Hey Pesto!

I could give you a hundred and one reasons why I love Taiwan. Today is not that day. Let me tell you instead the two things I don't like about Taiwan. 1. Cockroaches. 2. Dog Poo. And if I were being honest I would add in 3. Mould.

So today my two pet hates met each other with reckless abandon, head on. When I was walking the girls to school I made the untimely realisation that they were spraying the drains today. Which means, spraying it with some dangerous chemical to kill things like mosquito eggs, cockroaches. Whatever. (4. Mosquitos, 5. Walking through random dangerous sprays). Well, I'm assuming it's dangerous because as we walked back from dropping off Tilly I had the strange sensation that there were an odd amount of cockroaches running around on the street (something you normally wouldn't see). And even more belly up, freshly dead. I walked passed Daddy's storage to say hello and wondered outloud what was with all the cockroaches, and he reminded me that the man was out spraying today. Now, cockroaches are pretty hardy so for them to be running out and dying all over the street it must be dangerous spray. No? (6. Dead cockroaches on street). So I thought to myself, let's get the heck out of here. And ran nearly head on with a big dog poop. Right on someone's front door step. (You know, front doors are right on the street for houses on the first floor and all) I mean really......

So I ran back to my little oasis and thought how can I erase that from my morning?? And here's how I did it:

I popped out onto my front balcony and ever so slowly picked the older leaves off my beautiful basil plants. Sweet, tender and healing. Basking in the sun, forgetting all the mess of the city, holding a bowl and filling it with the sweet tender leaves. And then equally slowly I walked into the kitchen and got all the ingredients together to make this:

And hey pesto! I called my chicks to the table (and the rooster because he just happened to be here today for lunch) and we tucked in to some hearty 'slow food'. I've been waiting for those leaves to mature and the others to develop so I could cook this meal for over a week. It was soothing.