Every morning I go through my ritual of reading various news websites. Usually that includes a good deal of world news and some local news. I often find myself feeling as if living in a bubble and a little removed from the rest of the country. This weekend we got a little taste of the rest.
We went into San Francisco this past weekend to visit the Maritime Historic Park. It is "conveniently located" in and around Fisherman's Wharf. Tourist season seems to have started on San Francisco. As we walked by the endless rows seafood shacks crowded with tourists, we wondered why so many have come to San Francisco for New England Clam Chowder. Perhaps it was because of the 50 degree slightly foggy weather we were having. We opted for the In and Out Burger instead. The outdoor seating for the I&O is in a glorified alley between the burger joint and Hooters. It was here as we ate our lunch that we became reacquainted with "Amerca." It was a busy alley, due mainly to the fact that there was a public bathroom further down. It was apparently well hidden. We saw quite a few groups wander in looking around and then 1 min later walk back out again. One such group included a dad walking forward of the family, no doubt doing his bathroom hunting job. A mom with a stroller, and a 4/5 year-old girl lagging behind. The young girl had her hand up to her ear, fingers curling over to cover around her ear. She was yelling something, no one in the family seem to respond to her. She started to yell louder, "I can't hear you! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU DADDY!" She then put down her empty hand and ran to catch up with the family.
There were also groups who came down the alley twice, probably returning after having asked one of the employees exactly where this bathroom was. One group that returned was a mom(in her late 30's maybe 40's) with a stroller, and two fashionably dressed teenage girls who were walking arm in arm. As they walked passed, I only heard one part of their conversation. One of the teenage girls was saying "...like a R rated Applebees." My guess is that were referring to Hooters. I'm sure that description meant different things to them than it did for us. Whether you're a fan of Applebees or not, that was a very accurate description.
bonglonglong
life, love, travel and a bucket of poo
Sicily, part II
Posted by jerkboy on November 05, 2006 at 10:18 AM
It has been way too long since I sent this, the second installment of our recent trip to Sicily, but the Fall dinner party and a potential business venture sucked away all my time and brainpower. So apologies all around for the delay. And away we go...
As promised, this installment won't be entirely about food, like the last one was. We started doing "Sicily" things on Sunday, two days after I arrived. Our goal for Sunday was The Valley of Temples, which is located on the southern coast of Sicily near the large city of Agrigento.
On the way down to Agrigento, we discovered that there really IS a castle on virtually every hilltop in Sicily. You can't drive 5 minutes without seeing a new one pop up. Most of them aren't even marked on maps and they're falling into ruin.
After a couple of hours we go to the Valle de Templi. This ancient Greek city, constructed in the 5th century BC, was lauded by many ancient historians as "the most beautiful city of mortals." Today, the remains consist of a string of temples on a ridge overlooking the Mediterranean.
We didn't realize it at the time, but on the last Sunday of the month, all archaeological sites in Sicily are free to the public. This was nice for us because we avoided the $8 per person entry fee at this and other sites we visited that day. But the downside was that the site was swarming with Sicilians!
The site was impressive, with the temples made of red sandstone instead of the white marble from which most ancient Greek temples are constructed. There were olive trees all around, including some very ancient ones, and I discovered that olives are inedible when they're picked straight from the trees. Yuk. There were also almond trees everywhere, and I managed to crack open a few.
Despite the crowds, I still managed to snap a butt and scarf photo, but it wasn't very good. Ma and Angela wanted nothing to do with my nudity, fearful of being arrested or worse, so they took shelter under a giant olive tree.
Under the tree they found some lovely miniature temples which were probably constructed by Greek ants around 500 BC.
We moved on westward along the coast in search of lunch. We stopped in the town of Siculiana, which is a beautiful medieval city perched around a castle atop a hill. It was a Sunday afternoon, and everyone in the city seemed to be asleep. We didn't pass a soul in the abandoned streets. As we drove in front of a centuries-old church, a flock of white doves took wing through the deserted courtyard in front.
