Street food

Facts and curiosities!

I'm from Palermo and not many people know where and how beautiful my city is.
So here are some interesting facts about this extraordinary city.
Palermo is the capital of Sicily, located south of Italy. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy. Palermo is over 2,700 years old. 

Recently VirtualTourist.com, a user-generated travel site, has compiled a list of the "Top Ten Best Street Food Cities" and Palermo ranked number 5.
Here's the list: 

1. Bangkok, Thailand

2. Singapore

3. Penang, Malaysia

4. Marrakech, Morocco

5. Palermo, Sicily

6. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

7. Istanbul, Turkey

8. Mexico City, Mexico

9. Brussels, Belgium

10. Beachside Ceviche in Ambergris Caye, Belize

Although I cannot speak about the other 9 cities I can share with you our amazing street food!

Palermo ranked the fifth place mostly for the richness of ancient traditional recipes and culinary history.

Here is some of my favorite street food of Palermo ;)

1. Panino con panelle e crocche'

Panelle are tasty chick peas fritters and crocché are made of mashed potatoes and fried! 

Panino con panelle e crocché

2. Arancine

Arancine or arancini are fried rice balls filled with ham and mozzarella and besciamelle sauce or ragu'  but there are a number of local variants that differ in fillings and shape.

Arancina con carne

3. Cardi e cacuocciuli in pastella

Cardi and cacuocciuli in pastella are fried cardons, and artichokes.

Cardi in pastella

4. Sfincione

Sfincione is a thick Sicilian pizza, or focaccia, topped with tomatoes, onions, a few anchovies and grated caciocavallo cheese.

Sfincione

5. Pani ca meusa

Pani ca meusa or panino con la milza . It is a dish typical exclusively from Palermo and it consists of a soft bread  flavoured with sesame stuffed with chopped veal's lung and spleen that had been boiled and after fried in the lard. It can be served with ricotta or caciocavallo cheese and in this case it is called maritatu (married) if served without it is called schettu (single).

Pani ca meusa maritatu

6. Stigghiola

Strigghiola are made of barbecued lamb intestine. Stigghiola is cooked on a skewer, perhaps braided with a strand of green onion leaf (scallion), lightly seasoned with salt, dressed in lemon and eaten in bite-size chunks. 

I personally prefer the version with pancetta instead of lamb intestine ;)

Stigghiola

7. Purpu
Purpu or purpu vugghiutu is boiled octopus served with lemon, salt and parsley, and yes, they serve it in the streets of Palermo lol!

Purpu vugghiutu

8. Cannoli
Cannoli singular Cannolo consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy ricotta filling. They range in size from "cannulicchi", no bigger than a finger, to the fist-sized proportions typically found in Piana degli Albanesi, south of Palermo, Sicily.

Cannoli

9. Granita

Granita is a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavorings.

Granita al limone/ lemon granita

Well now it's your turn! You should really go and try those for yourself! 

I'm planning to make Arancine and the pancetta stigghiola soon! So stay tuned for more!

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UPDATE

So I just watched a video of the famous TV show "Bizarre Foods" that was shot in Sicily!

I love this show, it's one of my favorite!

Andrew Zimmern goes to Sicily and tries our Street Food! 

Here it is! Enjoy, I find it extremely funny... this man has guts!