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September in Los Angeles brings with it a seasonal delicacy - a cream-colored blossom known as flor de izote. The delicate flowers burst from the top of tall, spiky yuccas that are found all over the city. NPR's Christopher Intagliata went hunting for them with a local chef.
CHRISTOPHER INTAGLIATA, BYLINE: This stretch of Vermont Avenue is packed with produce vendors and food stalls. It's a Salvadoran market.
KARLA VASQUEZ: Hola. Buenos dias.
INTAGLIATA: And on this Saturday, it's already bustling at 8:30 in the morning.
VASQUEZ: I mean, yeah, today's shopping day. Hoy es dia de la compra. So...
INTAGLIATA: I'm wandering through the market with the chef Karla Vasquez.
VASQUEZ: There's certain ingredients you just cannot get anywhere else.
INTAGLIATA: She points out bags of pumpkin seed powder or huge mounds of unshucked Salvadoran red silk beans.
VASQUEZ: This mountain of frijoles, this is just - oh, it's so cool.
INTAGLIATA: It's as tall as we are.
VASQUEZ: It is literally as tall as we are.
INTAGLIATA: But the reason we're here today is to find flor de izote - those seasonal white yucca blossoms. And lucky for us, they're everywhere.
VASQUEZ: Here's the flor. (Speaking Spanish).
INTAGLIATA: They're hanging from the tarp ceilings of vendors' tents. They're piled high in boxes, peeking out of big plastic bags.
VASQUEZ: Gracias. This one's big.
INTAGLIATA: And these flowers are what led me to Vasquez in the first place. A couple weeks ago, a family parked in front of my house with a ladder on the roof of their truck, and they asked if they could pick the big spikes of white flowers atop a 20-foot-tall yucca in my neighbor's yard.
VASQUEZ: I think that's so common. I mean, I don't think a lot of folks realize what is growing in their backyard - you know? - or right in front of their house, in the parkway. So I love that there are so many Salvadorans mustering up the courage to knock on a door and say, hey, can I take these flowers, you know?
INTAGLIATA: A bit of Googling led me to Vasquez' cookbook, "The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes And The Women Who Preserve Them." It includes her mom's recipe for flor de izote - blanched and sauteed with scrambled eggs.
And it's not just a seasonal delicacy. Flor de izote is the national flower of El Salvador, the country Vasquez' family fled when she was just a baby. This yucca species - the giant yucca - is native to Mexico and Central America, but it's planted widely here in LA. And growing up, Vasquez says it was always a thrill to see it on the side of the freeway or on the kitchen counter.
VASQUEZ: I would always see usually a bag, like a Home Depot bag, filled with this flower. And you could hear the rustling of the bag and my mom getting the flowers out and saying, Karla, tenemos flor de izote. And then my dad would walk in and be like, (speaking Spanish) - who found it, you know?
INTAGLIATA: Does your mom still get excited when she sees the flowers?
VASQUEZ: Oh, yes. I told her. I called her yesterday. I was like, (speaking Spanish). She's like, yes, please, (speaking Spanish). So I will be taking some for us today and for tomorrow when I see her. We're going to make it again.
INTAGLIATA: So we're on a mission to find flowers for us and for her mom. The branches here cost 15 to $25, depending on the size, and it seems like every vendor opens with a recipe.
JOSE HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
INTAGLIATA: Jose Hernandez says you fry up some tomato, onion and garlic with the petals, and it's delicious.
HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
INTAGLIATA: He was born in El Salvador and has been living here 40 years. He says his friends let him cut their flowers for free.
HERNANDEZ: Every year, I do this. Every year. This is one of the best plates, you know. You will taste it with - you will like it. Nobody says no. Nobody says no.
INTAGLIATA: Vasquez shops for a couple branches and stuffs them in a plastic bag.
These ones look really fresh, yeah.
VASQUEZ: These - this one. I'm getting hungry.
INTAGLIATA: (Laughter).
VASQUEZ: This is great.
INTAGLIATA: She picks up a couple avocados, some spicy, salty cheese and some French rolls. And then we're off to her kitchen to cook it all up.
VASQUEZ: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS THUDDING)
VASQUEZ: I have slippers here if you want to.
INTAGLIATA: Today, Vasquez is going to make her mom's recipe, and she starts by hand-picking each petal off the flowers.
(SOUNDBITE OF PICKING PETALS)
INTAGLIATA: She says the inner parts are slightly bitter. And besides, she finds this process almost like a meditation.
VASQUEZ: I think, especially when you have an ingredient you don't see often, it helps you have more time with it. Like prolonging the visit of an old friend you haven't seen.
INTAGLIATA: She pours boiling water over the petals.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER POURING)
INTAGLIATA: And while that sits, she fries up minced onion and tomato in butter.
(SOUNDBITE OF UTENSIL BANGING)
INTAGLIATA: A few minutes later, she tosses in the petals...
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD SIZZLING)
INTAGLIATA: ...Stirs it around, and finally, the scrambled eggs.
(SOUNDBITE OF EGGS BEING CRACKED)
INTAGLIATA: Then, it's time to eat.
VASQUEZ: Buen provecho, we say.
INTAGLIATA: Every bite is delicious, and the flowers taste familiar - kind of vegetal - almost like asparagus or another edible flower - artichoke. And the very act of eating flowers, that's part of the magic for Vasquez.
VASQUEZ: Because what I knew of El Salvador was that it was this place of war that we had left and that it was dangerous. And in my mind, I kept thinking, well, a place that's dangerous, but they eat flowers for breakfast? Like, make it make sense. So, yeah.
INTAGLIATA: How meaningful is it for you to be able to find these flowers at a street market here in your home in Los Angeles?
VASQUEZ: Yeah, I mean, it just makes me very happy that LA is a place that feels like my homeland. Like, that is just such a powerful feeling. Me da fortaleza - it gives me strength. There's just no other way to describe it than that.
INTAGLIATA: It's a feeling that Vasquez will be reminded of next year, the year after and every year to come, when the yuccas of LA proudly show off their delicate, white blooms.
Christopher Intagliata, NPR News, Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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