Eventually we drove down to the beach below Siculiana and found a fantastic restaurant for lunch, outdoors right on the beach. I had fresh steamed mussles! There was a large Sicilian family having dinner at the table next to us, and the server was bringing out course after course of pasta and fresh fish. I can't imagine what the bill was at the end!
It was hot and stuffy, and the Mediterranean was beckoning me, so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped into the sea. It was cold! But clear. And so refreshing. The beach here was lovely.
Our final stop for the evening was Seliunte, which was the most remote of the Greek colonies. It's near the far southwestern corner of Sicily. It was built in the 5th century BC and was attacked by the Carthaginians and then destroyed by earthquakes in the 4th century. It wasn't rediscovered until the 1500s and has been restored into one of the most magnificent Greek temples on Earth.
We watched an incredible sunset from here, and I also got to snap some spectacular butt and scarf pics.
The next day Angela had to work, and Christian and I had planned to rent a car to drive to Mt. Etna, one of the most active volcanoes on earth. But we woke up to rainy, cold skies, so we went into Palermo instead and explored the city.
Palermo is a fantastic city, with all the charming cobblestone alleys, crumbling churches, massive cathedrals, street vendors, and small cafes that you imagine when you think of Europe.
We strolled the length of several major streets and ended up at the Cattedrale, one of the largest and most bizarre cathedrals in Europe. The original structure was an Islamic church, built during the Norman era, and was expanded on by each conquering civilization and during each architectural era. So in one glimpse you can see Islamic domes, Gothic spires, Baroque arches...it's very bizarre.
More mixed architecture can be found in churches across Palermo, but our favorite were the adjoining churches of San Cataldo, a 12th century church converted from a mosque, and La Martorana, a Baroque chapel full of spectacular mosaics.
You can see the Arabic-looking architecture on the church on the right, and the traditional Gothic architecture on the church on the left. Martorana is a popular place for weddings, and both days we visited there were people getting married there. It was amazing to watch these traditional wedding ceremonies in the mosaic-filled church.
We stopped in at an internet cafe before heading home to check the status of our flights. Everything looked okay, and as I was assembling my things to leave, I forgot to pick up my camera. I didn't realize until we were back at Angela's, a good half-hour train ride and walk from the city. By that time the trains had stopped running, it was pouring again, and I resigned myself to the fact that I had lost all my Sicily photos and would have to get another camera when I got back.
Our final two days in Sicily were even more exciting (we explored secret castles!), but you'll have to wait another few days to hear about them!
As promised, this installment won't be entirely about food, like the last one was. We started doing "Sicily" things on Sunday, two days after I arrived. Our goal for Sunday was The Valley of Temples, which is located on the southern coast of Sicily near the large city of Agrigento.
On the way down to Agrigento, we discovered that there really IS a castle on virtually every hilltop in Sicily. You can't drive 5 minutes without seeing a new one pop up. Most of them aren't even marked on maps and they're falling into ruin.
After a couple of hours we go to the Valle de Templi. This ancient Greek city, constructed in the 5th century BC, was lauded by many ancient historians as "the most beautiful city of mortals." Today, the remains consist of a string of temples on a ridge overlooking the Mediterranean.
We didn't realize it at the time, but on the last Sunday of the month, all archaeological sites in Sicily are free to the public. This was nice for us because we avoided the $8 per person entry fee at this and other sites we visited that day. But the downside was that the site was swarming with Sicilians!
The site was impressive, with the temples made of red sandstone instead of the white marble from which most ancient Greek temples are constructed. There were olive trees all around, including some very ancient ones, and I discovered that olives are inedible when they're picked straight from the trees. Yuk. There were also almond trees everywhere, and I managed to crack open a few.
Despite the crowds, I still managed to snap a butt and scarf photo, but it wasn't very good. Ma and Angela wanted nothing to do with my nudity, fearful of being arrested or worse, so they took shelter under a giant olive tree.
