Must Try Foods in Scily! #Sicily #food

Buongiorno from our home in Sicily. We're going to talk about one of our favorite subjects and that is the foods of Sicily. And trust me when you come here to Sicily it is an experience in of itself. Try a lot of stuff. That's all I can say. Okay different stuff every day while you're here and you'll go home and you'll be dreaming about it for a long time. So what do you have to say? In no particular order we're going to start out with street foods and of course the king or queen of them all arancina and arancino. Here in Catania it's arancino. Over in Palermo it's arancina. Arancini is the plural. No matter what you have to try one when you come here. Usually they're stuffed classically with the ragu. That's a meat sauce or they can have the butter one which has ham and sometimes even peas. The spinach one and now they're also doing some with eggplant or salmon and stuff like that. But let me tell you stick with the classic and that is a ragu. They come in primarily two shapes. Allegedly one is in the shape of a cone. It looks like a cone and like I don't know if it's supposed to be a monad now and the other one is round as she said. Now there's a big dispute about how do you eat this thing. Do you eat it from the top and go down or do you eat it from the bottom and go up? Either way. Do you use a fork or not? Do you use a fork or not? Sicilians that's a no-no. You're not going to use a fork but over here it's really like the Sicilian version of a big mac or a you know takeaway meal. You buy it at a bar it's a buck and a half. You can't go wrong and I really think that you ought to start your culinary experience having an arancini in my opinion. That's just my opinion. That's a good one. Okay so speaking about street foods you know there's the markets in Palermo, the Palaro, the Papa and all the other ones over here in Catania. We have our fish markets and other markets. Something very particular in the Palermo area they have the pane con musa that is bread with spleens and how is it cooked? Well if you're adventurous. It's cooked in lard. It's boiled first and then cooked in lard and it's spelled m-e-u-s-a. And then you put it in between a piece of bread and eat it. It's a quintessential Palermo sandwich. What does Elfie think about it? I just don't have the stomach to eat it. Honestly spleen and lung and sometimes the trachea and you put it in bread and m-e-u-s-a is the same dialect and that means bread and spleen I believe right. So that's one thing if you want to try if you're from Palermo or you're from the west coast or you're visiting. Darn it all your ancestors eat it so you have to eat it. Am I correct? Now the other big thing over there is the panela which is chickpea bread and it's nice you know it's nice and fried although now in many of the restaurants they'll offer that here and the croquette which is made out of potatoes and also fried so you can get yourself you know a little plate with the arancina because they call it arancina there a little panela a little bit of croquette and if you love seafood let me tell you that these markets also have some great seafoods. All the markets really in Sicily if you go around you can get the calamari you can get the oysters you can get the octopus salad which is so good that's everywhere here in Sicily so that would be a good little taste of street food and let's not forget that here in Catania our most important street food besides the arancini is the crispelli well the crispelli which basically is like a fried dough for those of you ever gone to a carnival or a fair in the states fried dough except here they have it three different ways they have it coated with sugar if you want or you could have anchovy on the inside which happens to be my favorite or you could have with the ricotta cheese on the inside it's a quintessential catanese street food that is just that is just good it's a very good riso yeah that has the the honey drizzled over it that's a big one that's called a zeppole that's called a zeppole zeppole yeah or crispelli di riso the other thing here in Catania is horse meat now I know if you are in the United States Canada or other countries you may be sort of going no no no but it is something that here in Catania many people have they have it as a sandwich they have it as a burger it's sold in the supermarket so people do take it home but it is one of the things now I wouldn't say you know go out of your way to try a horse meat but I do know that there have been people that have done it and they said you know the experience was you know it's okay it's a very lean meat you know Wester I've tried it several times over the over the 20 years that I've been here maybe I tried it five times and I every time I bite into a horse meat sandwich all I can think about is that tv guy that tv horse Mr. Ed that I'm eating Mr. Ed I cannot do it I've had it like I just can't do it and usually when I do when she makes me do it as soon as the camera's shut off I have to like spit it out of my mouth I'm not a horse sandwich guy at all all right so listen if you're here and especially in the spring the summer the fall some places don't have it year-round granita a granita and brioche granita don't call it an Italian ice don't call it slush it's a granita it's made out of ice and whatever flavors pistachio almond when in the summertime you'll have strawberry you'll have jealousy