"Sea egg." Sea squirt. A small sea creature which looks like a knobbly potato. The edible part looks like scrambled egg and is eaten raw.
"Tuna eggs." A Sicilian name for bottarga. The roe of tuna, preferably the former, dried, salted and then weighted until the liquid is expelled. It is usually sliced very thinly and served on toast or egg, or crumbled into a salad. It is also good with fresh fennel or shaved into pasta.
Fly agaric. A type of mushroom, the classic red with white spots. Famous for its psychoactive hallucinogenic properties this is the magic mushroom and is actually poisonous to eat.
A name in Emilia-Romagna for the chanterelle mushroom, usually sautéed in butter with chopped onions.
A name in Emilia-Romagna for the saffron milk cap. It exudes milk when cut and is usually served fried or cold with a vinaigrette.
"Strawberry grapes." We ate these extraordinary grapes at the lovely La Locanda near Volpaia in Chianti. Guido Bevilacqua, the more than genial host, told us to help ourselves from the vine on the terrace and advised us to squash them in our mouths to squirt the thick, honeyed, almost petrolly, flesh with its great burst of flavour and then discard the skins. The more yellow ones were the most ripe and delicious.
