Caramelised fennel, however it's done, sounds fabulous. (I only discovered fennel this year; how is that even possible?) The dream is fabulous too. "Cormorant-coloured slate": wow.

(My friend Rosie lives in Edinburgh, and she knows a man who did some emergency dental work on Amanda Palmer. AP and Gaiman often stay with him if they're visiting; Rosie ended up with a free backstage pass to one of their gigs and eventually found herself performing a story in front of Palmer. I think I might have used the words "you", "jammy", and "sod" when I found this out last week.)