Lee Marshall’s Insider Guide to Restaurants in Sicily

May 5, 2011 by SicilyGuide
Filed under Food & Wine, Restaurants, Travel

Photo credits - La Madia Restaurant, Licata

This is the type of news that Sicily needs and we love when journalists like Lee Marshall write about Sicily in this terms. Even though we are not knew to this, it is always welcoming!

Sicily used to produce chefs for export, but these days more and more of the island’s culinary talents are staying at home.

Until not so long ago, the choice was between fancy restaurants (usually in hotels), tourist-oriented “folkloristic” trattorias and strip-lit local dives – but Sicily now has everything from Slow Food-style organic snack bars through creative trattorias, country restaurants and sushi places to a few high-end Michelin-starred establishments that are setting a new agenda for la cucina siciliana.

La Madia, Licata *Telegraph pick

If you’ve budgeted for just one splash-out meal in Sicily, make it here at this pleasant refuge in a nondescript (not to say downright ugly) southern town between Ragusa and Agrigento. Chef Pino Cuttaia is one of those quiet culinary geniuses who bases the dazzle of his presentations on firm taste foundations, and on ingredients that are (mostly) authentically Sicilian.

It’s difficult to single out one dish – but the arancino (a fried rice ball – the classic Sicilian street snack) in a sauce of red mullet and wild fennel gives a good idea of Cuttaia’s affectionate nods to the island’s peasant traditions.

The desserts are quite simply spectacular. Even with a good bottle of wine (and there are some great ones on the list), you’re unlikely to spend more than €90 a head – not a lot for a meal of this calibre. And you’ve got to love a place whose website is in Italian, English – and Sicilian dialect.

Address: Corso Filippo Re Capriata 22, Licata.

Contact: 00 39 0922 771 443, www.ristorantelamadia.it

Prices: Main courses from €23; full meal with wine €90.

Opening times: Closed Sun evening, and all day Tue.

Reservations: Essential.

More at www.telegraph.co.uk

Tags: La Madia, Licata, Restaurants

Slow Food awards 9 Sicilian restaurants

November 11, 2010 by SicilyGuide
Filed under Food & Wine, Restaurants

2 Comments

Slow Food has awarded 9 Sicilian including them into the guide Osterie d’Italia 2010. Here is the list:

Don Ciccio, Bagheria (Palermo);
U locale, Buccheri (Siracusa);
Trattoria del crocifisso, Noto (Siracusa);
Trattoria del gallo, Palazzolo Acreide (Siracusa);
Osteria Paradiso, Palermo;
Piccolo Napoli, Palermo;
Da Salvatore, Petralia Soprana (Palermo);
Fratelli Borrello, Sinagra (Messina)
Vite e vitello, Siracusa.

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Gluten Free Restaurants in Sicily

February 16, 2010 by SicilyGuide
Filed under Food & Wine, Restaurants

4 Comments

I have a couple of friends and some relatives with celiac disease (intolerance to gluten, a protein found in pasta, bread, beer, etc…) and I am aware of how troublesome it can be traveling without worrying about food. The wait staff usually thinks of it as another allergy, so the problem of cross-contamination (gluten-free food touching gluten) is usually underestimated.

For an updated list of gluten free restaurants in Sicily, check the database of AIC (Associazione Italiana Celiachia). Scroll down the page and select Sicily in the region field.

Tags: Food & Wine