The Sicilian Day of the Dead

The "day of the dead" or, in Sicilian, "U juornu rii muorti" is celebrated on the 2nd of November. This is the day when the church remembers, with special celebrations, those who are no longer alive,. People visit the cemetery, taking flowers and candles to the graves of dead relatives and friends; and children find presents `brought' to them by the "muorti," their dead relatives send them presents.  As in other parts of the world, for example Mexico for  "El dia de los muertos" or Japan for "Obon festival", it is a day dedicated to life and the family. The various traditions of the "iuornu re muorti" express the Sicilians' strong attachment to life and to their families, both those who are alive and those who are no longer with them. This is especially visible in the traditions that involve children since they create and reinforce links between them and those members of the family that are not alive anymore. 

Even nowadays, in the days leading up to November 2nd, hundreds of little Fiere dei Morti – Fairs of the Dead decorate the streets of every Sicilian town and village: a tradition particularly evident in Palermo. Stalls sell typical sweetmeats, such as the queen of them all, the Frutta di Martorana (fruit made from almond paste), the crozzi ‘i mottu (bones of the dead), the pupatelli  biscuits full of toasted almonds, the taralli ring cakes covered in icing sugar, the S-shaped nucatoli biscuits, and the white and brown Tetù.

There are also toys of every description which parents can buy to put in the Cannistru: a basket full of gifts, dries fruits and local delicacies which they prepare during the night to surprise their children in the morning. In some areas, children also hide away any graters there are in the house, because the dead have the habit of grating the feet of naughty youngsters while they are asleep! 

Pupi ri zuccaru in the shape of Sicilian puppets knights  This feeling of physical closeness to the dead is clearly demonstrated in the symbolism of the leading players in this festival: the Pupi ri zuccaru or sugar puppets: anthropomorphic figures made from solid sugar and sugar strands which are used to decorate the Cannistru.  Traditionally, these so-called Sicilian puppets represented knights and paladins on horseback. Nowadays, however, they may depict dancers, little “dames”, footballers, or the children’s favourite personalities. It is said that this tradition goes back to a dinner given by an Arab nobleman, who, fallen on hard times, served up these little figures at table. This story gives us their name in the Palermo dialect: Puppaccena.

Let's talk about Sfincione, a Sicilian pizza.

Sfincione is a thick Sicilian pizza, originally created by the mix of pizza and bread dough. It is topped with tomatoes, onions, sometimes  few anchovies and grated caciocavallo cheese, seasoned with a dash of oregano. Outside Italy, the term "Sicilian pizza" is used to describe all kinds of things, but until the 1820s sfincione (loosely translated "thick sponge") was the kind of "pizza" usually consumed in Sicily, especially in the western part of the island.

With a spongy crust up to two centimetres (an inch) thick, sfincione is more like bread than pizza --which in Italy usually has a thin crust. The Sicilian term "sfincia" alludes to sponges and the spongy, meaning that sfincione shares the same origin as sfinci. Culinary writers like to wax poetic about its "ancient" or medieval origins. In fact, sfincione has been made only since the seventeenth century. The most important ingredient, the tomato, is South American in origin. It has been cultivated in Sicily only since the sixteenth century. The story of sfincione having been invented by some cloistered nuns may have merit, but nobody knows for certain.

Sfincione was created as special bread for Christmas's  eve and it has all the typical caracteristic of palermo's street food:
- It's soft (so eatable even for old people that doesn't  have more all the teeth.
- it's cheap, made with simply and common ingredients.
- it's tasty and its flavor is sweet and sour as such as many others Sicilian dishes. This is the result of the mix between white onions(sweet) and tomato+caciocavallo cheese.

Ingredients

For the Dough
17.5 ounces (500 grams, about 3 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
.35 ounces (10 grams, about 2 teaspoons) kosher salt
.18 ounces (5 grams, about 1 teaspoon) instant or RapidRise yeast
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
12.25 ounces (347 grams) water (see note)

For the Breadcrumbs
1 loaf Italian-style bread, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces caciocavallo cheese (see note), grated on the large holes of a box grater

For the Sauce

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, finely diced (about 2 1/2 cups total)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 anchovy filets, finely chopped
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand or in a food mill Kosher salt

To Assemble:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 ounces caciocavallo cheese, grated on the large holes of a box grater.

Procedure

1. Make the Dough: Add flour, salt, and yeast to a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add olive oil and water and stir with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains. Dough will be quite wet. Do not add more flour. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator at least 12 hours and up to 3 days. While dough ferments, make the breadcrumbs and sauce (both can be made head).

