Category: Flavors

Postcard from Catania, Sicily: Path to sainthood painful, but it’s Santuzza’s day

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Above: Statue of Saint Agatha, affectionately known as Santuzza, in front of the Basilica di Sant’Agata in Catania

I wanted to do a “birthday” post for Saint Agatha (231?-251?), but recent world news knocked the wind out of my sails to the point I felt unable to complete it last night. But that’s not fair to Santuzza on her feast day, February 5.

Saint Agatha can’t be expected to solve all the world’s problems. The faithful turn to her for intercession so often; she already has a lot on her hands. The Sicilian martyr serves as the patron saint of victims of breast cancer or rape, and of wet nurses, firefighters, workers in bell foundries and bakers. Plus, Sicilians offer prayers to the Catania native for safety from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions of Mount Etna. The virgin martyr also is the patron saint of both Palermo and Catania in Sicily.

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Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: ‘Mea culpa,’ admits a wine-swilling trespasser

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Above: Racks of wine inside Beyoglu Saraphanesi

A full wine rack in a restaurant in Istanbul became a welcome site for determining where we would eat. If you are a teetotaler, dining options are more plentiful with much lower price points.

Of course, this makes sense. Ninety-nine percent of the population in Turkey is Muslim, a religion that bans the consumption of alcohol. Intoxicants are viewed by many as “abominations of Satan’s handiwork.”

This doesn’t mean you personally are forbidden from partaking; it means that those of us with a certain type of thirst must work to locate restaurants willing to pay the high license fees to offer beer, wine and cocktails. With its Muslim majority, Turkey’s steep sin tax receives high approval ratings. Why not tax those foreign visitors clogging your streets and your young people who already are over-influenced by western culture?

…travel, is flight and pursuit in equal measure. It is both the desire to leave home and the passion to find something new, to pick up stakes and discover who you are in a different landscape and culture….

You are both somebody and nobody, often merely a spectator. I always felt in my bones that wherever I went, I was an alien. That I could not presume or expect much hospitality… that wherever I was, I had no business there and had to justify my intrusion by writing about what I heard. Most travel… can be filed under the heading ‘Trespassing.'”

“The Hard Reality American Expats Quickly Learn,” Paul Theroux, New York Times, January 5, 2025

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Postcard from Oaxaca: Spots to savor and maybe crunch a few bugs

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Above: El Amu created a fresh-from-the-farm atmosphere in town.

Spotlighting restaurants in alphabetical order sometimes launches into non-native cuisines; Boulenc is an example of this.

The French-style bakery never fails to impress, and it’s a go-to spot to snag a jar of just-peanuts crunchy mantequilla de cacahuete. Salads are sharable, and the fired-up pizza oven turns out pies we crave after a week of more traditional dishes. Plus, a nice affogato – gelato drowned in espresso – for dessert. The restaurant also has a cafe in the Jalatlaco neighborhood, Becino, that we did not visit.

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