which is mulberry you'll have melon you have different flavors now there is one place in Tarmina it's called Bambar and they have it year-round but most bars most cafes that you go to won't start until probably around March maybe April but some of the touristy areas for sure will have it it is quite an experience and let me just give you a hint if you try a granita in Catania and you're heading over to Palermo don't bother having it in Palermo don't tell them I said this or Seracusa no Seracusa they they do a pretty good no I mean other some places some bars they do it but let me tell you our zone we just make it the best over here in Catania Accio Reale has some great bars here in Accio Reale but it is one of the experience that you must have even if you take a bite you know I know people couples maybe take you get one you can get two flavors two flavors and have a bite of each now how do you eat a granita no not on a cone in a cup with a spoon and a brioche what is a brioche a brioche is a beautiful pastry it's sweet it should be served warm what you do is you take the boob off yes the boob off and you can put the granita inside or dip the brioche into the granita it is a must have in Sicily well let me just say one more thing about the granita before I move on to the gelato but in the morning time in the summertime a great combination breakfast would be a coffee or an espresso or a caffè americano along with a granita that's half coffee and half almond with a brioche okay now this brioche is very versatile first of all you could have it by itself a brioche is soft and it's delicious but try to have it with the different flavors of the gelato which by the way translates to ice cream but it is completely not like the ice cream certainly in the United States or in Canada or in Australia and I haven't a clue why but the way they make it maybe it's the milk that they use here and they have a variety of flavors I'm a more traditional type of a guy I simply like the it's called fiordilatte which is roughly roughly in the same universe as a vanilla okay and what I do is I take my brioche and I break it in half and I put the gelato on the inside of it and I make myself the equivalent of a I mean what is that called an ice cream sandwich right that'll just knock you out so that's those are the types and there's so many flavors from strawberry from from pistachio coconut which is really good now they even have ricotta flavor they have a bazillion flavors depending on the area you go right yeah but I would say if you're first time here in Sicily or you're coming back just try the granita first and foremost now since we're talking about desserts let me tell you that each town each area has a specialty dessert so when you go into these little towns ask them what is the local sweet what is the local cookie because trust me from town to town they'll have something different now some things that are universal must have for example sweets in Sicily's pasta di mandorla which is almond cookies or pasta di pistachio which is pistachio cookies of course because we have such abundance almonds and pistachios and another sweet that you must try that's quintessential Sicily besides the cannoli of course which you showed it's a cake called the cassata cake the cassata cake is one of the most important desserts here in Sicily it was brought here by the Arabs it has ricotta on the inside outside it has a layer of of marzipan or some kind of a sweet almondy flavor and it is a very important dessert it is eaten not just in holidays but it's available year round so a cassata and by the way last year I got to go inside one of the most important bakeries in the Catania area and I got a step-by-step on how to make the cassata but cassata even if you take a little bite because it is extremely sweet try the cassata here in Catania you can also get the minuzzi this an agata which are the agata breasts that are exactly named after agata yep named after agata which are the equivalent sweets but they're smaller I have one more thing to say about that too okay not that I want to pump up this little beautiful town but in my view the Piana di Albanese a beautiful town on the west coast of Sicily I believe it's the west coast not the west coast but Palermo in the Palermo area has flat out without a doubt the best canolo I ever tasted in my life that little town and then also Isola della Femina yep they had one that was so good I wanted to nail it on the wall that's how good it up some of them are good some canolo I'm talking about some of them are good some of them are just you know above the average in the United States no matter what you get try the ricotta ricotta canolo and last thing I want to say about a canolo up in nirvana di sicilia in in the the brody mountains no or what mountain is that now go ahead what are you trying to say they have this three flavored uh canolo it's called the digita di santa saint thomas I believe the finger of saint thomas you know how he stuck his finger in the wound of jesus where it has chocolate cream on the one side to go out there on the other side but in the middle it has lemon it's just a three flavored uh uh lemon yeah it's unbelievable you never had that no but I know they do have great it's great always also with the chocolate or with the pistachio but I say stick to the basics all right so now let's talk about the basics though I mean there's a bazillion