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?