Under the tree they found some lovely miniature temples which were probably constructed by Greek ants around 500 BC.
We moved on westward along the coast in search of lunch. We stopped in the town of Siculiana, which is a beautiful medieval city perched around a castle atop a hill. It was a Sunday afternoon, and everyone in the city seemed to be asleep. We didn't pass a soul in the abandoned streets. As we drove in front of a centuries-old church, a flock of white doves took wing through the deserted courtyard in front.
Eventually we drove down to the beach below Siculiana and found a fantastic restaurant for lunch, outdoors right on the beach. I had fresh steamed mussles! There was a large Sicilian family having dinner at the table next to us, and the server was bringing out course after course of pasta and fresh fish. I can't imagine what the bill was at the end!
It was hot and stuffy, and the Mediterranean was beckoning me, so I stripped down to my underwear and jumped into the sea. It was cold! But clear. And so refreshing. The beach here was lovely.
Our final stop for the evening was Seliunte, which was the most remote of the Greek colonies. It's near the far southwestern corner of Sicily. It was built in the 5th century BC and was attacked by the Carthaginians and then destroyed by earthquakes in the 4th century. It wasn't rediscovered until the 1500s and has been restored into one of the most magnificent Greek temples on Earth.
We watched an incredible sunset from here, and I also got to snap some spectacular butt and scarf pics.
The next day Angela had to work, and Christian and I had planned to rent a car to drive to Mt. Etna, one of the most active volcanoes on earth. But we woke up to rainy, cold skies, so we went into Palermo instead and explored the city.
Palermo is a fantastic city, with all the charming cobblestone alleys, crumbling churches, massive cathedrals, street vendors, and small cafes that you imagine when you think of Europe.
We strolled the length of several major streets and ended up at the Cattedrale, one of the largest and most bizarre cathedrals in Europe. The original structure was an Islamic church, built during the Norman era, and was expanded on by each conquering civilization and during each architectural era. So in one glimpse you can see Islamic domes, Gothic spires, Baroque arches...it's very bizarre.
More mixed architecture can be found in churches across Palermo, but our favorite were the adjoining churches of San Cataldo, a 12th century church converted from a mosque, and La Martorana, a Baroque chapel full of spectacular mosaics.
You can see the Arabic-looking architecture on the church on the right, and the traditional Gothic architecture on the church on the left. Martorana is a popular place for weddings, and both days we visited there were people getting married there. It was amazing to watch these traditional wedding ceremonies in the mosaic-filled church.
We stopped in at an internet cafe before heading home to check the status of our flights. Everything looked okay, and as I was assembling my things to leave, I forgot to pick up my camera. I didn't realize until we were back at Angela's, a good half-hour train ride and walk from the city. By that time the trains had stopped running, it was pouring again, and I resigned myself to the fact that I had lost all my Sicily photos and would have to get another camera when I got back.
Our final two days in Sicily were even more exciting (we explored secret castles!), but you'll have to wait another few days to hear about them!
paris metro tour
Posted by lj on November 03, 2006 at 10:17 AM
For the people who are into trains and old city infrastructure, a recent AP article talks about a group of railway enthusiasts who give a guided night tour of the Paris metro. The group is called ADEMAS (Association D'Exploitation du Material Sprague). The tour starts at midnight and goes to 5 in the morning. You travel on a vintage Sprague-Thomas (from early 1900s.) car through the tunnels of the metro and see the various stations that are closed or have never been opened. You also see old metro vehicles. There is apparently quite a demand for these tours, as there is usually a six month waiting list. In the article it says ADEMAS has recently launched a website, but I wasn't able to track it down.
