Category: Sicilian Restaurants

There was an outing organized for a cooking lesson at a downtown Catania restaurant called Ristorante Crociferi.  I was lucky enough to get the day off of work, but Jess was not able to join in.  The lesson was Pesce al Sale (Salt Fish), which is a very traditional Sicilian dish.  This marked the first time that I tried the dish let alone made it.

Surprisingly it is very easy to make.  You basically make a salt paste with coarse and fine salt mixed with water.  You then cover a cleaned out whole fish with the paste and bake it.  The coating of salt traps all of the moisture and fish flavor and makes for a very tasty dish…. surprisingly the fish does not taste salty!

We had a great lunch paired with our fish. Thanks to Ristorante Crociferi for allowing crazy Americans to come into their kitchen.

Ristorante Crociferi

Piazza S. Francesco 14 Catania

http://www.ristoranteicrociferi.com/

Jess and I actually went to this restaurant back in January, but Im just getting around to the post.  Its not easy having all these places to go and then actually writing about them…. its a happy problem. 🙂 .   Im going to keep this short and sweet and say that this restorante is a great nearby restaurant for seafood.  Its a bit pricier than your local pizzeria, but you have to change it up from time to time.  This restaurant is in a town called Capo Mulini, which you can see from our porch looking down at the water.   Its in between Acitrezza and Acireale. During the summer this town is swamped with people since its right on the water and all the tourists are in town.   We figured this would be a great time to try it out and we got lucky with a very sunny and warm January day.

La Curva’s food is all about seafood, so if your not into that..  “foget abaat ittt.”  Luckily I have gotten Jess to drink the seafood kool aid so to speak and she is now a legitimate seafood person.  Especially after this meal where I had her try “Alici Marinate” (Marinated sardines) and “Insalata di polpo” (Octopus salad)… and she liked it!!!  The food was prepared so well that it is easy to like.  The highlights of the meal for me were the antipasti that I mentioned above and the Donna Fugata wine that we had.   My entree, “Cous Cous di Mare” (Seafood cous cous) was good, but I was really expecting something out of this world.  Jess had “Ravioli di pesce spada” (Swordfish raviolis), which she liked.

http://www.trattorialacurva.com/menu.htm

Trattoria la Curva – Via Nissoria – Capo Mulini – Acireale – Catania

Click on the first image for the slideshow.

Our friends Aaron and Ashley told us about this place and we were excited to try it with them.  IL Tocco is in  a great location of Acireale, the neighboring town to ours.  (Via dello ionio, 38 ) The restaurant is perched up high on a point along the coastline and has some amazing panoramic views.  Also adding to the ambiance is the feeling that you are in a giant tree house.  There are big trees that are growing right in the middle of the restaurant.

The food was on point and the pizza was the best that we had so far in Sicily!

Here is a link to their website:  http://www.iltocco.it/

Click the first picture below for the slideshow:

Im trying to catch up on posts.  I have so many pictures over the past few months that I haven’t been able to get to…. Slowly but surely.  This post is about a visit Jess and I did to Catania one afternoon and evening.  It was cool walking around town in the evening because the stores really come alive.  If you were to walk around Catania between the hours of 1-4pm you would only see closed storefronts for the most part.

We had a late lunch at a place called Ristorante Al Cavalier Roxy.  (Piazza Federico di Svevia, 51  95121 Catania) This place was in a great location right across from the Castle that is downtown Catania.  Right when you walk in you’re greeted by a super long antipasto buffet with all different types of items.  Good start.  Also of note is that there are many pictures of celebrities that have visited on the walls… sometimes a good sign.  It was a good lunch … not the best but not bad.  It was crazy how busy it got during our meal… when we first arrived we were the only customers and by the end the place was jammed and I couldn’t get a hold of the overwhelmed waiters.  It must be a pretty popular place.

Seeing the duomo and other sights at night was a completely new experience in our nearby big city.

Buon Compleanno Ivan!  I promised that I would write a post right away on the late night meal we had last night in Catania.  Something that has surprised me with moving to Sicily has been how late everyone eats.  The hockey team that I skate with is no different.  They usually go out to eat after our practices, which end around 11:00pm!!  My teammates have been nice enough to bring me along and show me some great food spots.  Last night we went for a meal that was a little more special because it was Ivan’s birthday.  All I heard was cavallo.  Cavallo is horse…. and its for dinner instead of beef!!

The trattoria is called Torre del Vescovo (via plebiscito, 754, Catania, Italy) and it is right in the center of downtown Catania.  This is a spot that I would have never found by myself.  In the general area of the trattoria looked to be several choices for late night food.  All the food was on display out on the streets with the hot grills nearby.

They ordered enough for a large feast.  Every dish was delicious including the cavallo that was prepared several ways.  We had cavallo steaks that were marinated to perfection.  My favorite was the polpette di cavallo ( Horse meatballs)… they tasted just like the lamb that I would get in Greek town in Detroit.  I don’t know how they made this taste this way, but it was unbelievable.

Im going to definitely come back to this trattoria.  It was a great meal and a great time with my new friends.  Also it was pretty inexpensive for how much food we had.

Please don’t judge me for eating horse!! If you tried it without me telling you what it was… you would love it too!  Also my friends ensured me that it wasn’t the famous Mr. Ed.

After dinner we went down the street to a stand where they serve drinks.  The most popular drinks that everyone was drinking are these seltzer water drinks, where they create sodas on the spot using fresh fruit juices.   The taste blew away the artificial flavored sodas that we have in the States.   Also popular were Nutella drinks, which tasted like a milkshake.

Click on the first picture below for a slideshow…

Jess and I were ready for our own adventure out into Catania.  Our plan was to go down to Aci Trezza to try a restaurant by the water, but along the way we hit some major traffic.  Everyone on Sicily was trying to get to the same area on this summer night.  Along the way we spotted a promising looking restaurant and we decided to throw in the towel on battling the traffic.  The name of the restaurant is Ristorante Cala Rossa and here is a link to their website.

It was only 7:30 so of course the restaurant was completely empty.  We exchanged some of our broken Italian with the waiter and picked a spot out on the enclosed patio area.  The menu looked great and was dominated with seafood.

I don’t think Jess will order her dish next time, but this was a great dinner.  A bit pricey, but the good service and ambiance makes it worth it.

The trip back home turned into an adventure.  We got a flat tire on the tangenziale from a big chunk of metal that punctured our tire.  It was a pretty funny scene as I changed the tired at a nearby gas station.  A bunch of Italians were hanging out having gelato and decided to gather around and watch me change the tire.  It would have been a funny picture.

While walking all around Enna all day we built up a big appetite.  We started looking for a restaurant that I read about called Trattoria Grotta Azzurra.  Somehow we were lucky enough to bump right into the restaurant, but like usual… we were waaaayyy early.  7pm is usually an hour early we have found with all the restaurants.  So we walked around town a bit more and came back around for the open.  We weren’t disappointed.  It was exactly as I read.  A very quaint mom and pop restaurant with traditional Sicilian dishes.

We were talking to the owner/chef/ waiter… ha..  and he was telling us that they have been in business for just over 50 years!  .. and I have a feeling they haven’t changed very much in that time frame including the decorations.  🙂  This place reminded me of one of our favorite “hole in the wall” Italian joints back in San Diego called Volare.