Found some asparagus in the supermarket downstairs – so cheap compared to New Zealand – 2.50 for a huge bunch of lovely slim stems. Tracking down starchy/aborio rice took some effort – had to go down to Union Square to Wholefoods. But it was worth it, tasted really good and we used some asparagus water after blanching the asparagus because we were wary that the chicken stock we’d got might be really salty, it wasn’t in the end.