Who eats well lives well. Unfortunately it rained almost every day for the seven days I would remain in Sicily. Fortunately, you can eat when it’s raining! I spent most of my second day in Catania relaxing in the hostel listening to rain fall on the windows, reading a book, and practicing my Italian with Josie and Antonio, the couple who ran the hostel. Also in the hostel that day were Adam from New York, and Andrew from Australia. As dinner time came upon us, 8:30pm in Italy, I was content to stay in the hostel and order pizza, but Adam convinced me to go to a restaurant he had passed earlier in the day. And so it was, the three of us put on our rain coats, walked once again passed the hookers and pimps, and headed to Antica Marina. Another twelve table restaurant right next to the local fish market. Walking in we thought we were in over our heads. As I asked if there was a table for us, the servers quickly discussed if they could squeeze us in. Standing there for a few minutes hoping they would say they couldn’t, the head waiter quickly returned saying they could and showed us to our table. By the time we finished our meal I couldn’t be happier that they had fit us in. We started our meal with a local bottle of white wine and mixed appetizers.
The mixed appetizer plate here actually consisted of seven plates, all seafood, all absolutely fresh. We passed the plates, family style, and enjoyed fried squid, tuna, swordfish, chilled octopus, braised octopus, sardines, and marinated vegetables. There was no wine list and the appetizers were so plentiful that we were sure we had blown our week’s budget already and had not even reached the main course. As our mains arrived, I was staring down at a huge bowl of linguine piled high with the most delicious clams I have ever eaten. I ate every last bite, and sopped up every last drop of juice with the fresh homemade bread. Knowing that we had already spent more than we should have, but agreeing that it was worth every cent, we decided we had to have the full experience and finish it off with some dessert. Dessert came shortly after we ordered. A bowl of lemon sorbet filled with wild field strawberries. Perfect! Since we weren’t sure if the price for the appetizers were per person or not, and that we had no clue how much the wine cost, we decided to decline when the waiter asked if we would like to order a grappa or limoncello to finish everything off. We actually took bets for how much the total bill would be. Much to our surprise we all expected it to be more than it was by at least fifteen euros. Seeing the value in this, we naturally decided that we should order an after dinner drink. I approached the head waiter and, in my best Italian, let him know that we had changed our minds and would like two limoncellos and one grappa. He smiled at my attempt to use the language and quickly brought us our drinks. After sipping the drinks for some time we asked for the updated bill to which he responded,” …you have it there”. I quickly said, “and the grappa and limoncello?” to which he replied, “… a present for you!” Does it get better than this?
We happily paid our bill and headed back to the hostel, in the rain, with our bellies full, and smiles on our faces knowing we had just had a truly Sicilian experience… It’s all about the food.
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