other pastries over here a bazillion so if when you go into one of these pastry shops just feast your eyes on the major selections but I think those are some of the major ones that you should try now let's move on to some of the pastas because there are some pastas that are considered Sicilian pastas and must try while here in Sicily and let's start with the most important one here on the east coast and also all over Sicily but mainly here in the east coast pasta alla norma which is a beautiful plate of pasta with red sauce and fried eggplant and you top it off this is the piece de resistance with the ricotta salata which is salted ricotta and shaved and it melts in your mouth like snow and so you go different places they use different cuts of of pasta but make sure you try it with the macaroni macaroni pasta with the fresh macaroni cut you know that's on the east coast that's in the Catan up and down the east coast primarily on the west coast however the go-to pasta so to speak is the pasta alas with this with the sardines con sardine okay you in and little breadcrumbs some people put on breadcrumbs if you're from the Palermo area that's a you know you have to go there and you have to try pasta con sardine I mean it's just unbelievable but that's only two that we've named right now we can name 222 because actually that's available all over Sicily not every restaurant but it is one of the most important pastas of Sicily and what makes this pasta dish so great not just the sardines that it's topped with the breadcrumbs pine nuts raisins and this is the piece de resistance wild fennel leaves and so that's the pasta con sardine now talk about Trapani in the west coast it's more prevalent to have pasta Trapanese that's pasta from Trapani and usually they do the Pusatini cut which is a different kind of a cut that's very big over there in the province of Trapani mainly but it's available everywhere else and what they do with the pesto it's not with the base so it does have the basil and instead of pine nuts they use almonds so that is a very important dish over there on the west coast and also they have another important dish over there on the west coast it's the couscous try the couscous when you're in Trapani in the Palermo area in that region you'll find a lot you'll find a lot of restaurants with couscous on it they'll have meat couscous vegetables great fish couscous and usually come separately so that they'll bring the couscous and then they'll bring a nice warm bowl or pan or warm pan with the the fish sauce the the vegetables and some kind of a you know and some kind of a brodo which is a broth or the meat and if you're here of course in September for the couscous festival that's a great thing in San Vito Locappa so couscous is another believe it or not very important Sicilian food let me tell you about my two go-to's my two favorite go-to's okay because I'm more again I'm more of a traditional guy I just like the pasta with the olive oil and the cheese on top of it with garlic yeah ala olio e aglio and I put that's pasta that's a spaghetti or a long spaghetti a pasta like that and then I would have the olive oil with it garlic and now sometimes I like to put the breadcrumbs on it which is delicious and on Friday what I'll do is I'll brown up some anchovies and put the anchovies on it too that's and the second one that's also you should try is a lasagna the Sicilian lasagna here are memorable that's all I can say they're memorable so so far since if you go to the top of the show and you rewind it and you listen to all the things we were saying these are the quintessential things whether it's sweets or whether it's pasta I'll tell you one thing Esther that you won't find here or you may find them in a tourist spot don't ever try to find spaghetti with meatballs because that's not a dish that is traditionally made here they'll have a secundo if you want a polpetta which looks like a hamburger except they add in breadcrumbs in it and they serve it as a separate dish than pasta usually the pasta with the red sauce never comes with meatballs on it that's not going to be one thing you're going to find okay okay so now let me let me just tell you guys that you you really can't go wrong with the foods of Sicily unless you go to you know a really bad restaurant but even for you guys who are coming and maybe renting a place try the roasted chicken take it home eat it the potatoes pasta excuse me the potatoes in the oven these are all very good and the chicken here tastes differently I'm telling you right now it tastes like chicken it's very very good so if you're you know here for an extended period of time go to the supermarket get some ready-made stuff at the counter over there because a lot of supermarkets will have like a takeout or get a roasted chicken as I said now we want to talk about some salads that are very important here in Sicily and believe it or not Sicilians love their salads and one in particular is the orange fennel and onion salad that you will die and go to heaven and it's exactly what onions olive oil lemon sprinkle of parsley and it is so so good that's one of our favorite favorite which everyone knows about but that if you get a chance to have that now I can't believe we went this entire time on the show and did not talk about one of the most important side dishes and one of my favorites and that is the caponata the caponata is a very important