2. Make the Breadcrumbs: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 300°F. Spread bread slices on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until completely dry, about 30 minutes. Break up bread into rough pieces with your hands then transfer to a food processor. Add olive oil and cheese and process into a fine powder. Set aside until ready to use. Breadcrumbs can be stored in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

3. Make the Sauce: Heat olive oil and onions in a large straight-sided sautée pan over medium high heat until sizzling. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until onions are deep golden brown, about 20 minutes total.

4. Add oregano, red pepper flakes, and anchovies and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer then reduce to lowest possible heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until deep red, rich, and thick, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and set aside. Sauce can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to one wee

5. When ready to assemble, place a baking stone directly on the bottom of your oven and preheat the oven to 450°F. Pour half of oil in the bottom of a rimmed aluminum baking sheet. Carefully remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a ball. Pour remaining oil over the top and coat with your hands. Let rise at room temperature for 2 hours. The dough should spread to mostly fill the pan. Gently stretch and shape it to fill out to the edges. Let rise another 30 minutes.

6. Carefully spread a generous layer of sauce to within 1/4-inch of the edges of the dough, taking care not to deflate the dough excessively (You may not need all the sauce). The sauce will spread better if it's allowed to come to room temperature first. Add a layer of grated cheese. Top the entire top surface with the cheesy bread crumbs (you may not need all the crumbs). Drizzle with more olive oil. Bake directly on the stone until top is golden brown and bottom is crisp and bubbly when you peek with a metal spatula, about 25 minutes total, rotating once half way through cooking.

7. Remove from the pan using a thin metal spatula and transfer to a cutting board. Serve immediately.

“Cose Nostre” experience

This summer we decided to visit some exponents of the Sicilian street food culture outside the island. In Milan, via Chiesa Rossa 71, we found this quaint little coffee/rotisserie where you can enjoy a typical Palermitan atmosphere. Cose Nostre started almost six years ago from the idea of bringing a taste of Palermo to Milan. Here you can find everything you need, such as great Cannoli,  authentic arancine or amazing “panini ca’ miusa” (spleen sandwich).

Alessio, who is the manager of this nice place, told us a little bit about the mission of Cose Nostre. Since they started they tried to communicate through the food  that they serve the most authentic Sicilian tradition and culture. So, at some point, it felt as if we were in a kind of unreal culinary Embassy of Sicily in the city of Milan.

They serve fresh Cannoli made to order and they offer three sizes: small, medium and big! They always suggest to eat a Cannolo drinking a good glass of Limoncello or some other liqueurs with the taste of pistachio, prickly pear, almond etc…etc…

They serve almost all the different kinds of Palermitan rosticceria (pizzette, arancine, barchette, calzone, ciambelle, cartocci, cornetti…) sweet and salty, so this is a perfect place for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Alessio told us that sometimes they organize little events where with a small ticket of €10 you can have an amazing food tasting experience which includes trying the most traditional Palermitan food, including a glass of red Sicilian wine.

They also cook Sicilian homemade bread which they suggest visitors try with a bottle of their own extra virgin olive oil.

What else can we say but to recommend you visit! 

Catturandi Fiction

In the last two days in Palermo we had a TV crew filming some episodes of a new Italian fictional series. Its name is "Catturandi" and inside the group of background actors, they chose also almost all of our important vendors.

They decided to film in different locations and one of these was our favorite historical market, La Vucciria.

Vucciria is probably the most famous Palermo market. In the local dialect, Vicciria means “voices” or “hubbub” which is certainly one way to find the market – just listen for the noise as everyone haggles back and forth! It flows through the side streets around the Piazza San Domenico.

The Vicciria market is open Monday through Saturday from around dawn until 2 pm (like most of the markets in the city). All kinds of fresh seafood, herbs, and local produce are on offer, but you’ll need to go before 10 am to get the best options. Souvenirs and local handcrafts are also offered at the Vicciria market.

I (heart) Palermo

There is a lot of wonderful graffiti in Palermo. But this might be our favorite piece. We love it so much that we wanted to dedicate a whole blog post to it. We are not going to tell you where this work of art is. We are just going to say that, if one day you are lucky enough to be walking the back streets of Palermo's historic center and run into it... it'll be magic.

We Do Not Sell Culture — An Anthropological Adventure

Recently we received the visit of an anthropology student who interviewed us about our project and in particular our mission. He was interested in understanding which is the main purpose of our “service” and how it is possible to work in terms of donation, trusting in the generosity of travelers and tourists.

His questions gave us the opportunity to explain better our concept of hospitality according to the idea that all travelers usually are tourists but not all tourists are travelers. Palermo Street Food Tour, born from the idea that you can really learn a lot about a foreign culture starting from its food. Food is the base of life and it’s something that everybody can try and understand no matter who they are or what they think. Food is a universal language, able to communicate the most inner feeling of a society.

