SICILY..dining in 2023

Regional Dining Discussions Italy, Spain, Portugal
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I am a bit chagrined after re-reading this thread, how disjointed and out of order the entries have been.

Here are a few more pics, to conclude, of various places that I missed in the report, earlier:

Favorite cheese/salumi shop in Ibla, near Duomo…SALUMERIA BAROCCO:

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Last dinner in Ragusa; taxi was the only time in 3 weeks we felt we were overcharged…restaurant is out of town:

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Still would recommend, If you have car: LA CARPINERA

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CATANIA:

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Don’t have a corkscrew? Open wine with screwdriver and nail! Salina!

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Imagine, this is a fraction of the feast on offer at Fontanarossa airport, Catania…nnot so ad to be stranded here!’

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Alle prossima volta! Truly the most magical trip of my lifetime.

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Yum, everything looks so good (well, for me the horse doesn’t seem quite so appealing, but that’s my issue). Will your next trip be back to Sicily or…?

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Leely… Good question. Want to return to Sicily.

This fall, any travel will depend on partner’s recovery from surgery, scheduled for this week. (You can see him in some of the photos, an “anziani” with a cane, doing his best to conquer cobblestones, steps, etc etc. )

So, if all goes well, am thinking about return to Italy in mid-late fall of this year. I have this kooky idea about flying to Bari and driving to Senise for the peppers (but CAN I get these without driving all the way to Senise??) (The cruschi are the fried version of Senise peppers, as I know that you know).

So then, stay in Bari (how long; would love to read comments about Bari city here)) and maybe rent car and drive to nice property outside Andria (recommendations sought) and close to Minervino Murge, Montegrosso, etc. Easy driving. Fantastic food. Wrote report years ago on F-dor’s.

After that, all is vague: Drive or take train from Foggia north to Vasto or Termoli. Spend a few nights in one or the other. Explore a bit of inland Molise/southern Abruzzo. Larino in Molise sounds lovely, as do a few places nearby. And the trabocchi (fishing stations turned restaurants)

And then, either veer to the NW and drive towards Rome, or delve deeper into Abruzzo…
all very hazy at the moment and would love in put and will seek some on another site…

And if all goes well, return to Sicily NEXT year. After my successful foray into driving alone in Europe (southern Spain, last March; see trip report here), I am ok with taking on the driving and am going to formulate some Sicily plan, but have to first try to get something worked out for this fall…can we back and forth to each other about your current/just past trip? Thank you for your support here…

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I know how you feel about these peppers! I saw strings of the Senise peppers in Bologna in the central market so they must be available elsewhere than Senise itself!. Coluccio has strings of peppers occasionally (I bought some noras from one of their strings once) but I dont think there is much of a market in Brooklyn. The strings hung there for a long time.

Did you eat those Cannoli at Fontanarossa? And you need cannoli freshly filled - how long were they sitting there in that pretty display, I wonder. Everything I had there coming and going was terrible but I did not eat in every shop.

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I spent one night in Bari this recent trip. I could definitely see staying there for a bit longer, especially for a food fanatic like you.

If you don’t mind driving, your proposed itinerary sounds amazing. I loved Abruzzo but have never been to Molise…

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So I’ve been trying for 2 days now to post this next bit. Jen, I did not eat those cannoli (I knew better thanks to you, and frankly I think I ate only 2 cannoli on the entire trip) but will go on only if I can post this next bit…not sure what is wrong here but I seem to be unable to reply to my own thread here…

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Couple of last photos, these from the Hotel Signum restaurant in hotel of same name, in village of Malfa, Salina. I believe Martina Caruso is among the youngest chefs to receive the coveted Michelin star, in Italy. She was very young, and simpatica to the nth degree!

Here are a few photos of our dinner there, the only time we left our hotel to dine while on Salina. Extremely difficult for a mobility-challenged person to reach hence we took a taxi offered by the Signum at a much-reduced fare from the norm. (VERY expensive to take taxis on Salina!)

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Most memorable dish, triglie (mullet) that had been deboned and put back together (how??) (deboned and sewn up lightly, fried and then released of the tyings???) and then fried, served looking intact!

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Desserts were wonderful, as were the other selections. Lovely service and welcoming chef. But the issue of mobility of my partner put a little damper and made it a trek when it could have been a “fairly” easy walk from higher in Malfa. After a dinner there, we were happy to return to “our” place for dinner on all following nights-- PRINCIPE DI SALINA. But next year, inshallah, we will return; note that to book, the Signum takes a deposit in advance. In any case, lovely restaurant with accomplished and personable young chef!

And to conclude, my packages sent from our idyllic hotel in Catania arrived safe and sound within 3 days, despite the busiate being opened and, no doubt, tested for who know what (??)

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Next up? Anyone been to Sardinia?

