Stir together yogurt and honey, and spoon it over some of this quince for a little bite of something sweet after dinner.
It was a pretty sweet deal: dinner for me and a guest at a high-end steakhouse in a posh neighborhood, and because my time was so valuable, I would also be paid $300 just to show up and listen to the pitch.
We wear pyjamas in the garden and eat sweets before dinner.
I'm not beyond simply gorging on sweets for dinner, but to create the illusion of normality we stopped for a 2 lira ($1.25) lahmacun, a made-to-order minced meat pizza.
Meals: Free on flights of two hours or more, including a muffin for breakfast, turkey sandwich with carrot sticks or chips and candy for lunch, or a meatloaf sandwich, a salad and sweets for dinner.
Vittoria was flirting with two ridiculously good-looking twins over glasses of the sweet after-dinner favorite Sagrantino Passito, and Bruno, who had brought me 16 black truffles from Acqualagna as a hostess gift, was patiently explaining to me how easy spaghetti al tartufo was to make.
You'll find standard market foodstuffs (local wine, honey, vegetables, fruit, baked goods, and mirto, a sweet after-dinner liqueur distilled from abundant indigenous myrtle plants), along with antiques and silk, cashmere, pottery, and leather designed by local artists.
No matter the occasion, the sweet after-dinner delight will always taste better with a touch of ripe, seasonal fruit.
The Sunday dinner -- sweet and sour chicken, roasted potatoes, heirloom tomato salad, green beans, cucumbers, cornbread, sweet tea, cheesecake and blackberry cobbler -- materialized while the women told family stories.
