Today I was able to sort out the Marinated Artichoke recipe.
What you’ll need:
Marinated Sicilian Artichokes Recipe
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”
Menza – Catania
Menza is a cool little restaurant in downtown Catania that has every traditional Sicilian dish… and the best part is that its all ready to go! You walk into a room of glass cases stuffed with all sorts of Sicilian delicacies. The dishes range from antipasti like octopus salad (Insalata di Polpo) all the way through to secondi like Palermo style swordfish (Pesce Spada Palermitana). Also one whole side of the place is dedicated to the sweets! Very cool place that I Continue reading “Menza – Catania”
Restaurante Degli Amici – Misterbianco
Not a lot of food choices in the Sigonella area. The couple of options get pretty old pretty quickly after a while. Luckily my friend Mario showed me Restaurante Degli Amici in Misterbianco for a change up every once in a while. Its a bit of a drive compared to the other options, but it has a great antipasti bar! Most antipasti bars that I have found look like they have been stranded for days with unappetizing food. At Restaurante Degli Amici they make it their centerpiece, which is more traditional of a Sicilian restaurant. They also have some great fresh seafood primi and secondi, including the best calamaretti that I have had so far. I know what your thinking… I think Nick just made a typo with calamaretti .. but its the word for baby calamari. They fry them just like normal calamari and they are delicious. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of pictures but they are below:
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:
Sicilian in San Diego?
What I found surprising before moving to Sicily is that there is a lot of Sicilian presence in San Diego. Most of the Little Italy places have roots with Sicilian families that immigrated to the States way back when. The story as I heard it was that they all moved to San Francisco, but the great earthquake of 1906 scared them all down to San Diego. In San Diego they found a better climate and great fishing. This lead to Little Italy becoming a mecca for tuna fishing and canning.
Before we moved out here I would talk to some of the Sicilians at Filipi’s in Little Italy. They told me of certain places to see and where to stay away from the mafia folks. They definitely glorified the mafia image a bit, probably due to the many Hollywood movies and such. The reality is that we haven’t had any kind of “experience” with any type of mafia and we feel safer here than San Diego.
I digress… I receive mail from local San Diego places still that have my forwarded address. Last week I received a flyer from an Italian restaurant in San Diego called Il Fornaio. They have this cool routine where they focus on certain regions of Italy and Sicily came up on this flyer. I thought it was really cool to see this from here in Sicily! The menu looks pretty legit and the wines that they imported are definitely some of the popular wines that we drink out here. Unfortunately there is a bit of delay in mail to get here in Sicily so the event is over at the restaurant, but if your in the area and want a taste of Sicily in your backyard they might still have it available.
I know what your asking yourself right now… what would Nick chose on the menu. 🙂
Antipasti I would probably go for the Arancini
Pasta I would go with the Calamarata alle Melanzane because this looks like their attempt at Pasta alla Norma, which is the main Sicilian pasta dish.
Secondi is a very tough choice… all 3 of the choices are very solid… but if I had to make a choice it would probably be the Agnello because Im a sucker for lamb dishes.
For the Sicilian wine I would definitely chose the “La Segreta Ross, Planeta, 2010″ .. its one of our regular favorites here. The only difference is that we pay $8 a bottle while Il Fornaio has it listed for $35. I know what your thinking again… ” I don’t really like this Nick character”… ha. But consider the fact that if you wanted a traditional Sicilian meal like this one you would be paying $1500 for a flight and have to risk your life with the Italian drivers… That upcharge of more than 4x doesn’t sound so bad anymore right?
What do you do with this fish?
I know that the Sicilians like to use everything…. and I mean everything. I see many different things at the grocery store that baffle me. This fish is an example. I have caught big rays in San Diego bay when I used to fish there, but I would never keep them. These little rays at the top left of the fish display at the store look like they have very little meat and the fact that they are red just makes me wonder…. what in the world do they do with these fish? Any ideas out there?
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”
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”