ASSOCIATION ADEMAS / METRO HISTORIQUE
17, rue des Abondances 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT
telephone number : 01 48 25 13 32
fax : 01 48 25 13 32
and from a blog I got an e-mail address and the cost
ademas@orange.fr and 43 Euros
AP article and pictures
ASSOCIATION ADEMAS / METRO HISTORIQUE
17, rue des Abondances 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT
telephone number : 01 48 25 13 32
fax : 01 48 25 13 32
and from a blog I got an e-mail address and the cost
ademas@orange.fr and 43 Euros
AP article and pictures
Sicily, part I
Posted by jerkboy on October 02, 2006 at 01:23 AM
Bon giorno from beautiful Sicily! (Actually, we're back in Dallas now, but I didn't have Internet access while we were there, so I’m sending this belatedly.)
Christian and I came to Sicily to visit his sister, Angela, who has lived here for the past five years. She recently moved into a gorgeous 3 bedroom apartment overlooking the sea in Santa Flavia, about 15kms east of Palermo, the capitol and largest city. Christian’s mom, Vitoria (I just call her “Ma”) had planned a trip to help her get settled into her new place, and since the trip coincided with Christian’s fall vacation, we decided to go, too.
Because of heavy flight loads, Ma and Christian arrived in Sicily on Friday, and I arrived on Saturday. I was hungry from a long coach flight, so I grabbed an “arancini” at the airport. This is the official light meal or snack in Sicily and consists of a ball of cheesy rice stuffed with meat and veggies, breaded and fried. TERRIBLE for you, but it was utterly delicious. They cost about 1 euro at most places (around $1.25), are about the size of a softball, and are filling enough for a small meal. You can’t come to Sicily and not eat an arancini.
On Saturday, as I recovered from jet lag, we ran some errands for Angela’s apartment. She was looking for some furniture, including some chairs for her big balcony with its sweeping view of lemon and olive orchards leading about a half mile down the hill to the Tyrrhenian Sea. (Sicily is triangular shaped, 175 miles wide, and 110 miles from north to south, and is washed by the Tyrrhenian Sea on the north coast between it and Italy, the Mediterranean Sea on the southwest coast between it and Tunisia, and Ionian on the southeast coast between it and Greece. Sicily is the football at the tip of Italy’s boot, and there are less than 2 miles of water between Sicily and the Italian mainland.)
A view of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the bay of Santa Flavia from Angela’s balcony.
Well, since I’m already talking about Sicily, I’ll break from our rather mundane Saturday afternoon to tell you a little more about it. Sicily is the largest of Italy’s provinces by geographic size, and the third largest by population. It has the mildest climate in Europe (it’s also the southernmost European point), which accounts for its historical role as Europe’s breadbasket. It’s a very rugged island, with the highest point at Mt. Etna, 10,991 ft high, which is snowcapped several months out of the year. Etna is Europe’s most active volcano, and has been erupting almost continuously throughout recorded history. Despite its constant belching of lava, ash, and boulder bombs, more people have been killed by lightning strikes on its slope than have been killed throughout almost 3,000 years of recorded history by lava, earthquakes, or pyroclastic flows.
Those 3,000 years of history are among the most varied and violent in all of Europe. The Greeks began colonizing eastern Sicily in the 8th century BC (though it was inhabited by earlier civilizations for many centuries before) and the Phoenicians took over the western side. This began a series of conflicts that was successively joined by the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Arabs, the Normans, the French, the Spanish, and the Italians, and all have left very strong cultural and architectural imprints on the island.
Back to furniture shopping…
This led us into Bagheria, one of Palermo’s largest suburbs, and the location of the language school where Angela teaches. While we discovered that Angela’s rent is remarkably cheap (around $400 for her gorgeous, modern, 3 bedroom apartment with glorious ocean views), stylish furniture to fill such a deserving space is priced quite similarly to the stuff we find here in the states. Similarly, food in Sicily is VERY cheap by our standards (restaurants you and I would consider quite nice charge between $6 and $12 for a main course with a very inexpensive wine list populated mostly by fantastic Sicilian wines) but gas is pricey, around $5.50 per gallon when we were there.
(A view of an olive grove from Angela’s balcony.)
