One exception to my "no driving in cities rule" is Rome, Italy. Getting bogged down in traffic at the Coliseum, on the ancient bridges over the Tiber, at the Egyptian pyramid, around the policemen wearing funny white pith helmets waving from the little round stands makes everyday a "Roman Holiday" or a 360° movie at Disney World.
When not in Rome, I walk, bike, or ride in Europe. This makes sourcing the ingredients for a recipe take all day risking hyperkulteremia. After traveling fifteen years in Italy, I still wander around in amazement looking up at the ten centuries of architecture and centuries old flowering trees and risk coming home with nothing but snapshots. It leads to a close review our portfolio of take-out menus and that is very dangerous indeed! So yesterday when I stumbled on an Indian-Latino shop I can walk to it was a cause for celebration! No rainy day blues, no Stendhal syndrome.
I first discovered these shops thanks to my very dear Bengali friend who taught me how to make a proper chai with ceylon tea, black pepper, ginger, green cardamom, and cinnamon. Seeing the open sacks of rice in ten varieties, coconut milk in colorful tins from five different places, nine kinds of flour made of corn, yucca, mantioc, and rice flour make a fifteen-minute a journey around the world to the places l'd like to see. If I can't visit them now then at least I live in the essence of them.
Since I've stocked up on lady fingers, the gumbo kind not the tiramisu kind we'll move on to today's spice adventure recipe:
Day three - Recipe three
Moroccan lady fingers and stripped chicken, hold the pie
