It feels unCanadian to not like fiddleheads.

To many, fiddleheads are the most Canadian of vegetables.  Native to North America, these rugged, unpretentious little harbingers of spring are harvested early on – before their fronds have opened.

While nutritious and uniquely flavoured, the end of fiddlehead season just doesn’t break my heart the way, say, the end of strawberry season does.

But that may be about to change because of this story in the New York Times, and this recipe for Thai take on fiddleheads from Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker in Portland, Oregon.

Yes, fiddleheads grow in Thailand.

According to Ricker,  “On the side streets, smaller vendors – the people who’ve come in from the countryside – will have some in a pile on a tarp or banana leaf.”

Ricker does a fiddlehead stir-fry (or phat phak kuut) based on a recipe from Phrae province, south of Chiang Mai.  With fish sauce, garlic and chilies, it will be entirely unlike any fiddlehead dish I’ve ever tasted.

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving my local farmers with a bag of fiddleheads and giving Ricker’s recipe a go.

If you hear crying at the market next weekend, that’ll be me.

For the recipe for Phat Phak Kuut (Stir-fried fiddlehead ferns), click here.

Photo:©Stephen Lewis/Art + Commerce