A large vitreous vessel in which artichokes fester, thereby acquiring all sorts of gripping flavours: ditchwater, sweaty socks, acrylic. A treacherous tongue-slaying pearl-onion, loaded with vinegar and possibly vitriol. An archaeological treasure: dairy-granite, crumbling corpse of milk. A Cubist Caprese. Straggly salame thickly woven with fat (hog with halitosis, snouting down my throat). Placid Prosciutto, with a sweeter and more diffident odour, deftly carved, to be paired with: parched pulp of eggplant, a mouthful of loamy loveliness.