Shaved Fennel Salad

The French have never been particularly fond of fennel. They probably know it best as a component, if not an actual ingredient, in the famous Mediterranean sea bass grilled over dried fennel stalks, served in restaurants all over Provence. Occasionally, chopped fennel fronds are smeared on the inside of a fish. Fennel’s flavor, if not the vegetable itself, is often added, in the form of a fennel-flavored pastis such as Ricard, to fish soups, i