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congratulations on a lovely trip and thanks for taking us along with you!
good luck to your partner with the surgery and here’s hoping for an easier trip next year.

ps I bet you would find some takers here on an outing to Norma in NYC

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Thanks for all the photos and reporting. You really make me want to return to Sicily–sooner rather than later. And great to see your packages arrived safe and sound!

I hope all goes smoothly with your partner’s surge4y and that he is on the mend soon.

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Frustrated beyond belief here…I’ve been trying for 2 days to add to this, and another thread that I started. I write in the reply box, press “reply” and nothing happens…just testing here to see if this posts.

Ok, so this did post…on my thread about the Cadiz area, I added lots of text and photos; are the photos making it impossible for the reply to post? Sorry to add this question here, but I cannot even find out how to begin a new thread…how do I do that?

And more important, why is my addition with pics, to the Cadiz,Vejer thread not posting?

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Wow, what a delicious thread. Sounds like you had an amazing time in still my favorite region.

I know what you mean about the letdown of being back in NYC. Not just the quality but cost. We just came back from Portugal where we ate our way for roughly a third of the price here.

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The “sweet couscous” reminds me of desserts I’ve tried in Kapadokya. Since it’s Sicily, however, I suspect dried fruit played no small role?

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The photos might be terrible, but the cannoli, no dice.

Do you remember the names of all the places you had cannoli? Rather, the ones worth returning to? (I don’t, so I’m hoping for some hints!)

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Yea, it’s fantastic. Go. Just not to the Northwest corner where the oligarchs store yachts.

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the convent version of (very) sweet cus cus I had in Sicily involved nuts but no dried fruits

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For anyone who can read Italian, or wants to look at more photos of LA MADIA in Licata, here is a recent post from a respected Italian food and wine critic:

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Went ahead and pulled the plug, so we will go back to LA MADIA, this time for dinner, early next month…

I’m spending three nights in a hotel outside Siracusa at the end of the trip–easy drive from there to airport in Catania…they have free shuttle to Ortygia…

Can anyone recommend good food, dinner, in the area?? The hotel is near Fanusa, which I have heard is not a great town…it’s south of Siracusa…

Sure we will go into Siracusa for one dinner…looking for ideas since have not been in about 20 years and remember DON CAMILLO se well because it is the first place I tried spaghetti with Ricci di mare. But recent comments are not good…

Would there be good places in the city of Siracusa, maybe less packed with foreign tourists?

Nothing fancy and prefer a la carte…open to anything…

Promise to write up details when we return late September…

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Osterie d’Italia latest edition is not showing anything in the immediate area of Fasuna. Sveva is still listed in Ortigia which we liked just enough back then. A local chef introduced us to Macallè which was our best meal. Enjoy

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Of course I read your report on Macalle!!!

Also found this (Katie Parla) …not a horrible drive from Marina di Ragusa during first part of trip:

Looks like our kind of spot, no??

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Trattoria Maria Fidone sounds very similar to the homestyle Modican place we loved which has now closed. The food is land based and quite similar to that in nextdoor Ragusa, the town is fascinating and very worth visiting (as is smaller Scicli, just a little south).
There are also some chef-run restos in Modica that look really good, Im thinking of the two Accursio places. https://www.greatitalianchefs.com/chefs/accursio-craparo which were not open when we visited. this area is just amazing.
Not sure what time you are planning to travel, the inland region of Sicily is now under very serious drought nor sure how hard it is on the Ragusa province. which has a different geography.

As far as the Fanusa area I have been there without knowing the name since a nature tour i was on last year visited the area of Plemmirio and Capo di Porco last year in conjuction with a visit to Cavagrande del Cassabile, itself an extraordinary site, There is a viewpoint and walk around the edge of this huge canyon up at the top, tho hiking and swimming in the water hole far below might be problematic. Fanusa is on a peninsula, which is both rural and suburbanized with some commerce also; not a historic place but not for that reason unpleasant. Several UK nature tour companies base there at places like Agriturismo Pozzo di Mazza there (looking at the pix of it will indicate what the area looks like). I saw a number of festive seafood restos as we passed through the area but it is not super touristic more like a day-on the shore place for italians, which might be a good thing, but I didnt research. Driving down the shore we did visit the tiny fishing visit of Marzemino, where we enjoyed hot brioche filled withalmond or pistachio granita, the latter was really really good at a popular seafood restaurant on theharbor, Calamaro Portodimare, following up on a visit to the Vendicari nature reserve where we saw flamingos and spoonbills along with many other seabirds…there are beaches nearby though we did not approach (this was late March/April) As you must know, this very southen region is Inspector Montalbano territory, and the little coastal towns as well as Ragusa, Modica, etc are featured in the series episodes. I believe Porto Palo di Capo Passero is the southernmost point in Sicily where the ferries to Malta leave? anyway, I have in my notes Ristorante Scala there as a very good seafood resto. No recs for Siracusa or Noto, for that matter, sinceour 2020 trip to the area was cancelled for obvious reasons.