The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Back Alley Crawl
At one point we had grand plans for this leg of the trip. The Greek temples at Agrigento one day (2+ hours drive each way), the train to Palermo another day. But this morning we couldn't face spending 4-5 hours in the car so the first part of the plan went out the window. We've seen our share of Greek ruins and can save Agrigento for another trip. (We always travel with the idea that we will return so there's no pressure to cram everything into one trip). I suspect that given our general annoyance with cities, Palermo will be the next domino to fall, but we can make that decision tomorrow.
Cefalu -- at least the old town -- is a friendly place to wander and we are enjoying just hanging out here. Like our all-time favorite hill town in Tuscany, Montepulciano, it just feels good, even when we're doing nothing in particular.
A few observations strolling around Cefalu today. I liked the old woman in a high tower window keeping an eye on what was happening on the street below. At first I thought the old man down by the water was a fisherman mending his nets, but when I got closer I saw he was making a brand new net. How much time and patiences does that take? The rock (La Rocca) dominates the peninsula, here rising up behind the old town. You can just see the spires of the duomo sticking up to the left of the rock. The buildings along the water were once predominantly fishermen's houses.
La Rocca is a silent presence everywhere in town. I'm not sure what a Farting Shirt is or why you would have a whole shop devoted to it. I didn't even know there was a dress code for that! But the logo left no doubt as to what they were talking about. Still, I really didn't want any more information. Little side lanes seem to hint at secrets kept.
Along the lower road we found the medieval laundry facility which apparently was in regular use until just a few years ago. A fresh water stream flows through here and out into the harbor. The water in the harbor was crystal clear, perhaps testimony to the general lack of motor-powered craft. The last shot gives you an idea of how the town spreads out at the base of the rock. All in all, Cefalu is proving to be a lovely little spot just to be.
We stopped for lunch at Lo Scoglio Ubriaco, mostly because it had a version of Pasta alla Norma on the menu and a view of the water. I think we were one of two lunch parties they had today. It's a little sad for the restaurants that stay open in the off season. The name roughly translates to “Drunk Rocks” referring to the rocks that this restaurant is perched over. According to the restaurant the legend is about a cargo ship of wine that crashed against the rocks and sank. The views were great from the patio and the weather was just warm enough (mid 60s) to dine comfortably outside ... so we did!
After a near perfect bruschetta pomodoro (properly pronounces broos-KET-a in Italian), Margene had her Spaghetti alla Norma. She said it was OK but didn't come close to the version she had in Taormina. I went for a pasta with shrimp and zucchini which was quite tasty. We had been thinking pizza but it appears that most restaurants that serve pizza only do so in the evening. I suspect this is because most of the year it is too hot in the afternoon to fire up the oven and it has just become "the way things are done." I'll have to see if that is any different in a place that bills itself as a pizzeria. A couple of glasses of the local Nero d'Avola wine and I was a happy camper.
Lately we find that one major meal a day with perhaps a light snack is all the food we really want. We'd had a big lunch and figured an aranchini tonight would be all we needed, so we stopped by our local source and picked up a few. One of the nice things about slow travel is that you do develop a bit of a routine -- favorite places to get this or that -- and, at least for a few days, become a recognized face. I rather like that.
© 2013 Restaurant Doctor
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