The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Taormina mi Amore
Today we headed north up the coast a bit to the town of Taormina.
Breakfast was a ricotta-filled pastry and cappuccino in Bar Siempre Noi, a little spot Marina recommended. There wasn't much in the way of agmosphere, but the products and the people were very warm and user-friendly. Mt. Etna erupted again today. Nothing explosive like Mount St. Helens, but it will shower the area with sand-like black pumice. We took the back roads north in weather that was temperate but rather strange -- clear and sunny sometimes and quite overcast at others. Perhaps that is an effect created by the mountain (which was mostly behind the clouds). We did manage to catch a shot of it during a brief weather break. Glad we were in a spot with a sight line to the peak.
You gotta love Taormina. Spectacularly hanging off the side of a mountain overlooking the Ionian Sea with Mt. Etna looming in the background, there's a reason this is the premier -- and priciest -- resort town in Sicily. When we were originally laying out the trip, we'd tried to find reasonably-priced lodging here, but while I'm sure the off-season rates were relative bargains, they were still too much for our budget. Now I can see why.
Like Aspen, the town unashamedly caters to the well-heeled tourist and is an achingly beautiful spot with gorgeous medieval churches, an ancient Greek theater and then theire's those stunning views. Unlike what we have seen of the Sicilian cities, the streets are spotless. There were even red carpets down the outside edges of the main pedestrian drag! This is the very off season so we had the streets to ourselves. In July and August ... good luck!
Taormina's Teatro Greco (Greek Theater) is a near-perfect ancient amphitheater originally built in the 3rd century BC and the second largest in Sicily. Only the theater in Siracusa is bigger (but certainly doesn't have as dramatic a site. I borrowed a couple of pictures to show you what we would have seen had Etna not been acting up. Up in the seating area, I caught a little slice of life -- a mother and daughter sharing a small learning lesson. (Dad was moving around the perimeter snapping photos through a long lens.
We had lunch at Ristorante Tiramisu, an unpretentious restaurant just outside Porta Messina at one end of the main pedestrian street. This was the first time I have followed a recommendation from Lonely Planet and it was spot on. My linguini cozze, menta e zucchine (linguini with mussels, mint and sliced zucchini) was a delightful combination of flavors. Margene went for a Sicilian classic: rigatone alla Norma (pasta with tomato, eggplant, basil and a salty ricotta cheese). She's still smiling about it days later.
Tonight we really went local, hooking up with our hosts, Marina and Andrea, for dinner at Don Turridu Da Gaetano, one of their favorite neighborhood restaurants, about a 10-minute walk from the apartment. While they have a full menu of choices, the place specializes in seafood. If you didn't know that before you came, you would get a big hint the second you walked through the front door.
Dinner starts with a trip to the antipasti bar where you have an array of close to twenty preparations of various vegetables, all painfully fresh and prepared in-house. Then the Primi (pasta course) -- in our case two spaghetti preparations, one with clams and one with mussels. I asked Marina what would make a dish like this Sicilian as opposed to the same recipe prepared elsewhere. She said the local seafood has a distinctive taste because it comes from waters exposed to a high level of lava and volcanic ash. Since Italians typically only cook with ingredients that can be sourced locally, Sicilian ingredients are not available elsewhere.
Then it was on to the Secondi (entree course). Margene and I had calamari, Andrea had grilled horse meat(!) and Marina had an interesting roulade-like preparation of ground meat and cheese. I regret that I didn't get more information on this item because it was quite tasty. A couple of bottles of a pleasant (proprietary-labeled) Sicilian white wine and we were happy campers. No way any of us could handle dessert and it was about 10:30 by the time we finished eating, so we called it quits. As in any restaurant experience, it is good to know the owner ... and even better when he is a presence in the dining room, making sure everything is being handled well.
We split the very reasonable tab, walked back to the apartment ... and slept until 9am the next morning! Yes, life is good in Sicily today!
© 2013 Restaurant Doctor
[