Hockey in Sicily

Hockey and Sicily don’t seem like two words that should find themselves in the same sentence.  It’s hard enough to find ice for drinks let alone a whole sheet of ice to play a sport on.  Luckily ice isn’t absolutely necessary and luckily I didn’t leave my hockey equipment in the States when we moved here to Sicily.  From everything I could find online there wasn’t going to be a chance for me to play hockey.  This was a tough pill to swallow since I have played competitively for the past 30 years!! Yes I am old!   I packed my hockey equipment anyway Continue reading “Hockey in Sicily”

Parmigiana Siciliana – Eggplant Parmigiana Recipe

If I had to choose a vegetable to represent Sicily it would be the Eggplant. They love this strange vegetable here. They have multiple varieties and for this recipe I prefer the “viola” which is a short and stout light purple eggplant.  You can see a picture of it below.  Im not sure if they have this varietal in the States …let me know!

In the States the slang is Eggplant “Parm” as in Parmesan.  Whats funny Continue reading “Parmigiana Siciliana – Eggplant Parmigiana Recipe”

Ciao ragazzi!!

Yes we are still here… and yes my Italian/Sicilian is still terrible… dont be fooled by the title of this post.  I can’t believe that it has been almost 2 years since I last posted!  I wish I could say that it was something cool like “writers block” or that I was on a “bender”, but the reality is that I just got lazy with it.  After the first few months of not Continue reading “Ciao ragazzi!!”

New Pages On SicilyCiao

Now that the site has established itself Im trying to organize it a bit.  I added 5 new pages to try and build some structure.  The pages will contain broad information about Sicily that I think is interesting regarding the food and culture we are surrounded by.  These pages will also have links to related stories.

The following are the new pages that you may have already seen:

You can access these pages by clicking the links at the top of the site.  Just look for the titles… “Sicilian Food”  “Sicilian Wine” etc.  You can see them right now if you scroll up to the top of the page.

Also you can access these pages by clicking on the links on the right sidebar of th homepage in a box that is labeled “Sicily Ciao Pages” .  All the pages are listed within that box with the links.

Hope you like these pages.  I will be updating them continuously… Especially the Sicilian Food page where I currently have all of the courses of an Italian meal listed with a typical Sicilian menu.

About Sicily Ciao Wine Reviews

We have become overwhelmed with all the new wines that we have encountered out here.  This is definitely a happy problem and in an effort to keep track we are going to start reviewing the wines as they come along.  This will serve as our memory so that when we go back to the store we know which wines we liked a lot and which we didn’t.  Hopefully this is also helpful for everyone else out there.

Right off the bat I just wanted to say that we do not consider ourselves wine experts by any means.  Also our taste  and preferred wines may be different from everyone out there.  Everyone has their own favorites in the many different dimensions of wine.  For example Jess and I tend to prefer full bodied reds without any “oaky” and/or “tannic” components.  For whites we prefer very light whites, like a Pinot Grigio vice a Chardonnay.

The point system just seems too complicated and it would be tough to give a particular wine more points than the next, when we aren’t drinking both wines at the same time.  Also we will be drinking wines that would probably be beneath the “wine spectators” of the world, since the majority of our wines will be everyday type of wines at $10 or below.  Don’t get me wrong…. having a $50-$100 bottle of wine everyday would be nice, but it would start cutting into the associated food budget and no one likes hot dogs every night… 🙂

So the grading system will be very simple with 3 categories.  With so many wines out there I would prefer to be very cut and dry and not have very much gray area.

  • Ferrari – This wine is one that we think is extraordinary for the price.  We will actively seek this wine.

 

  • Vespa – Just like the Vespa these wines will get you there and you’ll have a good time, but just doesn’t compare to the Ferrari. This wine is good for the price and if I see it again and need to get another bottle I will pick it up, but I may try a new wine instead.

 

  • Mini Donkey –  You get the drift… Its funny because you still see these on the roads here in Sicily sometimes.

 

                                                       

 

 

Iphone now speaking Italiano

 

Just thought I would have a random post about the fact I was finally able to get my iphone unlocked and working properly with an Italian sim card and service from Vodafone.  It was a bit of a process to finally figure out the way to make it all happen.  Long story short I had to add a Gevey ultra sim card holder to my jailbroken iphone 4.  Im very happy to have all the features of the iphone here in Sicily… GPS on Maps especially!

No more AT&T …. Voda IT!

 

 

Packing up San Diego

Its finally sinking in…

Today was the day of the movers…. months of lead up to this day.  All in all it went really well.  Amazing how efficient these guys were at packing everything up nicely.  Our place wreaks of tape and permanent marker.

Like I was saying it is finally sinking in that we are moving somewhere… not really sinking in that we are moving to Italy.  Im not sure that will ever sink in exactly.

I was talking to Jess about moving and this would be Continue reading “Packing up San Diego”