Pottering in Palermo

After such a long hiatus in exploration, it feels right that the first blog in two years should be about a food tour, since this is one of my favourite travel indulgences!!

On a seaside trip to Sicily, we took a couple of days out from the peace and quiet of Trabia to explore Palermo. Our guide book wasn’t exactly kind in its introduction to the city, but we love bustle so decided to give it a go. We left the car and took the train, because we’re not quite mad enough to face driving in an Italian city. Day one consisted of numerous spritzes and a lot of walking as we explored what, in my opinion, is a buzzing, exciting, interesting and often beautiful metropolis.

One of the more positive things the guidebook had to say about Palermo was about the street food, and it recommended Streaty as the company to introduce them. So we arrived at the lions outside Teatro Massimo to meet Marco, company founder and our guide for the tour. From here, our little party of Brits and Germans headed to Capo market to start our tour.

Marco seemed to know everyone in the market by name, and we were welcomed warmly like friends everywhere we went, being allowed ‘behind the scenes’ to look into the kitchens of the stalls whose wares we would try. Our first selection of delights came from the family run Arianna Frigitorria, a ‘fryeria’ where everything served is, unsurprisingly, deep fried!.

Cazzilli, little balls of potato with a hint of mint; chickpea fritters called panelle; arancina (no, not a typo) filled with a traditional ragu bianco of veal, onion, carrot and peas, wrapped in saffron flavoured rice and uber crisp breadcrumbs; and a little added extra because I’d asked about the vegetable I’d seen being sold across Sicily but didn’t recognise, fried cardoons.

Deep fried cardoons, a green leafy vegetable

All of this was washed down with Forst, a Sicilian-brewed lager that tasted great alongside all of the deep fried bites.

We moved on through the market, sampling olives, chatting to stall holders, and meeting many a local character as we went. The market was just re-awakening after several days of closure following the death of one of the long-time fishmongers, lost to the Covid pandemic. This was a stark reminder that all is not yet ‘normal’.

Next stop was to try something we certainly would have walked by had we been alone, dismissing it as a slightly sad looking pizza, but sfincionello is a food stuff of its own. In a similar realm to pizza this fluffy base, topped with an onion and tomato paste with lots of oregano, is toasted to order in a compartment within the server’s cart.

After a brief stop for a glass of Sangue, a sweet chilled dessert wine, and another local beer, Stretto, while we nibbled on some delicious Caciocavallo cheese, it was time to move on to the most challenging tasting on the tour!

Pani câ meusa is a famous street food in Palermo. Consisting of sesame-topped bread stuffed with chopped veal lung and spleen that have been boiled and then fried in lard, it’s not one for the faint-hearted! The sandwich is seasoned with fresh lemon juice before serving, and for me this was the saving grace. I didn’t love the sandwich, but I certainly didn’t hate it. The lemon juice cuts through the fatty, offalyness of the meat, and I was happy to have tried it but won’t be rushing back!

A street vendor making the famous Pani câ meusa

The square where we tried our sandwich was filled with BBQ smoke, and from this source came our next, and my favourite, treat. Mangia e bevi, literally meaning eat and drink, is a delicious, salty snack of spring onion wrapped in bacon and barbecued. It was so moreish, and is the thing I’ll crave most from the tour.

Barbecuing mangia e bevi and other meaty snacks

Our street food adventure was topped of with a traditional cannolo (the singular word for cannoli), a crispy fried pastry wrap, stuffed with a creamy filling of ricotta and chocolate chips. Washed down with a strong macchiato, it was the perfect end to a wonderful tour.

A plate of cannoli and other sweet treats

Food Touring Hanoi

I’m a great believer in doing a food tour when I arrive in a new city. Average ones at least allow you to get your bearings and try a few specialities. Amazing ones provide you with an array of places you simply must return to before you can possibly leave. I’d say that my Hanoi street food tour was somewhere between to two, but it was also super cheap compared to those I’ve done elsewhere.

I was more than happy to start the tour by meeting at a market (I adore a foreign market) and for the first food to be a mini bánh mì – the famous Vietnamese sandwich. Vietnam is basically my dream country when it comes to food. Not only am I obsessed with Asian flavours, but I am also a total bread and cheese addict. The French influences here are therefore perfect for me, and the light baguette-style bread, in this case stuffed with pate, lightly pickled veg and herbs, of a bánh mì is the sandwich dream!

Stop two was for bánh cuốn, delightfully light steamed rice flour pancakes stuffed with pork and mushrooms. Just watching these being made is an education, and I suspect they make it look rather easier than it actually is!

Next stop was for bún chả: vermicelli noodles, a bowl of broth with grilled pork, and a basket of fresh lettuce and herbs. Garlic and chilli, along with vinegar and other seasonings, is on the table so you can adapt the flavour of the broth to your taste. Essentially, you just add noodles and herbs to the broth and dig in. I loved this food and will be back for more.

The fermented pork sausage at stop four was slightly more divisive but, whilst I probably wouldn’t choose it again, its interesting sticky texture was good to experience. And eating it in front of the mini Notre-Dame style cathedral provided a peaceful interlude away from the crowds and scooters.

Our next food was rather more refreshing, and even my often fruit-avoiding husband loved it. Essentially a tropical fruit salad, but with added elements of coconut jelly and sweetened glutinous rice, the dish was sauced with a combination of coconut and condensed milks, and it was delightful.

Our last stop was for the famous egg coffee, though being late evening (and given the reputation of the local coffee for being so heavily caffeinated) we opted for egg chocolate instead. This was possibly a mistake because it was so, so very rich, however, I suspect that the egg coffee may not have been for me either. Whipped egg yolks make much of the drink almost solid foam and more like a dessert. But I’m glad we climbed the multiple flights of stairs at this hidden cafe to experience the rooftop view and I’m happy to know what this much-talked-about beverage is like.

Our tour guide, Bing, was friendly and knowledgeable and I felt like we got a good understanding of some of the city’s food culture. A very enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Off the food tour, and just as an aside, we have discovered the coffee that really is for us, the version made with coconut ice cream. This will be our coffee of choice for the rest of the trip, and coffee culture is a big deal here, so obviously we’ll need to stop lots to experience it!

Airport Appetite

Airports are hellish, and are probably (perhaps with the exception of the tube journey across London to Heathrow) the worst thing about travelling. So I’m a firm believer that you have to make the best of a bad situation, and for me that means food and wine!

Today’s airport experience is probably one of my least favourite – the disorganised chaos that is Heathrow’s Terminal 2. The only saving grace is that, whilst restaurants aren’t in abundance, there are some really good places to eat!

Today we selected Heston Blumenthal’s The Perfectionists’ Cafe. I mean, the man can even use an apostrophe correctly so how could you not? We’re not talking haute cuisine here, but it’s quality, tasty and the service is good.

Since we’re on our way to Asia, pizza seemed like a good choice for a final farewell to a VERY grey and gloomy England. Truffles Culatello and Mushroom pizza sounded far too fancy for me to ignore and let me tell you, it was good! What’s not to like about truffled salami? And washing it down with half a bottle (perhaps more, so the husband lost out!) of Montepulciano D’Abruzzo was the perfect start to a much needed holiday. A pound even went to Street Smart, which seems appropriate since a good friend did a Centrepoint Sleepout last night to raise funds for a similar cause.

Anyway, I am now on board my Thai Airways flight, so I’ll tell you more about that later. Until then, wish me safe travels!