Foeniculum vulgare

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I do love fennel in my salad and I use it in a lot of my cooking back in the UK. While in the UK it is cultivated for use as a culinary herb, a walk in the Maltese countryside at this time of the year will take you across many a wild plant of the species. It's thick foliage reminds me of some of the trendy afro hairdos in fashion spreads and I always succumb to the temptation of running my fingers through the plant and breathing in its aroma. That, in turn, reminds me of liquorice and the colourful sweets known as Liquorice Allsorts. Although the smell is similar to that of liquorice, the latter is made from the roots of Genus Glycyrrhiza or, more precisely, from the cultivated G. glabra.

In Malta, the fennel plant is known as Buzbiez (lovely word, don't you think?). Recipes using Buzbiez are many and varied but in Maltese dishes, it is its seeds that are most commonly used, usually with roast potatoes.
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