what is this shiny little beastie?

for a start, it really is small, waiting out its sentence on a saucer from an espresso cup.

i came across a tray of them this morning in the deli counter of norton street grocer, past the great wall of boxed-up panettone, the $4 punnets of fat raspberries, the cheeses…

[ ok, so i didn’t make it past the cheeses; there is right now a fior de latte mozzarella as big as a baby’s head, in a tub in my fridge. oh, and i didn’t actually make it past the raspberries either. ]

what it is: creamy, salty cheese, rolled up in a slice of grilled eggplant, rolled up in a slice of prosciutto, immersed in red-and-green-flecked olive oil. it was about all i could manage for lunch on this crazyhot day (aside from a wedge of chorizo baguette topped with sliced tomatoes, ha!).

about all the kid managed was a mini ice cream cone of sara lee’s finest french vanilla, rolled in coloured sprinkles and studded with raspberries.