"Made in Sicily" is a blog about italian and sicilian cuisine, my experience in the United States and the difference between these two amazing countries that I love!
My favorite part of the day? The happy hour!
In Italy you call it "aperitivo" it goes from 7pm to 9pm, you drink, you eat, chit chat with friends and it is always a good time!
My favorite places are those that serve finger food and appetizers ;)
In America... well, happy hour hours vary from place to place. It's like saying, it's always a good time to have a drink lol
Here are some of my favorite drinks:
MOJITO AT A LATIN BAR
BEER AT BARCADE ( JERSEY CITY)
APEROL SPRITZ AT SKINNERS LOFT (JERSEY CITY)
GINGER LYCHEE MOJITO AT OFICINA LATINA (NY)
CHERRY GIN MARTINI AT SATIS (JERSEY CITY)
BLACKBERRY CAIPIRINHA AND CHIPOTLE MEZCALITA MARGARITA AT OFICINA LATINA (NYC)
And these are just few of them ;)
Oh woow, now that I think about it, I need to take some more pictures to update this post, and it's happy hour time! ;)
Paint your own Holiday Ornament @ Jersey City Art School. Just in time for the holidays, this open door event is open to all ages!
Whether you want to stop in with the kids, or if you want to stop in before heading to the bar or a show.
Simply pop in, lay down some nice glazes and pick up your original piece on Saturday, as we must fire the pieces first.
$10 per ornament (less then driving through the tunnel) 3 ornaments for $25!
In my opinion this is an amazing idea for the holidays.
Think about it, at an affordable price you get to buy and gift an original piece that you helped make and every piece is unique!
This is what has been made, and what you will find!
Hand made clay decors ready for you to personalize!
Plus, if you enjoyed the experience and you want to know more about Clay Sculpture you should check out their beginner classes!
Beginner Adult Clay Sculpture Class to learn the basic techniques to start hand building. From the organic forms produced with pinch and coil to the architectural forms created with slab work. Let your mind and hands create and fall in love with mud! This class is a great opportunity to experience working with clay for the first time, or to reacquaint yourself with this wonderful medium.
Over the past three years, Jersey City Art School has expanded to four locations, renting studio space to 30 artists, offering a wide range of art classes, enrolling over 500 students and employing 20 local artists as instructors.
And... I'm making some food for the event :)
I am very excited! There is going to be a lot of food, not just from me, but also from the
Jersey City Pop-Up Restaurant, Katie "cupcakes" Vacante and Susan Lutin.
There is going to be a fundraising show and the artists showing are:
Ana Benaroya Thomas John Carlson Matt Caputo CPHARRIK Norman Kirby Ryan McCallister Ceallaigh Pender Joe Velez Murals that will be featured in the alley are done by – Matt Caputo, Ivan Petro, Norman Kirby, Thomas John Carlson, Blair Urban, Ana Benaroya, Gail Boykewich.
Lightdesign by Norman Francoeur in the yard.
Sooooooo what are you guys waiting for? This is going to be awesome! I'll wait for you there 6.00pm
And.. here's a preview of some of the things I'm making for tomorrow...
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 Cannoloconsist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastrydough, 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!
ˆˆ 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!
One of my favorite restaurants in the City! Italian food of the best quality... and of course, quality comes with a price. Very expensive! I had a platter or meat "salumi"and a platter of cheese "formaggi" the salumi were: Prosciutto di Parma, Cacciatorino salami and Lardo Ibérico the formaggi: Burrata with truffle oil, Ubriaco al prosecco, Miticaña de Cabra. Sooo good! Main course was: Ravioli with porcini mushrooms on a bed of pumpkin vellutata and truffle oil!
And for dessert a glass of Malvasia, a strong wine from Sicily!
