I just read somewhere that when we travel to Italy, we are looking to experience the flavors of Italy. Somehow we can't put our finger on what makes it different, we just know that in Italy, the taste is authentic, things tastes the way they are supposed to. A tomato taste like a real tomato unlike the store bought ones we get in our US supermarkets. Even those we get in our farmer's markets don't taste as authentic as those in Italy. Maybe it is the soil, climatic conditions and farming methods. This is especially true of Southern Italy and Sicily. I had the best tasting salads in Southern Italy last year. The tomatoes, carrots and the lettuces were so fresh and so sweet. One bite and you can taste the difference. One bite and I wanted to sing an aria. Then I read that Sicily is home to the sweetest tomatoes in the world. So this March I went to Sicily in search of the sweestest tomatoes in the world. I found it. I had the best tasting salad in Sicily. Some nights at dinner I had a simple salad of radicchio, finichio and romaine lettuce and it was so good. The tomatoes in the spaghetti a la pomodoro were so sweet. I don't remember a time when I had so much pasta; I have been to Italy twice before. I had pasta a la vongole, a la mare, a la sea urchin and of course a la norma and con le sarde. Vincenzo Bellini, the composer was from Catania, Sicily and his opera 'Norma' was a dedication to Catania. Catania, in return, dedicated a dish to him, spaghetti a la norma which is really spaghetti in a sauce of eggplant and tomatoes. I had a lot of that while in Sicily. I had a lot of spaghetti with sardines or 'con le sarde'. I had grilled seafood for the secondi almost every night. Some nights, I'll have a 'carne arroste', some mixed grilled meat. They have a way of grilling which is so delicious. I'm a teetotaller, a pity, so I didn't get to taste their wines which I heard is very good. I drank a lot of fizzy mineral water instead which was very good too. After a whole week, I finally got used to eating dinner after 8 pm. Like all the other tourists, we would be looking for a restaurant to eat dinner between 6 and 7 pm, only to find that they don't open till 8 pm. That was the hardest thing to adjust to.
Every morning, if my hotel didn't include breakfast, I would be standing at a bar drinking a capuccino and eating a cornetto with a whole bunch of Sicilian men. They would come and go, order an expresso, drink it in one gulp, chase it down with some water and off they go. Here we are, my sister-in-law and I, 2 Asian women among all these Sicilian men. I felt at home. I wasn't intimidated.
On the way to Acireale to see the duomo one day, we stopped at a roadside market stand and bought some pears and mandarin oranges. I'll never forget the taste of that pear. It was the most delicious pear I've ever eaten. It was ripe but yet still very firm. Wow! In Palermo, at the Vucciria market I bought some alpine strawberries for one euro. They were so good. In California I pay $5 for the same thing. I've seen them in France and at 5 euros, I had to abstain.
There's a huge variety of Sicilian pastries, the names of which eludes me. I like Cassata. Everything seems to be filled with sweet ricotta cheese. They make colorful fruits out of almond marzipan. Some desserts are made with pistachio marzipan and have this pretty green color and very delicious. They were celebrating Saint Joseph's day and they have this special pastry for it. It is a fried choux pastry stuffed with sweet ricotta cheese and absolutely wonderful. The celebration lasted a whole week in Agrigento and we couldn't get enough of that pastry. It disappeared from the shelves at the end of the celebration.
Finger food, we had a lot of - little pizette or mini pizzas and some kind of foccacia bread and arancino. Arancini are fried risotto balls with either a ragut filling or ham, cheese and peas filling- very delicious. The bread in Sicily is so good. I could exist on Sicilian bread and fizzy mineral water. In Catania, we walked a long way through some dark alley, to this restaurant which served pretty cheap food but we went more because we loved the dinner rolls and grisini (bread sticks) that they put out. We went there three times for dinner.
In Catania, we asked the hotel people to recommend a tratoria that is 'molto buono'. He did and it is a terrific trattoria, no tourists, only locals. We saw ordinary locals and men in suits eating there. When you enter, you see a display of all kinds of seafood, like a fish market on a smaller scale. You are supposed to pick your seafood, whether a lobster, a slice of tuna or a whole fish. Then they weigh it and charge you according to the weight and cook it the way you asked for. We saw this man in a suit, eating boiled shrimp for an antipasti and a braised whole fish for secondi. He peeled his shrimp with his hands, then when the fish came, he dunked some bread in the sauce and with his fork picked at the flesh and ate. Wow! He had an Italian suit on. It is fascinating to see how the locals ate. Sometimes we asked what they were eating. In another table 2 men in suits were eating some other unfamiliar food.
In Palermo we found a fast food place serving Sicilian specialties. We ate there twice. It is across from the Palermo cathedral.
I can't wait to return to Sicily.
La primavera Siciliana - it's a great time to be in Sicily in March. Spring is in full swing. Spring comes early to the 'mezzogiorno', the south of Italy. All over the island they have already harvested or are harvesting artichokes, lima beans and broccoli or it it cauliflower. I think it is cauliflower- it's hard to tell because they are not white but are green with purple tips. I saw squash and tomatoes being grown under plastic covers. I guess, because they need access to fresh tomatoes all year round. It has been raining and it was cold. It makes for good sightseeing; for walking around the huge valley of the temples in Agirgento; for climbing up and down ancient Greek ruins in Siracusa and Taormina and for climbing up 'La Rocca" (the rock) in Cefalu. In Cefalu, the rain was pounding down, the wind was whipping around this way and that and the sun was struggling to peek through and we were climbing up the rock behind the town up to where the ancient temple to Diana stands. There was lush growth all around. We still managed to take some photographs in spite of the rain. I looked at my notes that day- the birds are chirping and making nests in almost every tree. The weds are lush among the terraced seating area of the ancient amphitheatre. There are palm trees swaying in the wind, bougainvilleas of every color all over the hillsides, the yellow Euphorbias and of course the ubiquitous 'prickly pears' or cactus. We have the same cactus in California except ours don't fruit like the ones in Italy. The fruits of these prickly pears can be purchased in greengrocers in town. One peels off the skin to eat the very sweet flesh with lots of seeds, I've never tasted them. The local folks are foraging for wild green that appear for the shortest time in Spring. In Agrigento we saw this old contadino offering his 'pickings' for sale on the side of the street. Every where the fields are being prepared and the corn is already a foot tall. The almonds have sprouted green fruit. They flower very early in Spring and like in Provence, the time of Almond blossoms is a magnificent time. Even Van Gogh couldn't resist painting Almond blossom time. Each time I see his painting of almond blossom, it takes me back to my first visit to Provence, 5 years ago. Spring time anywhere is a beautiful time. I remember driving around Ventura County in Southern California one year, the whole place smelled of orange blossoms. It was incredible. The red poppies were so vibrant on the side of the road. I remember one birthday when my brother gave a huge bunch of Narsiccus and they were so fragrant. I won't soon forget this spring in Sicily.
