Il cibo della strada! Sicily is probably Italy's top spot for out-of-this-world street food. The warm climate, bustling markets of singing vendors (I kid not) and no-frills approach to cooking of this island make it the perfect place for street food.
Sicily has three markets, one focusing mainly on seafood and another, pictured below, on fresh produce. It is a truly bustling scene, with old men signing and yelling from their stalls, the grandmothers collecting the freshest produce, fish guts flying about, etc... A really wonderful scene, though.
For a snack we picked up this fried thing filled with cheese, salami, ragu and bechamele sauce. It was warm, sticky, ooy-gooey goodness. The Sicilians are masters of frying, whether its the classic chickpea panelle (chickpea fritters), arancini (risotta balls) or seafood.
Later we stopped by a cart to pick up another Sicilian tradition: meat in bread. Now I only say "meat" because that's about as much as they'll really tell you. There is a large pot over coals bubbling with meat, mostly stomach and other innards from veal and cow. The meat is swiftly scooped into some bread (delicious sesame bread) and finished with a squirt of lemon. These are good, but also INTENSE. More than a couple of bites and you start feeling weighed down by the fattiness of it all. They're tasty, but certainly not for everyone.
The man we went to came at the recommendation of his friend standing right there, shouting to us that this guy was the best in the world. So impressed that we could respond to him in Italian, they basically handed us the sandwich before I had time to say yes.
Here's a photo of the same vendor that night.
On our final full day in Italy, we found one of the best, and most unique, things I had my entire time in Italy. Most pizza in Italy is good (and if you're in Napoli, extraordinary). But it's always made the exact same way - dough cooked in a hot oven, topped simply and served immediately. This was something different. Full tomato pizzas were sitting on top of a sizzling black top. The man cut off a slice, did a few little flip things with it, topped it with fresh, spicy olive oil from the bottle, and handed it to us. For about 50 cents I ate one of the best things ever. The dough was super crispy on the bottom from having sat on the grill, but then inside it was soft, smooth, almost silky - perfectly cooked. It was topped with some tomato sauce bursting with freshness and slices of tomato, as well as a healthy dosing of salt, pepper and something a little spicy. These were incredible!
And of course, no trip to southern Italy is complete without plenty of gelato for the hot days.