We went grocery shopping afterwards. I found that veggies (almost all grown locally, so they’re very fresh) were really cheap, as was pasta and wine. Eggs and milk were really expensive. The big shocker was that olive oil, Sicily’s largest export, was priced about the same that it is here, around $6-$8 for a liter. Sicily grows the widest variety of olives anywhere in the world, and they literally have hundreds of types of olive oils, from pale yellow to fluorescent green. Angela’s best friend, Rosie, has an olive grove and her parents make their own extra-virgin olive oil from it, so I happily forked over $30 to bring back 6 liters of the stuff. Ask me for a taste next time you come over. It’s unreal.
I was also amazed by the different varieties of eggplant. Called “melanzana” there, the Sicilians can’t get enough of it, and there must have been at least six different varieties at both the grocery store and the fruit stand where we stopped. They also sell these bizarre zucchinis that are about 4 feet long, squiggly, and as big around as two of your fingers. I can’t imagine what a whole field of those would look like.
(A view of a small castle from Angela's balcony.)
After an evening nap, we drove to Palermo to have dinner at one of Angela’s favorite places. It’s in a back alley in a centuries-old building that looks like a cave. Dinner was late, the European way, around 10pm. We ordered caponata for an appetizer, a traditional Sicilian dish of fried eggplant in a sauce with tomatoes, capers, olives, and pine nuts. This restaurant threw in a twist with big chunks of swordfish. Bon appetito! I was desperate to order a vat of the fresh steamed mussels that many people around us were eating, but Angela forced me to get the porcini mushroom ravioli with the ricotta mushroom sauce. After that I let her order for me the rest of the trip. That pasta was literally the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. I know I exaggerate a lot. But this was no exaggeration. Everything about it was perfect. This set the trend for what was to be the most memorable aspect of the entire trip…the food.
That may sound a little disappointing or mundane for most of you (especially compared with my typical, high-adventure trip reports), but it’s certainly something to expect from a society which centers itself around food. Nothing business or social is done in Sicily without food. And it’s quite normal for Sicilians to utterly reject any type of cuisine but their own. Even Angela’s young, open-minded, well-educated friends would consider my Italian cooking completely inedible because it’s not done “how Mama makes it.” Seven days a week they have pastries and coffee for breakfast, arancini or paninis or pizza for lunch, and a dinner consisting of an appetizer, a pasta course, a meat course, and dessert. Wine is drunk with lunch and dinner by virtually everyone old enough to drink out of a cup, and Sicilians seem to prefer sweet white wines to anything else. Coffee is taken after every single meal, but it’s not coffee like you or I drink. It’s thick, capped with a light-colored foam called “crema” but which has no milk or cream content…it comes only from the way the coffee is extracted from the beans. And it’s served filling only about a third of the capacity of a tiny cup that would look at home in a doll house. Barely a mouthful of coffee the way we drink it. But so potent that you have to take it in tiny little sips. It’s also consumed regularly throughout the day from the coffee bars that dot almost every block in Sicily. You order it, drink it standing up at the bar where it’s prepared, and then pay about 60 cents on your way out.
These coffee bars are also the same place you get lunch (the aforementioned arancinis, paninis, and pizza) as well as sweet snacks throughout the day. Every coffee bar has a gelato case out front and the Sicilians eat gelato (a very rich type of ice cream) inside a brioche rather than a cup or a cone. They take small buns of the sweet bread, hollow out the center, and fill it with gelato. It sounds strange, I know, but Christian and his ever-present sweet tooth, wouldn’t stop raving.
That meal crowned off the day and we went back to Angela’s apartment for an early bed time. The next day was a long excursion to the southwest coast to see Greek temples.
Sunrise from Angela's balcony.
I promise that future emails about this trip won’t be so long, or so food-oriented! It wasn’t my intention to make you scowl at the hamburger you’re about to eat for lunch. But if you do, take comfort in the fact that I’ve scowled at every bit of food I’ve had to force into my mouth since we returned from this culinary heaven.
