clothing. Enormous amounts of food and clothing, but only food and clothing.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that there are Marks and Spencers in every city and town in the UK with a high street (Main Street, for those in the US).  I don’t often shop in stores like this (I’ve never been inside a Walmart, for example) but they are convenient, have reasonably good quality in their food, and have really figured out how to package food for people with limited storage who are cooking for one or two.

I’m in front of the lettuce and I see a package called lamb’s lettuce.  Hmmm, I say to myself, I’ve never seen this before, let me try it. That night’s salad was delicious and it was because of the lettuce.  It looks a bit like clover and has a sweet, “clovery” taste with a very soft texture.  The next night I mixed it with it’s polar opposite – arugula (called “rocket” in the UK). The results were amazing – sweet and bitter greens with tomatoes and lemony dressing.  I fell in love with lamb’s lettuce and then started seeing it everywhere. Two cookbooks I bought on that trip had several recipes involving lamb’s lettuce.  I saw it on menus in restaurants.  As a garnish on salads.  On our trip to Paris a few months later, it was in every supermarket or produce market, except that in France it is called mâche.  I was seeing it everywhere, except in the US.

I’ve never seen lamb’s lettuce, or mâche, in the US.  I have wonderful access to produce where I live, with traditional and alternative supermarkets, regular outdoor markets, and farmer’s markets and I have never seen this wonderful salad green for sale. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right that something so common in Europe is so unknown in the US.

I have the same issue with sea beans. I first came across them at Kirkgate Market in Leeds, UK and soon became addicted.  Sea beans are a kind of grass that grows in salt water.  When quickly sautéed and seasoned with a little red pepper or hot oil, they are a wonderful accompaniment to a strong flavored fish.  Not quite as ubiquitous as lamb’s lettuce, they are pretty easy to find in the UK.  In the US – nada.  I convinced the produce manager at my local Whole Foods to carry them, but they disappeared shortly thereafter and I haven’t seen them since.  Nor have I ever come across my beloved sea beans in any other location on this side of the Atlantic.

There are other produce items that seem to be commonly available in Europe that are hard or impossible to find here in the US.  The standard eggplant in US supermarkets is the large, bulbous purple one.  That is a perfectly fine eggplant and I have consumed more than my share of them, but they aren’t always convenient if you are cooking for one or two, or for certain preparations.  In European markets, you can be pretty sure that the long, thin eggplants (aubergines) called Japanese eggplants or the smallish Fairy Tale eggplants will be available, and often there could be up to a half-dozen varieties for sale – all of which are more adaptable to small batch cooking.

Every Italian market I’ve ever visited (and many French markets), have squash blossoms.  These are the flowers of the zucchini (courgette, marrow) and are amazing when fried.  Yesterday, at the Headhouse Farmer’s Market I saw squash blossoms for the first time.  By the way, I also saw (and purchased) purslane there, an herb/edible weed I’ve been trying to find for a couple of years.  Maybe there’s a trend here.

OK – my rant is winding down.  And I do have to acknowledge that tomatoes in August from New Jersey are the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted and corn (maize) from the US is amazing.

I still don’t understand, though, why I can’t get lamb’s lettuce or sea beans in the US.  Anyone who can tell me where I can find some in the metropolitan Philadelphia area will have my eternal gratitude.