//staring at me through their pre-pickling bath.
"Lamponi" or "Lampascioni" are a kind of onion-ey hyacinth bulb that my father loves. It's a specialty from the province where he grew up and while no one else in the house eats them, he stills buys big jars of 'em or, in this case, cases of fresh ones for pickling.
Now, where my mother grew up, "lamponi" are rasberries. So imagine her horror when my dad brought home his "lamponi" for the first time and they were these weird and bitter little pink onions. She won't eat them, and describes their flavour as "veleno" - poison. As such, they were one of few things in life I was never encouraged to try.
Last year, I finally sampled one and - just to play around with my mother - said I thought they were actually "pretty tasty". My punishment was quickly served as my father eagerly poured a few more onto my plate. My mother smiled and knowingly handed me a half loaf of bread.