Christian and I came to Sicily to visit his sister, Angela, who has lived here for the past five years. She recently moved into a gorgeous 3 bedroom apartment overlooking the sea in Santa Flavia, about 15kms east of Palermo, the capitol and largest city. Christian’s mom, Vitoria (I just call her “Ma”) had planned a trip to help her get settled into her new place, and since the trip coincided with Christian’s fall vacation, we decided to go, too.
Because of heavy flight loads, Ma and Christian arrived in Sicily on Friday, and I arrived on Saturday. I was hungry from a long coach flight, so I grabbed an “arancini” at the airport. This is the official light meal or snack in Sicily and consists of a ball of cheesy rice stuffed with meat and veggies, breaded and fried. TERRIBLE for you, but it was utterly delicious. They cost about 1 euro at most places (around $1.25), are about the size of a softball, and are filling enough for a small meal. You can’t come to Sicily and not eat an arancini.
On Saturday, as I recovered from jet lag, we ran some errands for Angela’s apartment. She was looking for some furniture, including some chairs for her big balcony with its sweeping view of lemon and olive orchards leading about a half mile down the hill to the Tyrrhenian Sea. (Sicily is triangular shaped, 175 miles wide, and 110 miles from north to south, and is washed by the Tyrrhenian Sea on the north coast between it and Italy, the Mediterranean Sea on the southwest coast between it and Tunisia, and Ionian on the southeast coast between it and Greece. Sicily is the football at the tip of Italy’s boot, and there are less than 2 miles of water between Sicily and the Italian mainland.)
A view of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the bay of Santa Flavia from Angela’s balcony.
Well, since I’m already talking about Sicily, I’ll break from our rather mundane Saturday afternoon to tell you a little more about it. Sicily is the largest of Italy’s provinces by geographic size, and the third largest by population. It has the mildest climate in Europe (it’s also the southernmost European point), which accounts for its historical role as Europe’s breadbasket. It’s a very rugged island, with the highest point at Mt. Etna, 10,991 ft high, which is snowcapped several months out of the year. Etna is Europe’s most active volcano, and has been erupting almost continuously throughout recorded history. Despite its constant belching of lava, ash, and boulder bombs, more people have been killed by lightning strikes on its slope than have been killed throughout almost 3,000 years of recorded history by lava, earthquakes, or pyroclastic flows.
Those 3,000 years of history are among the most varied and violent in all of Europe. The Greeks began colonizing eastern Sicily in the 8th century BC (though it was inhabited by earlier civilizations for many centuries before) and the Phoenicians took over the western side. This began a series of conflicts that was successively joined by the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Arabs, the Normans, the French, the Spanish, and the Italians, and all have left very strong cultural and architectural imprints on the island.
Back to furniture shopping…
This led us into Bagheria, one of Palermo’s largest suburbs, and the location of the language school where Angela teaches. While we discovered that Angela’s rent is remarkably cheap (around $400 for her gorgeous, modern, 3 bedroom apartment with glorious ocean views), stylish furniture to fill such a deserving space is priced quite similarly to the stuff we find here in the states. Similarly, food in Sicily is VERY cheap by our standards (restaurants you and I would consider quite nice charge between $6 and $12 for a main course with a very inexpensive wine list populated mostly by fantastic Sicilian wines) but gas is pricey, around $5.50 per gallon when we were there.
(A view of an olive grove from Angela’s balcony.)
We went grocery shopping afterwards. I found that veggies (almost all grown locally, so they’re very fresh) were really cheap, as was pasta and wine. Eggs and milk were really expensive. The big shocker was that olive oil, Sicily’s largest export, was priced about the same that it is here, around $6-$8 for a liter. Sicily grows the widest variety of olives anywhere in the world, and they literally have hundreds of types of olive oils, from pale yellow to fluorescent green. Angela’s best friend, Rosie, has an olive grove and her parents make their own extra-virgin olive oil from it, so I happily forked over $30 to bring back 6 liters of the stuff. Ask me for a taste next time you come over. It’s unreal.