How can you learn, in a couple of hours, something about a place and its people? Easy, try its typical food, not only through your lips but even through the food's stories. That’s our mission!! Fun, culture, food, and beverage for an authentic Palermitan food adventure of 2 hours, provided to you without any kind of business pressure. You can buy/eat whatever you want without any obligation, you can try everything or just a few local foods.

And why just a donation?! Because we do not sell culture. Culture is free and must be like that because all cultures belong to humanity. Travelers that come to us leave knowing more about our culture than what a anonymous book can offer.

So no matter if you can pay or not, you will be always welcome to our world of “Palermo Street Food”.

Mafalda con Panelle

We want to take a look inside the world of Palermo Street Food from the vegetarian king of our tradition: MAFALDA CON PANELLE. “Mafalda con Panelle” is a special sandwich made by two essential elements:

1. “Mafalda.” It is a special kind of bread, typical from Palermo. “Mafalda” is a bread with a golden crust, it has the delicate and distinctive flavor of sesame seeds. 

“Mafalda” is moulded into various forms, including the “Eyes of Saint Lucia” and the “Crown”. Our tradition says that it is a bread with Arab origins, because the Arabs were the people which imported in Sicily sesame seeds - in Sicilian “Giuggiulena” - but, actually, is more reliable the hypothesis which says that this kind of bread was invented by a baker from Catania and dedicated to Mafalda di Savoia an Italian Queen, just in the same way of pizza Margherita in Naples.

2. “Panelle.” They are typical Sicilian fritters made from chickpea flour, water, salt, and parsley. 

The flour is dissolved in salt water and is mixed for long time with a wooden spoon, until it becomes a creamy batter. Then, this batter is laid out on a marble slab, cut, and in the end fried. The historical background of panelle is Arab. In fact between the ninth and eleventh centuries, Arabians wanted to implement the use of one of the food products that they imported from the East: chickpeas! They started to try different ways to prepare chickpeas  and one of the ways they often used was obtaining chickpea flour and cooking it like bread, but fried and not baked in the oven. That's way in Italian we call bread “Pane” and these tasty chickpeas fritters “Panelle”.

This kind of Street Food is native to Palermo but today is pretty common in all the western area of Sicily. In Palermo people eat it with salt, pepper, and lemon juice on the top. It is a snack or even a fast lunch and Mafalda con Panelle is considered a substantial meal, cheap, and fast.

Gustiamo Palermo Street Food

Our friends form Gustiamo in the USA were visiting us in Palermo, they wanted to taste everything! This is what they wrote about their time with us on the GustiBlog. 

Benvenuti to Palermo Street Food. Salvo Agusta, who speaks in this video, is your street food sherpa in Palermo. Watch the video and see what you are up to when you go to visit this enchanting city. At the end, Salvo will offer you a bottle of Champagna Vucciria, ie Forst beer, bottled in Palermo, the cheapest and tastiest, Salvo says. Benvenuti!

What a charming, knowledgeable and educated young man. It is a pleasure to explore the most hidden corners of the markets and the alleys. Salvo knows everybody and all the street vendors love him. Salvo will tell you with pride that Palermo is ranked one of the five most important cities for street food in the world.

Salvo can hold a conversation on the eternal question, even among Palermitani, of what “maritata” and “schietta” mean, when you order Pane con la Meusa (bread and spleen). Not my favorite, but I had to try it, since Danielle said it was delicious. Love you Danielle, but not my thing.

Not a problem, I have plenty of other street food in Palermo to choose from: pane e panelle, crocche’, rascatuni, steamed octopus (to be on the light side), arancine, spitini, sfincione. Yes, I tried them all. But I would not have had the courage or the strength, if I went alone. You need to go with the experts. Palermo Street Food! A completely different experience.

To read this original blog post, click here. 

Street Food in Palermo by Night

A Family's Story

We love when bloggers write about their Palermo food tour with us! In our last post we talked about an adventuring family. Here is the story of our epic tour together, from their point of view.

"We have tried many different angles when approaching history through travel with the kids. Sicily is certainly not alone in Europe with its vast, rich and layered history of conquests. We knew to really understand the complexities of the largest region in Italy, we would need a filter to help us digest the antiquity and navigate the culture today. We discussed as a family what we all love to do in Italy and EAT was at the top of the list. It just so happens that Palermo, Sicily is one of the top 10 street food cities in the world.

