You arrive by train at Rome’s Ostiense station and walk out to the taxi rank. There are no cabs. Some guy whistles over to you, “taxi?” You shake your head “no”. After twenty minutes of this the guy whistles again. He is among the class of “abusivi” who work under the table for a negotiated price. The reason there are no cabs at the station is that the official cabs are “in sciopero”, on strike. This happens a lot. So for 10 Euro he will drive you to your hotel. There is no meter in the car so he will get you there fast, sometimes driving the wrong way at high speed up hill on a one way street. Now he will either go back to the train station or use your Euro to buy himself a hot meal in Testaccio. This is the old slaughterhouse district and the specialties typically feature the “quinto quarto”, the “fifth quarter”. This recipe is my own take on “quinto quarto.” If you think that you won’t like tripe, you will after you taste this.

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