Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Sicilian Luau not for the faint of appetite


Pictured here:
Sicilian-style Octopus in Olive Oil
Bay Shrimp with Poppy Seed & Fresh Fruit
Broke da Mouth Anchovies
Fresh Mussels with Vinegar

Dining at this open-for-lunch-only, 6-table Trattoria Incognito required reservations six weeks in advance and was generously coordinated by Pat Novak, a very hungry woman with zero body fat.

This was an adventure in dining to rival all else Rob and I have experienced to date. It is the closest I've come to a Sicilian luau and a feast fit for a Hawaiian King!

Sunday April 29th was a quest for that unholy pursuit that Hawaii folks are all too familiar with - "Polynesian Paralysis" - that decadent journey that starts with an oink! and ends with a snore.

Eating in Sicily is like running a marathon--you've got to have self-control, pace yourself and be in it for the long haul. Americans are sprinters by nature so this Sicilian Eating Event was a test of endurance.

We never made it to the finish line. In fact, we barely made it past first course -- an 18-dish antipasti food frenzy!

To be or not to be neonati?



How do you explain neonati? Not quite fish eggs. Not quite fish. They are a bunch of really formless, boneless little guys rounded up in a ball and flash fried.

Sea Skewers


Mini and marvelous, these skewers are little sea samplers!

Anchovies R for Me!


Fugghedabout those little salty, shriveled up suckers that you find embalmed on your Pizza Hut pizza...

Fresh anchovies are marvelous like this – with a little fragrant and flavorful parsley, lemon and olive oil.

A Stuffed Memory


My first experience of stuffed calamari was made in our kitchen in Nicolosi by Iole Torngren, a Neopolitan who now lives in Hawaii. This dish will always remind me of that fabulous meal we shared.

Urgin' for Urchin!



Looking at these spiny little creatures takes me back to snorkeling in Shark's Cove on the North Shore of Oahu. We'd pull these outerspace lookin' creatures from the rocks and marvel at their undulating beauty as they'd try to crawl across our hands.

I never thought to KILL them for food....It's a little startling to find my beloved snorkel friend with its body cracked open and on your plate.

Here's the weird part...there wasn't anything inside but a little slime that you scraped out with your knife.

At first I thought it was some kind of Sicilian joke, and kept looking over at the Sicilian diners -- thinking they got the urchin meat and the don't-know-nothin-better Americans got their left over shells.

Hmmmm...Jury is still out on that one.

Fruit of the Sea



This lovely dish features fresh strawberries and pineapple with shrimp.

Involtini & Ham


Swordfish involtini is perhaps my all-time favorite dish. It's fish rolls stuffed with cheese, breadcrumbs and other lovely things with a hint of vinegar..then fried.

While there' no pork in fish involtini, there's definitely a ham amongst us!

Suck the guts out of those suck-ulent shrimp







Lightly floured and sauteed, these shrimp were succulent little morsels of Mediterranean bliss.

Carol was all eyes for those little shrimpie heads. That's her, like a hoover, sucking the guts right out of that little shrimp's head...

It was quite violent to watch...especially since I could vaguely hear her growling under her breath like a feral cat protecting her dinner.

Where art thou salmon head?


After seeing what Carol does to shrimp heads, I knew why she was pointing to her cheek. And I knew why there was no salmon head in this salmon dish. That's right.

I heard later that day she was seen along the Mediterranean snatching fish out of the sea with her toes.

Salmon and melons are not appealing to me. But that just meant more for Carol and Maryellen!

Jewels of the Sea


I miss the delicate flavor of limu fresh from the Pacific. This Mediterranean seaweed made me homesick. Fresh oysters were the aphrodisiac of the day.

Spada & Sardines


Fresh fillets of swordfish and giant sardines are lightly breaded and sauteed.

Magical Shape-shifting Swordfish



The Mediterranean is truly magical...Only in Sicily can swordfish shape shift into sausage!

Eager Beaver & the Tasty,Tangy Tuna


Hawaii folks like their tuna fresh and rare...and so do the Sicilians...and SO DOES MATT from the look on his face.

He looks like an overeager beaver proudly displaying his catch for the day!

Thinly sliced and soaked/cooked in lemon juice, this dish was reminscent of ceviche or Guamanian kelaguen.

Happy as Clams!



Breaded with a hint of vinegar and steamed with parsley and vinegar and wine...It doesn't matter how you dress them, fresh mussels are yummy.