I was also amazed by the different varieties of eggplant. Called “melanzana” there, the Sicilians can’t get enough of it, and there must have been at least six different varieties at both the grocery store and the fruit stand where we stopped. They also sell these bizarre zucchinis that are about 4 feet long, squiggly, and as big around as two of your fingers. I can’t imagine what a whole field of those would look like.
(A view of a small castle from Angela's balcony.)
After an evening nap, we drove to Palermo to have dinner at one of Angela’s favorite places. It’s in a back alley in a centuries-old building that looks like a cave. Dinner was late, the European way, around 10pm. We ordered caponata for an appetizer, a traditional Sicilian dish of fried eggplant in a sauce with tomatoes, capers, olives, and pine nuts. This restaurant threw in a twist with big chunks of swordfish. Bon appetito! I was desperate to order a vat of the fresh steamed mussels that many people around us were eating, but Angela forced me to get the porcini mushroom ravioli with the ricotta mushroom sauce. After that I let her order for me the rest of the trip. That pasta was literally the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. I know I exaggerate a lot. But this was no exaggeration. Everything about it was perfect. This set the trend for what was to be the most memorable aspect of the entire trip…the food.
That may sound a little disappointing or mundane for most of you (especially compared with my typical, high-adventure trip reports), but it’s certainly something to expect from a society which centers itself around food. Nothing business or social is done in Sicily without food. And it’s quite normal for Sicilians to utterly reject any type of cuisine but their own. Even Angela’s young, open-minded, well-educated friends would consider my Italian cooking completely inedible because it’s not done “how Mama makes it.” Seven days a week they have pastries and coffee for breakfast, arancini or paninis or pizza for lunch, and a dinner consisting of an appetizer, a pasta course, a meat course, and dessert. Wine is drunk with lunch and dinner by virtually everyone old enough to drink out of a cup, and Sicilians seem to prefer sweet white wines to anything else. Coffee is taken after every single meal, but it’s not coffee like you or I drink. It’s thick, capped with a light-colored foam called “crema” but which has no milk or cream content…it comes only from the way the coffee is extracted from the beans. And it’s served filling only about a third of the capacity of a tiny cup that would look at home in a doll house. Barely a mouthful of coffee the way we drink it. But so potent that you have to take it in tiny little sips. It’s also consumed regularly throughout the day from the coffee bars that dot almost every block in Sicily. You order it, drink it standing up at the bar where it’s prepared, and then pay about 60 cents on your way out.
These coffee bars are also the same place you get lunch (the aforementioned arancinis, paninis, and pizza) as well as sweet snacks throughout the day. Every coffee bar has a gelato case out front and the Sicilians eat gelato (a very rich type of ice cream) inside a brioche rather than a cup or a cone. They take small buns of the sweet bread, hollow out the center, and fill it with gelato. It sounds strange, I know, but Christian and his ever-present sweet tooth, wouldn’t stop raving.
That meal crowned off the day and we went back to Angela’s apartment for an early bed time. The next day was a long excursion to the southwest coast to see Greek temples.
Sunrise from Angela's balcony.
I promise that future emails about this trip won’t be so long, or so food-oriented! It wasn’t my intention to make you scowl at the hamburger you’re about to eat for lunch. But if you do, take comfort in the fact that I’ve scowled at every bit of food I’ve had to force into my mouth since we returned from this culinary heaven.
Abilene, Tex. - New York Times
Posted by mordred on May 15, 2006 at 05:55 PM
You have to love it when the New York times runs a travel article about Abilene. Abilene, Tex. - New York Times
LOCATED in north central Texas, Abilene (population 115,000) is perched in what would seem the middle of nowhere. As you stand on the edge of town, there's nothing between you and the sunburned horizon. It's cowboy country where boots and hats are de rigueur and residents don't bother to take the keys out of the ignition when they park their pickup trucks. The spirit of the Old West is pervasive in this town where the buffalo once roamed and the oil pumps go up and down all day.
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