Tag: seafood

Postcard from Siracusa, Sicily: Restaurants from La to Scu-

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Above: Vegetable strata at Moon

A few more dishes originating in Sicily are introduced in this second part of alphabetized reviews of restaurants we sampled during our stay.

The first is braciolettine Messina, or spiedini. Thin slices of beef, pork, veal or fish are wrapped around a paste-like filling made from bread crumbs, parsley and provolone moistened by olive oil. The small bites are then threaded tightly together on wood skewers before grilling.

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Postcard from Siracusa, Sicily: Celebrating the bounty of the sea

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Above: Spaghetti a scoglio at Cod da Saretta

It must be frustrating to a traveler who only wants meat to visit Sicily where seafood dominates. For us, that was heaven. We were surprised we didn’t frequently order some of the dishes we expected to devour almost daily. Too many other temptations popped up on menus.

The first was pizza. Every city anywhere we have been, we are always on the lookout for Neapolitan-style pizzas. We even eat pizza in Austin once a week.

But despite the fact that Sicily has great pizzas exactly the style we love, we only consumed about three in two months. One reason was that the best restaurants and pizzerias, perhaps an over-simplified generalization, only offer it at night; the ones featuring it at lunch time tend to be tourist-oriented and often not as good. We tend to eat a main meal at lunch, one so substantial that’s it for the day. No room for late-night pizzas.

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Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Restaurant Alphabet Vol. II from Le to Tacos

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Above: Guava mole with shrimp and battered cauliflower at Levadura de Olla

Thalía Barrios Garcia is young, 27 years old, yet she has worked her way from a small Oaxacan village to own two widely acclaimed restaurants in the historic center of the state capital. One, Cocina de Humo, is intimate, providing a chance to observe traditional methods of cooking, but you need to make a reservation in advance. So we tried her Levadura de Olla instead.

Tomatoes. The gorgeous display of heirloom tomatoes immediately announces produce is important here. And a woman kept busy flipping fresh tortillas you know are made the ancient way, from dried corn boiled down with ash, nixtamal.

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