Category: Culture

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Hockey in Sicily

Hockey and Sicily don’t seem like two words that should find themselves in the same sentence.  It’s hard enough to find ice for drinks let alone a whole sheet of ice to play a sport on.  Luckily ice isn’t absolutely necessary and luckily I didn’t leave my hockey equipment in the States when we moved here to Sicily.  From everything I could find online there wasn’t going to be a chance for me to play hockey.  This was a tough pill to swallow since I have played competitively for the past 30 years!! Yes I am old!   I packed my hockey equipment anyway Continue reading “Hockey in Sicily”

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Palmento – A Great Book about Sicilian Wine and Culture

I forgot to talk about this book about a year ago when I read it.  I just ran across it in the house again and remembered that I had to share.   If you need an new book or know someone that has an interest in Sicilian wine or just Sicily for that matter this is a good one. 

This book is great because it not only talks about Continue reading “Palmento – A Great Book about Sicilian Wine and Culture”

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Does the Mediterranean Diet Include Cannoli ?

Article: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/25/mediterranean-diet-cuts-risk-of-heart-attack-stroke-death/1943305/

I saw this article today about how people could reduce the risk of stroke by 33% to 46% if they followed a Mediterranean diet.  This made me laugh since we are in the middle of the Mediterranean and I haven’t seen a whole lot of health nuts around!  The diet around here doesn’t really fall into the rules of the “Mediterranean diet”, when they enjoy humungous plates of pasta as a starter eventually leading to a round of cannoli as a finisher at midnight.  Nowhere is this more apparent than at the beaches during the summer when everyone shamelessly bares it all in their banana hammocks and bikinis.  🙂  At least they are proud of themselves!

In fairness… the non pasta or pizza dishes are healthier around here.  A lot of raw fruits & veggies.  Also seafood is a mainstay in the diet.  The biggest change that I have noticed is the primary use of olive oil over butter.  The news article does touch upon this fact about olive oil being an important part of the equation.  I have noticed that I have been eating a lot more of the foods that I note above… but this also includes the foods in the “bad” paragraph.  Overall I would say its tough to keep on a healthy regiment here, with the choices at restaurants and the irresistible desserts! Luckily I have hockey and surfing to keep things in balance.

Should the name of this diet be changed??  Maybe if it was called the “Italian diet”… then I would definitely have to throw a red flag on that!

 

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Chiacchiere Season in Sicily

Chiacchiere is pronounced Kee-ah-kerry.  The word chiacchiere actually translates to “gossip” in Italian.  The treats are supposedly named this because this is the activity that people do while eating them with coffee.   That cracks me up that they would name something after that, but Im not surprised because the Italians definitely do gossip over coffee. (locally: cafe, cafe macchiato, cappucchino, etc)

You can get Chiacchiere baked (forno) or fried (fritto).  Surprisingly we Continue reading “Chiacchiere Season in Sicily”

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Chestnuts and Artichokes in Sicily

The fall/winter season came quickly.  In November we had a very mild month and then all of the sudden we woke up one morning chilled to the bone with a storm.  We found Mt. Etna with a huge snow cap on it already!  During this time of year you start seeing a whole new batch of foods at the market.  Chestnuts (castagne pronounced: Cas-tah-nee) are one of them.  On the side of the roads you will see this giant billowing of smoke coming out of what looks like  a chimney starter.  Inside they are roasting a boatload of chestnuts.  The locals love these things.  On my many attempts of trying them from several different sources (based on recommendations of locals)… they are all similarly bad.  I think that its the texture of the chestnuts that I don’t like.  They have this mealy kind of chalkiness to them that just sucks your mouth dry.  Sorry for the graphic explanation, but I hope that it made it clear…ha.

On the other hand Artichokes (carciofi  pronounced:  Car-cho-fee) are also showing up! Continue reading “Chestnuts and Artichokes in Sicily”

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Ethnic Section @ Sicilian Grocery Store

The Italians are a very proud bunch!  So much so that probably around 99% of the restaurants that you find here are Italian/Sicilian.  Im not kidding about the 99% 😐   Luckily I have honed my kitchen skills when it comes to Mexican/Greek/Chinese/Thai and the like to get our worldly mix.  Having access to the commissary on base is a necessity because below is the wide selection for “non Italian” that you will find at the local Italian grocery stores.  Literally we are talking one shelf that is supposed to cover rest of the globe.  Have you ever seen Uncle Bens Tortilla chips?!?  Well now you have:

 

 

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Sicilian Grocery Stores

I have had some questions about the grocery stores here in Sicily.  Its funny to me how people think that Sicily is a 3rd world country.  Sicily has been civilized hundreds of years more than the U.S.   Granted the culture is definitely different and Sicilians do hold onto old traditions.  One of these traditions are the local markets.  In America there are the large supermarkets that have everything under one roof, while in Sicily the majority of markets are split up into specialties.

For example nearby there is a great baker that specializes in breads and right next door to him is a place that has fresh veggies and fruits.  Granted you have to spend the time to go to each spot, but each has its own personality that makes it kinda fun.  And the quality of their products can’t be beat since they are dedicated to those products.

There are also big grocery stores in Continue reading “Sicilian Grocery Stores”

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Uno Anno

A couple weeks ago we hit our 1 year anniversary of living in Sicily.  Its amazing that we have been here this long… it has really flown by.  Moving here was a huge leap of faith in that I had never even been to Europe before moving out here.  Jess had some experience from living in Spain for 6 months with a study abroad during University, but overall we were coming into Sicily blind.

People’s reactions to our plans were Continue reading “Uno Anno”