Have a delicious Sunday / Abbiate una domenica deliziosa

This is known as pesce bandiera of flag fish because it is like a long pennant in shape. It is delicious just fried in olive oil and garnished with lemon rings.

Afternoon delight

All these sort of add and ends photos were shot in the afternoon to capture the light.
These are all from by beloved Castellammare and are all shot with the Olympus E PL-2 with the
kit zoom lens. This camera is really capable of outstanding image quality ans as a travel camera
it's unbeatable.

Have a delicious Friday of sorts / Un delizioso venerdi, piu' o meno

These two dishes are truly for the initiated of traditional Sicilian cuisine. The dish above is of   stigghioli, They are actually rolled up intestines that are rolled up and barbecued. To say that they are an acquired taste is an  taste is an  understatement. Along with sandwiches of spleen and ricotta, they are perhaps the most esotheric foods sold by street vendors.

Below are crocche' di patate or potato crochets. Although not at the same level of initiation as stigghioli, they are also an a acquired taste because they are very oily. 

Both items are sold by street vendors on the street of Palermo who are known as buffitteri or buffet sellers. This word dates back from the times the French occupied Sicily and were thrown out as the results of the Sicilian Vespers.

ENJOY

San Vito lo Capo

San Vito lo Capo situated  at the western point of the golf of Castellammare, was a small fishing town known for it's tonnara or tuna fishing outfit. It slowly began to be a major tourist attraction thanks to its not very long but superb beach of a very fine white sand .I visited it on a cloudy day, yes there is an occasional cloudy day in Sicily but it was a day when in the rest of Italy it was raining severely, so a few clouds can be excused.
San Vito lo Capo was recently named as Italy's best beach by a famous American travel magazine whose name escapes me. I prefer the beach in my beloved Castellammare better but I am severely prejudiced.

Have a wonderful Thursday and thanks for visiting

Vi auguriamo uno splenido giovedi e grazie per averci visitato

I love and miss this city

Being in Italy one of the questions I'm often asked is how is it to live in New York, what is it like, what does it feel like and so forth. Naturally, being a great fan  Being a great fan of the big apple, the city that I absolute love unconditionally, I find it difficult to relate what the city is like. It's great energy. it's diversity, the fact that one can walk in it's  disparate neighborhoods and seldom hear a word of English spoken, for example. Not to mention the myriad of foods and smells that accompany such walks. What I try to convey is that New York is not typical of America and if one came to the states and only visited New York, one would never  have actually set foot in America. By analogy, it's as if one came to Italy and only visited Venice, or perish the thought, Naples, just kidding, and believed that the
rest of Italy was similar.
While I'm in Sicily, the most wonderful part of Italy, I'm not kidding, I miss New York terribly. It is the only place other than my beloved Castellammare del Golfo where I wand to live and where I'm truly happy. In this comparison, Sicily wins by a nose. Therefore, I always go through my files and look at my photos of my beloved New York and then share them with you.What is interesting that In Sicily people call me American no matter what, while in the States, I am always Italian no matter what.
I can speak fluently, people ask me for directions etc, but to my friends I am l'americano. There's no escape. The same is back in the States. I could speak like John Wayne, dress up in my famous hip hop outfit, I am always Italian. I believe to have have solved this problem in a  way by calling myself a New Yorker, but they still do not get it. C'est la vie.
So bear with me as I post photos that probably have been posted already  shot in of my favorite parts of the city, Madison Square Park. To paraphrase
the immortal lyrics of an early sixties song. it's my city and I cry if I want to. ENJOY

Happy Wednesday / Buon mercoledi'

Limes, what limes

Contrary to what these citruses may look like, they are not limes but lemons that are found in these parts of Sicily. Although this lovely island in the sun has the best citruses anywhere, it doesn't produce limes. It's not that the land is not suitable, it's that people do not go for that limey taste, pun intended. So these summer lemons, so to speak, are full of juice and have a superb fragrance.Also, they were just picked. I only use oil and lemon juice as vinegar wilts the vegetables and adds a strong flavor. As for Balsamic vinegar, I simply do not like it at all. Too yuppy, too Tuscan and too full of itself.

Flowers, we have flowers

It's been some time since I posted flowers. I love shooting them as their perfection fills me with wonder.
Their infinite shapes, colors, aromas makes my heart sing. I realize that I'm becoming rather poetic in a trite manner and since I abhor anything
cliche, I will stop while I'm ahead.

And to one and all: Happy Wednesday / Buon mercoledi a tutti voi

Charlie

I want to share this photo of my beloved Chalie, my Louisiana catahoula leopard dog. Just looking into his eyes makes me realize what faithful and loving animal he is. He awaits patiently for my return as I'm counting the days until our reunion. There's really no purer affection than this.

Gnocchi alla sorrentina for a delicious Tuesday / Buon martedi'

Yes indeed, it's gnocchi time, This is the simplest way to make super fast pasta. Add boiling water to flower and work into a dough. Then cut into small pieces and with your index finger roll them toward you so that they take on that gnocchi look. These were made alla sorrentina, that is with a fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella di bufala added in small pieces. A parmigiano reggiano can be added after they are served. Delicious is an understatement.

Supermarket lemons

I have carried ond incessantly about , lu scaru, the vegetable market where local farmers bring in their produce. I find that most of the products here are excellent but was disappointed with their lemons. Of course, these are local but alas, this area of Sicily is not known for it's citrus fruits. Near by Palermo was famous for it's Conca d'oro, or golden Valley whose name derived from the golden color of the citrus that had a superb  reputation.Unfortunately , in the late fifties, aided and abetted by cosa nostra, this area was turned into high rise apartments that had the deleterious effect of creating a vacuum in the historic part of this superb city as people became attracted to elevator apartments. Fortunately this trend has ceased and the reverse is true as the old areas  are fast becoming gentrified. Enough digression. As I was stating, our local areas lacks great citrus fruits. The two renowned areas are the valley of Catania under Mount Etna in the eastern coast and famous for it's  blood oranges of unparallelled flavor and quality and Ribera on the southern  coast. This is of course the hypotenuse of this wonderful geographic triangle.

So now to the gist of the story. while in my favorite super market, I found these absolutely superb lemons that came from Catania. Wow, amazing. In this place people are so much into food that even supermarkets must carry excellent products if they are to survive. I thought you wanted to know.

Stonington Conn. [part 1]

As I have  stated several times in the past, this lovely town in Western Connecticut id on of my favorite places anywhere. It has become very gentrified now so it has  losy much of it's authenticity. It used to have a large population of Portuguese fishermen who gave the place  an interesting aspect nit to mention  a delicious fish based cuisine. The food was also cheap and good always a good combination.
I just love the architecture of the buildings with their bright colors.

Have a great  week / Buona settimana