After a full day on the beaches in Cefalu, we headed to Palermo at dusk. The people at Palermo Street Food customized a tour for us that changed the way we see the world. They are volunteers that want travelers to understand Sicily by breaking down stereotypes of Sicilian culture through the most tactile travel experience we have ever had. Salvatore met us in front of the Teatro Massimo (Opera House scene from The Godfather movies) at 5:30 PM and our culinary journey through the strategic crossroads of Europe began. Salvatore explained how Sicily is not a melting pot where many people come together to coexist at one time. Sicily, instead, is a trove of thousands of years of history, and the architecture, infrastructure and FOOD of the many ruling cultures. As we wandered the ancient streets, he showed us places where the Arabian hydraulic systems are still in place and functioning today. We would follow-up that stroll with saffron laced arancini balls the Arabs brought to Sicily during their nearly 200 years of rule beginning in the 9th Century. We sampled pane con panella (chickpea fritters) and croquettes (potato fritters) that were brightly finished with Sicilian lemon as we paced the dark streets of Palermo. Salvatore spoke of the collective legacy of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, French, Germans, Spanish, Italians, and even the British as we tasted our way through history. Bianca and Henry were the youngest kids in Salvatore’s street food tour history to eat a pane cà muesa (spleen, tongue and lung of a cow sandwich)!

The tour  finished with a sweetness we never dreamed of – scoops of gelato smashed into a brioche bun almost too big to handle. Apparently it is the Sicilians idea of a perfect summer breakfast!  The following day, we wound our way to the resort town of Taormina to try some of the best cannoli in the world. It was made with ricotta from goats milk only and stuffed into fresh crisp shells while we waited. As we crossed the Strait of Messina on the way back to mainland Italy, the waves rocked us into silence as we chewed on the memories of the past week. The people of Sicily believe they are Sicilian first and Italian second but what we will remember most are the colorful individuals that graciously brought this island to life before our eyes."

This post was originally published on the blog Livology. Click here to see the original post.

The Best Food from Palermo & A Wonderful Family

During one of our most recent tours, Salvatore had the pleasure of introducing a wonderful family from Seattle to the street food traditions of Palermo. This family was traveling around the world. We would not call them tourists, the term "travel adventurers" is defiantly more appropriate! The family: Mom, Dad, Massimo and Enrico (both 8 years old), and Bianca (5 years old). It's not strange that the kids have Italian names, they are an Italo-American family.

The mother, Colleen, asked Palermo Street Food to prepare a tour that would be interesting for kids, and, in the words of Salvatore "what could be more interesting to kids that a nice story about kings, pirates and travels?" Actually, Sicilian history is a perfect mix of events and adventures and every street food specialty offers the opportunity to create a fun trip throughout the past centuries and Palermo's history! Palermo, history through food! 

What made this tour special was without a doubt the awesome kids. Little Bianca even tried Pani ca meusa and she loved it!! Enrico also enjoyed our food and him and his dad  shared a nice big focaccia! Mom and Massimo were a little bit skeptical, but when we arrived at panelle e crochette everybody was happy and they had a big dish! For sure everyone loved arancina and the tour ended with an epic brioche con gelato al pistachio.

Everyone enjoyed Palermo: its food, its streets and its stories! To quote Salvatore, "what a gift to spend the afternoon with these great people." Salvatore was so happy to know that the kids were having a nice opportunity, learning from the direct experience of life without judgment and prejudices. Really a nice family and what a great way to live life: around the  world! 

Palermo Street Food, an Infographic!

Our neighbors at soloSicily told us the best part about making this infographic was getting to eat everything after they finished photographing! But hey, where is the quarume and mussu e carcagnolo!?! Maybe the next infographic should be "A Guide to Palermo's Hardcore Street Food" ;)

The Trinacria: Symbol of Sicily

The Sicilian Flag

The original name of Sicily was Trinacria because of it's triangular shape. The origin of the name "Trinacria" is Greek but the origin of the Trinacria symbol is actually even older. Coins from the 6th and 4th centuries AC bearing the Trinacria come from the Asian Minor (around what is now Turkey). On some of these coins, the woman had snakes instead of hair and there is no wheat.

Sirakous (Siracusa), about 336 BC

The ancient Greeks however, were who decided to use the Trinacria symbol, which they had found on ancient coins, to represent Sicily. The Tinacria was actually not invented to represent Sicily! It came to represent Sicily within Ancient Greek culture.

The Romans change the snakes on the Trinacria into blades of wheat because Sicily was known at that time for its superior wheat production, it was the breadbasket of Rome. 

Roman Republic,  49 BC

During Roman times the symbol was stamped, in mass, on coins and became famous in all the world. In fact today, the symbol of the Isle of Man, located in the Irish sea between Ireland and Great Britain is a Trinacria.

The Isle of Man flag