traditional Sicilian side dish mainly made out of eggplant sometimes olives sometimes raisins sometimes pine nuts but it is a sweet and savory dish you can eat it alone with a piece of bread you can eat it next to a piece of chicken no matter how you have it try a caponata now the caponata not traditional base of eggplants they also put onions celery very important some places they put red pepper some places put carrots some places add different things but the point is the most important one is the eggplant along with that some places do caponata with swordfish so cook swordfish some places will do caponata when it's seasoned with tuna so those are some of the things that caponata can be served with but let me tell you stick to the basics try the basic caponata if you love eggplant I have I have a couple of interesting factoids I was researching this this week number one Italy in general and Sicily in particular lead the European Union in the minor use of pesticides in their their vegetables and their fruits okay it's I think three percent is is is of all the vegetables and fruits have a pesticide in them the rest of them don't that goes for the vegetables too the second thing is Sicily has almost 70 percent of its land that if it was located in the United States or Canada would be considered to be organic farming so fundamentally most of the things that you eat here are just so good for you now she didn't mention and I'm surprised she didn't mention her our two favorite things which can be used as a side dish or as a pasta or however you want it but that's either broccoli and cauliflower now you've seen the big ones the purple cauliflowers they call them the wedding bouquet and the broccoli is just unbelievable with soups and you go crazy with that but wait a second that's those are seasonal vegetables those vegetables are only around December January February March maybe also the artichokes so you know those you may come here in the summer and be like what is he talking about there's no broccoli there's no broccoli there's no cauliflower there's no artichokes because in the summer there aren't any but if you're here in the summer try the fruits I know you must be like oh I can get a peach in the state I can get a plum in the state trust me when I tell you these fruits will taste so much different even watermelon when you come here in the summer try a watermelon just get a little piece or get a bit and sometimes they're really huge there are places that do cut them up so try a watermelon I beg you but you're right now the fruits and vegetables are much better here they taste much better they're also healthy and less use of pesticides and you know I am sure I'm sure that you guys will tell us what we forgot to mention but I think that's a pretty good start of some of the foods that you should have here now let me just add that if you don't go to a and see what kind of sandwiches they have what kind of pastry and lunch items that they have and when I say like the cipollini which has you know that puff pastry with the onions along with the scotchada which is a very important food here too so explore have fun if you love fish this is your place if you love meat make sure you get the meats more up on the mountainsides so if you're if you're a simpleton like me and you like simple you know the old a jug of wine a loaf of bread and the type of thing right olive oil get yourself a chunk of bread make sure it's hot and put on it nice olive oil salt and pepper and get a couple of slices of fresh tomato and you put it in a sandwich and believe me that above everything that I've named here Esther is named here today with a glass of wine with a glass of wine is really quintessential Sicily simple and elegant now last thing I want to say maybe a piece of cheese and olives maybe a piece of cheese along with that and olives but but let me just say the last thing okay there are 10,000 other types of dishes that all these fancy restaurants have uh but keep it simple okay keep it simple yeah if you're especially if your first time here keep it simple and try a variety of things I think if you stick to the list we gave you just now you'll be just fine of course we didn't mention pizza that's a different story well of course that's the sine qua non of of of you know you can get a pizza here for under 10 bucks it'll just blow you away pizza of course you're enjoying this programming free programming on and you can do so by joining the community there's a button called join somewhere over here and for $1.99 you will be supporting our community another way is we have a spreadshot down below where you can shop all types of merchandise including hats aprons t-shirts hoodies mugs uh all types of 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all these delicious foods uh al i'm hungry what about you i think i'd like a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich what do you think actually no i'm not gonna have a peanut although i do have peanut butter and jelly i want to thank jim ingram who brought me a nice supply recently my dunkin donuts coffee and b green and dawn green who gave me this cup from tom and karen situate not skituate thanks guys for this cup i use it all the time tom and karen brought us stuff mike and jen brought us stuff we are all supplied up with all types of things it's great on that thank you guys love you every one of you grazie for watching ciao ciao