Everyone told me Sicily would have the best food in Italy. So far I have to agree. I must go back and travel there more to be sure. I flew here for two weeks, landing in Palermo where I found the best pizza by the slice I have ever had, risen with yeast from the air for three days. I basically got on a bus, and after much confusion and frustration with the Sicilian bus system, I ended up going west to Catania. I had no intention of going here, as I was expected by a lovely couch surfing host near Modica in the south, but I decided to at least get half way there. It was a great mistake as I ended up wandering into an amazing taverna on the way to my hotel. There was a miscommunication with the wine, and shortly after I was tied in to drinking a whole pitcher, for less price then a glass in NY. It was dark red, almost purple, and delicious. Then after a dizzying display of tasty little appetizers on a plate I was shocked with some of the best pasta I have ever eaten. Fresh large macaroni covered in a helmet of thinly sliced fried eggplant, tomato sauce, and cheese. This was the fabled pasta Norma, the speciality of Cantina. The next day I finally made it to Modica, and stayed with a big, loud, wonderful Italian family for the next week and a half. Every day I ate with them, and next to their table, a fifty gallon drum of fresh homemade olive oil. They made cheese, raised meat, grew vegetables, cured olives, baked bread, and everyone always ate together. I was lucky to become friends with the mother, who I cooked with every day. I would teach her how to make a cake with orange juice from her oranges and her olive oil, and she would show me lasagna. One day, they invited their whole family over of forty or so people. I made lasagna and wild rabbit stew with the mother and daughter. I was then introduced to a good friend of my host, the legendary Anthony of Dolci Momenti, one of the best chocolate shops in Modica, the chocolate capital of Italy. He specializes in traditional Aztec cold processed chocolate with unmelted crunchy sugar. Rum soaked pastries, pastries with meat and chocolate, cake… I could not get enough. Well enough is enough, time to fly to Amsterdam!