Maryellen and Kendra are chubby-cheeked and happy as clams. That's because they've been stuffing mussels in their cheeks like squirrels hiding nuts for the winter. Those highschool English teachers are as greedy as they are clever!

Squid Squirt Pasta





Squid ink pasta is slightly sweet, slightly salty and smells like Hawaiian squid luau and tastes kind of like it too!

I had a moron moment when I first saw this dish...I thought to myself..."I wonder what the fisherman did to scare the squid to make so much ink."

Good thing I keep most of these lo lo (means dingaling in Hawaii lingo) thoughts to myself...Or it'd be 'table for one' for the rest of my days in Sicily faster than you can say 'squid squirt pasta.'

Bread boat sets sails for the high sea



Artist in residence Matt is studying culinary story telling 101. Pictured here is the USS Arnold -- fashioned from chunks of breads, bits of unused napkins, and skewers -- sailing through a Black Sea of squid squirt pasta.

Whatever floats your boat Matt! Ahoy?

Pasta with Anchovy & Fennel Greens







Fresh anchovy and the that green fern looking fennel tops make this pasta phenomenal.

And yes, those little round green things are peas. In our dining adventures, peas are like like unexpected surprises that show up in unlikely places--like pizza and pasta.

I almost think Sicilians regard them as a condiment--a little bit of parsley, salt, a pinch of basil and hey...let's toss in a few peas.

Basta (STOP) the Pasta!


This fabulous pasta featured chestnuts! And there's little Miss Kendra in her white shirt with not a drip of sauce anywhere. Her mom would be so proud!

This is where our dining guide Pat stood up, blew the whistle and did the "time out" gesture with her hands...

It was time to let the kitchen know that enough was enough. Basta the pasta. The Americans could only make it to the second course

...We are just not marathon runners.

A bit of Sorbetto!






Tangerine and lemon come together in this refreshing, palate-cleansing, home-made sorbetto - elevated from divine to heavenly with limoncello.

Ray really enjoyed the sorbetto so much he wasn't wasting any time -- I think his hand-to-mouth speed rivaled that of a hummingbird's wings.

He was determined to put a dent in that dixie cup. I tried to offer him mine - but he was just so fixated.

Drunken Desserts



Mike didn't have much wine with lunch. But he started popping those little round pastries at warp speed and then he turned all red. Photos don't lie.

Turns out that those little pastries were soaked in rum.

I kept counsel with the cannolis instead.

Dolce Incognito!


These are Jack in the Box mozarella sticks...No they're Morton's fish sticks...

NOT!!

I don't know what these are but they're made of mashed rice, then crisped, dipped in honey and dusted with cinnamon.

Oo la la!

Uncorked







That little champagne cork was getting the best of Carol. Ray took over and when it finally released like a projectile Mafia weapon -- all six tables in the restaurant erupted in applause and a rogue Italian ran off with the bottle. He brought it back when cute little perky Pat snarled at him like a rabid Chihuahua.

Not to be outdone by each other, the afternoon spiraled into silliness as Matt and Rob modeled ways to accesorize with a cork cap. The more food that these two grown men ate, the farther they regressed.

Christine and I studied this phenomenon, discussed it and took the forks from our husbands.

Compliments to the Chefs!




All these lovely dishes were prepared by this husband-and-wife dynamic duo in a kitchen no larger than 10 x 7 feet with one 4-burner gas stove and a small grill.

I'm not sure if that's a lobster he's holding or one of those pre-historic sized cockroaches you find in Waianae. Whatever it was, its antennas were shaped like helicopter propellers and I knew it was time to get the hell out!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Towering Taormina in Messina!





Taormina is about an hour from our home in Etna in the province of Messina and overlooks the Ionian Sea.

During the early 1900s the town was a colony of artists, writers, and intellectuals. Now it’s the Waikiki of Sicily – home to quaint streets filled with Sicilian treasures from antiques to artwork to ceramics and eateries, complete with musicians serenading the capuccino drinkers and artists painting in the piazza!

We ventured here on April 27 to begin the hunt for my collection of handpainted ceramics!

Alot o' Gelato!

We frequently get asked where to get the best gelato...It's a matter of preference. The Arnold's say this is the best place for Gelato in Taormina because it has such a wide variety of flavors!





Christine is chillin' with Hollywood hunk James Franco (Spiderman's friend turned foe) who shares our love of gelato! I missed him as I was just too hot to venture out for the last nite of the film fest.