Rizzi as they are called in Maltese remind me of my lazy childhood summer days. Swimming on the beach at St Paul's Bay overlooking St Paul's Islands (see below), parents of young children would go snorkelling to pick up the sea urchins. Time flies and this must have been a good 30 or so years ago. They would go snorkelling for an hour, fill up a plastic bag with sea urchins which were caught from the rocks or seabed and then come back to the beach were the mothers and fathers would get a knife, gently cut open the sea urchin in half and give it to the children with a spoon to scoop out or else serve on top of bread like a very rustic version of bruschetta. These memories still make my mouth water given the sea urchins would have an incredible but delicate taste of the sea. It is said that the presence of sea urchins at sea reflects the cleanliness of the sea water. I am not sure whether this urban legend is to be believed or not but over the years this tradition has since been … [Read more...]
Book review: Palmento – A Sicilian Wine Odyssey (At table)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvw_KkmVFWU#t=24 As the holiday season in Europe slowly starts to come to an end, one starts to think of the cooler months but also about what books to read to remind oneself of the summer. Palmento, A Sicilian Wine Odyssey has been earmarked as one of my summer reads after I read Corkscrewed by Robert V. Camuto about wines in France (I will review the book later). But I can imagine myself reading this book on a cold winter evening, with the rain knocking on the windows maybe with a glass of wine to accompany the reading. In fact, I am sure that this coming winter, I will come back to read this book given I have rarely read a book so beautifully written about the subject of wine, the region and its people. Now, I may be biased because as you may have seen, my interest in wine more than 15 years ago came from the discovery of Sicilian wine and its many facets. As the author itself wrote, Goethe wrote in the eighteenth century "To have seen … [Read more...]
The wines of Sicily – a wine region like no other
Maybe it is because of Malta's close affinity to Sicily, or because of the fact that I have been there so many times, but I find Sicilian wines to be extremely interesting. True, they might not compare with the finesse of Barolo's from Piemonte or Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany but still they are extremely fascinating. Sicilian cuisine to me epitomises what is best about Mediterranean food. Take simple, sometimes humble ingredients and within minutes you have the makings of a great meal. Like my home country, Sicily is a hotpot of different influences from the Mediterranean. Some of the most memorable meals I have experienced were in Sicily whether it was a menu free restaurant in Scoglitti serving just one fish dish after another of what their fishermen had caught earlier in the day, to some of the best pasta creations. Nothing beats their spaghetti with sea urchins or pasta with prawns and pine nuts or pistachios which are so common in Sicilian cuisine. But this post is not … [Read more...]