Tag: featured

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Murgo Winery

The weather in Sicily is perfect right now.  The island is turning green very quickly with all of the vegetation starting to grow.  Also it is too early in the year for the tourists to start their occupation of Sicily.  With all this in mind, Jess and I really wanted to explore and find a new winery.  We heard of a winery that was pretty close to where we live.  We tried to organize a little group to share in the experience, but it turned into an episode of herding cats. 🙂 .  So we decided to just fly solo and serve as the guinea pigs for the group.  Luckily we were greeted very warmly at Murgo winery and Continue reading “Murgo Winery”

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La Curva – Capo Mulini Sicily

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.

 

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La Banchina – Nighttime Pane Condito – Catania

My hockey teammates have a ritual of going out to get food after practice during the week.  Keep in mind that our practices usually end around 11pm.  This is another example of the difference in culture in that most Americans dont have a regular midnight meal. 🙂 One of the favorite spots is La Banchina where we get a delicious Pane Condito.  Pane Condito translates to “Seasoned Bread”, but the reality is that its a huge doughnut shaped sandwich that is thrown in the pizza oven.  You have all different options in terms of the contents of the sandwich that range from all the usual Italian suspects like pomodoro, prosciutto crudo, salame, and mozzarella.  Pictures of menu are below.

You can find many places that serve Pane Condito around Sicily and the Catania area.  La Banchina (Translates to “the pier”) is located just outside of downtown Catania (Via del rotolo 42, Catania)  My teammates seem to prefer this particular place and I can see why.  The Pane Condito has a great balance of flavor between the bread and the fillings.  If I need to be rolled off the plane when I return back to the States 300 lbs. heavier, this will probably be one of the reasons.   When in Sicily right?

Click on the first image below for the slideshow

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New Pages On SicilyCiao

Now that the site has established itself Im trying to organize it a bit.  I added 5 new pages to try and build some structure.  The pages will contain broad information about Sicily that I think is interesting regarding the food and culture we are surrounded by.  These pages will also have links to related stories.

The following are the new pages that you may have already seen:

You can access these pages by clicking the links at the top of the site.  Just look for the titles… “Sicilian Food”  “Sicilian Wine” etc.  You can see them right now if you scroll up to the top of the page.

Also you can access these pages by clicking on the links on the right sidebar of th homepage in a box that is labeled “Sicily Ciao Pages” .  All the pages are listed within that box with the links.

Hope you like these pages.  I will be updating them continuously… Especially the Sicilian Food page where I currently have all of the courses of an Italian meal listed with a typical Sicilian menu.

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IL Tocco – Acireale

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:

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Ristorante Al Cavalier Roxy – Catania

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.

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Trattoria Torre del Vescovo – Catania

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…

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Red Devil

There is a place that we drove by everyday on our commute home that would be filling the air with tons of smoke and great scents of barbecue.  We always tried to pinpoint where this smoke was coming from.  First its tough because at the same time Im trying to avoid multiple cars trying to run me off the road… and for kicks a few double occupied cell phone talkers on vespas squeezing in between the Mario Andrettis around me.  Second its tough to pinpoint these places because they are very elusive.   There are no signs or distinguishable features from one building to the next for the most part.  Not like in the States where you have a very well lit sign and a corresponding parking lot.  One day it was clear as day when we saw the big Red Devil outside… next was trying to find  parking.

The Red Devil as we call it (and come to find out other people call it this as well) is a Sicilian style fast food place.  No seating available.  Glass cases filled with all sorts of very good looking food.. all to go.  The star of the show are the rotisserie chickens that they cook right outside by the red devil. These chickens blow away the Costco chickens with some extra flavoring that I couldn’t figure out right away, but I found in the cavity of the bird after eating.  So for those of you with the Costco chickens as a staple of your American diet we got you covered out here… all without the annoying oversized shopping carts and 3 lb jugs of mayonnaise.   You just have to walk in and say ” Un pollo!”  and your good to go for 4 or 5 euro.  I also got the artichokes, which are growing in many of the farmlands around our work location.  It was a great combo that I recommend trying at the Red Devil.

Below are the pictures from my first time in the Red Devil, we have been back a couple times since.

Click on the first picture for the slideshow.

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Ragusa, Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli, and Marina di Ragusa

For our 3rd Anniversary we decided to put together a little trip to Southeastern Sicily.  We stayed at a great place in Marina di Ragusa called La Moresca and explored all around the area.  With our anniversary being in October we found all the towns to be quiet with all the tourists long gone! This made for easy travel between the towns and we were able to see a lot of things over the Continue reading “Ragusa, Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Scicli, and Marina di Ragusa”