Siracusa

After seeing Roman catacombs we ate lunch at a nice cafe and were about to wander to the Greek Theater when it started pouring rain.  Our umbrella and rain jacket were in the hotel room since it was sunny all day so what did we do?  We had dessert of course.  And as soon as we finished it became clear and sunny again.  It was as if Dionysius himself demanded that we have another Sicilian dessert.

Candied pistachio pastry

Dark chocolate roll

Cafe Sicilia in Noto, the one from Chef’s Table on Netflix

We made a lunch stop in one last hill town to visit the famous Baroque Victor Emanuel Street.  But who am I kidding?  I really wanted to eat at Caffe Sicilia, one of the most famous dolcerias in Italy.  But first we stopped at a nice lunch spot for fried pizza, “pizzoli”.  They are a cross between pizza and grilled cheese, so of course they were delicious.

They also have an impressive display of cured meats.

On to the main attraction, Caffe Sicilia.  Sicilians have a definite sweet tooth. These desserts are sweeter than we are accustomed to.  They are not quite grocery store birthday cake sweet, but not far from it.  I would have liked to taste more desserts but we were ther only for lunch and I could not finish the two I ordered.

Cannolo di ricotta

Cassata

Lemon sorbet

Arancini & granite in Ragusa

A couple of more Sicilian specialty foods are arancini and granite.  Arancini gets their name from having the color of an orange after being deep fried.  They are rice balls stuffed with a tasty filling,  meat and tomato sauce in this one.  I even ate the peas inside.

Granite in Sicily is the same as it is everywhere else in the world, ice and fruit juice, but Sicilians take pride in the quality.  Can you guess the fruit?  Hint: a stack of it is in the background.

Modica chocolate

Needless to say I have been looking forward to visiting the small Baroque hill town of Modica, the self-proclaimed chocolate capital of Sicily.  They are known for their unique historical methods of making chocolate, which originates from the methods used by the Aztecs using a cold press process to extract the cocoa butter from the roasted beans.  Granulated sugar is added and a result of the cold processing is that the sugar does not melt into the chocolate, resulting in a grainy texture with a sweet aftertaste.  Notice the sugar granules in the picture below.  This does not compromise the deep, rich flavor of the chocolate.

Italian hot chocolate is a thick, rich mixture made with lots of chocolate pieces and not powder.  It is so thick that a spoon rests on top of the chocolate.  It is almost as thick as American pudding, but definitely has a deeper, richer flavor.

 When it comes to desserts Modica is not a chocolate colored one-trick pony.  Witness the artful marzipan pastry in the form of a pepper.  All sorts of fruit and vegetable shapes were made to choose from.  Tom’s cream filled croissant was delicious as well.

Modica almond cookies from our hotel breakfast.  They taste as good as they look. 

Another cannolo and thick hot chocolate

Gelato

I am pleasantly surprised that the Maltese gelato is every bit as good as the Italian.  Although, it does payoff to research to know where to go.  Amorino in Valletta is quite good, but Vanilla+ Gelateria Artigianale in Victoria is truly excellent.  Let’s see if I can recount the flavors.  (Note that at least two flavors were had for every gelato serving.)

Chocolate (many, many times)
Vanilla
Mango
Blueberry cheesecake
Lemon
Raspberry
Coconut
Caramel
Pistachio
Pear
Watermelon (sounds odd, but one of the best flavors)
Banoffee (banana and toffee)
Grapefruit
Ginger and cinnamon
Hazelnut

Chocolate & Pistachio

Missed a few.

Victoria, Gozo, Malta

A traditional pastry of Malta is pastizzi, an almond shaped puff pastry wrapping either ricotta cheese or mushy peas.  Since it would take a professional staff from an insane asylum to restrain me enough to force me to eat peas I have been having the ricotta variety.  They are tasty, but you don’t have to visit Malta to know what they taste like.  They taste like ricotta and puff pastry.  I also had an espresso lungo, which is a bit shocking for me.  I don’t know the difference between an espresso and an espresso lungo even though I asked the waitress.  I have a knack for eliciting confusing expressions from the restaurant workers here for asking silly questions about the food and drink they serve.  It has happened at least three times already.

