Caper buds. Capers are a distinctive ingredient in Italian cuisine, especially in Sicilian, Aeolian and southern Italian cooking. They are commonly used in salads, pasta salads, meat dishes, and pasta sauces. Examples of uses in Italian cuisine are chicken piccata and "spaghetti alla puttanesca". Capers are known for being one of the ingredients of tartar sauce. They are often served with cold smoked salmon or cured salmon dishes (especially lox and cream cheese). Capers and caper berries are sometimes substituted for olives to garnish a martini. Capers are categorized and sold by their size, defined as follows, with the smallest sizes
The Tartar Steppe the Barbarians", the title of which is borrowed from Constantine P. Cavafy's poem of the same name. The novel is described as the favorite book of the author of "The Black Swan", Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Taleb uses the protagonist of "The Tartar Steppe" to describe our human nature to anchor. Quebec author Gilles Archambault, in "Une démarche de chat: Notes sur une façon de vivre," says that this novel was a major influence on him. Other writers who have spoken of their indebtedness to the novel include Yann Martel, Alberto Manguel, and Tim Parks, who wrote the introduction to the