And a foreigner might become confused as to why, in this country, we entrust weather reports to meaty urologists or why so many people are black-toast intolerant.
Sausage, fried eggs, bacon, black pudding, toast and potato scones, ketchup, peanut butter, marmalade — enough finally to lure the boys into the kitchen on smell alone.
We unfolded our delightfully nonshedding black napkins, toasted one another and opened the menus.
I cut the crusts off black bread, toasted it, spread a horseradish cream on it and laid a little salmon on top.
Penne with rich and assertive pesto napoletano (pesto genovese with tomatoes, black olives, toasted whole pine nuts and capers) was simple but thrilling, and earns a souvenir plate (given by the restaurant association I Ristoranti del Buon Ricordo to diners who order a specific dish).
"I'll try out a black truffle butter toast at the new shop," he said.
"The Little Black Jacket," a toast to the Chanel jacket, brings the photographs of their vision to a coffee table near you.
The prize was seared peppercorn ahi tuna: rosebud pink slices, along with shavings of fennel, minced black olives and toast rounds.
So I did; and by the time I met Miss Edey, Clarke's beloved great-aunt, who burned his toast black every day at teatime, then piled it high with butter and jam, this island memoir had me hooked.