Our last meal on Gozo was my best (but not Tom’s).  Ta’ Rikardu, named after the owner, sits inside the old fortified city Cittadella in the heart of Victoria.  We started with a really good local beer, a white ale made by Lord Chamblay.  The British brought beer to the island in the late 1700s and this brewery is on par with a good microbrewery in the U.S.  Lunch was goat cooked in white wine with potatoes seasoned with anise and fennel seed.  The downside of goat is picking around the bones but that also gives the meat its flavor so it is worth it.

Vittoriosa, Malta (aka Birgu)

Lunch:  Osteria VE

Have you ever eaten a meal in the middle of a steep stairway?  After today, we have. This quaintest of quaint restaurants is owned by a Venetian couple that makes food simply using fresh ingredients.  Tom had the gnocchi in tomato ragù while I had the bogoli pasta (thick spaghetti noodles) in duck ragù.  When I ordered the bogoli the owner/waiter kissed his fingers in approval in the Italian way to say that this is the best.  He added that it is a specialty dish of Venice so I made sure I finished it.

Bigoli pasta in duck ragù (gnocchi in back)

Valetta, Malta - Day 2

Dinner:  Nenu, The Artisan Baker (Maltese cuisine)

This is a bakery turned restaurant in honor of Nenu, a well-known Maltese baker.  The Maltese (as well as many other countries I have been to) are proud of their high quality bread baking.  This restaurant is better known for their Maltese flatbread topped with unique ingredients but since we ate pizza yesterday Tom had the sea bass in a lemon herb and white wine sauce and I had the pork cheeks braised in a fig, rosemary and red wine sauce.  Both were delicious and the pork cheeks were quite tender.  The fig flavor was prominent and the fig seeds added an interesting texture, one that I liked.  

Dessert:  Amorino (again)

I had the chocolate sorbetto & raspberry gelato.  Yum!  This was an excellent flavor combination that was even better when I tasted both at the same time.  Tom had blueberry cheesecake and coconut. 

For chocolate I prefer the sorbetto over the gelato because the intense, complex flavor of the dark chocolate is completely preserved without compromising the creamy texture. Dairy based gelato mutes the flavor just enough to notice.  Making it at home is easier as well because an ice cream mixer or freezer bowl is not needed.  David Leibovitz has a really good recipe, by the way.  Be sure to use good chocolate!

Tom flaunting his gelato in front of a jealous woman.

Have you ever seen a gelato burger before?  Not one person was having this.  I think it is their attempt at creating their own version of the Sicilian tradition of serving gelato on a brioche roll. Their marketing might need some work.

Valetta, Malta

After arriving in the early evening our only mission was to drink and eat.  The drinking was to tide us over until the restaurants opened at 7.  Our first stop was at the Cheeky Monkey for a beer... or two... each.  Had we noticed earlier we would have gotten the binge-drink special.  Not really, but, remarkably, they do offer this.  Check out the menu options.  4th Hour onwards?!  

After not getting tanked we went to Sotto Pizzeria, which serves excellent pizza with a light, tender crust.  Ours was topped with mozzarella buffala and prosciutto.  The mozzarella was put on top cold in large chunks after the pizza was cooked.  I never would have thought to do this but this let us taste the cheese really well, which is what should be done when eating this flavorful version of mozzarella. 

The perfect night cap to excellent pizza is... gelato, of course.  Amorino Gelato specializes in organic, high quality ingredients and they make it look delicious by shaping the gelato in the cones into the shape of a rose.  Tom was more concerned with how it tasted and turned this artful gelato rose into a memory in a micro-minute. 

Chocolate sorbetto and lemon sorbetto

Mango gelato, chocolate sorbetto and vanilla gelato

Amsterdam

This is an anticlimactic start to the food blog.  Due to decisions heavily influenced by jet lag and circumstance we had hot dogs and burgers in our day in Amsterdam.  Though not all was lost since we ended the day with a couple of beers from Brouwereij T’ij, a fantastic brewery in Amsterdam.  I was hoping for the Zatte, the best Belgian style Tripel I ever quaffed, but settled for the Natte, their Belgian Dubbel.  Still really good but we I will seek out hunt down the Zatte on our evening in Amsterdam before returning home.