Local Treat

My pal Craig is a good sport. Me, I'm less versatile than he is.

On the way back from Dahshur, we passed carts of fresh vegetables for sale. They looked nice and ripe. Bright orange carrots, purple onions, red radishes, green artichokes.

Our driver drove on by several carts, but it seemed he found the pull irresistible. He stopped. He motioned with one finger. "One moment," he seemed to say. Off he went.

He returned with two artichokes.

"One for him and one for the missus," I quipped.

But no. They were both for us. As he drove on, he peeled off leaf after leaf and handed them to us with a smile and a nod. He motioned for us to eat, then tucked into his own artichoke leaves.

Someone might have murmured "Raw?" It's what we were all three thinking.

Craig was in the front seat so he was forced to eat lots and lots of raw artichoke. I nibbled slightly on many leaves, scraping a bit of crunchy artichoke 'meat' off the leaves, then tossing the rest out the window. Jake didn't even bother pretending after the first few. He just held and tossed. Held and tossed.

We all nodded our appreciation and took more when offered. What else could you do?

Craig shared a raw heart with the driver, holding the artichoke by its stem like a Popsicle. Mmm, tasty. Or was it? I didn't try the heart but the raw artichoke meat was not something I would recommend.