We started a three-week trip to Sicily with a week in the island’s capital city of Palermo. We have two criteria in choosing an Airbnb: the price and proximity to the fresh food market. We’re not sure which comes first.
We got it right on a funky little street with a second story apartment less than a five minute walk from the market streets. Yes, streets. Ballaro sprawls for blocks and blocks — completely unlike the covered market buildings we’re used to in Spain. And despite the stenciled signs advising “tourists go home,” everyone is friendly and helpful.
It’s possible that the greatest art of Sicily is the display of food, which is rearranged every morning. This being March, the stalls are filled with gorgeous artichokes, lemons and blood oranges, and other colorful vegetables.
As we walked through the market, we bought great Sicilian pine nuts (unavailable at home). It’s impossible not to get hungry, so we had some fresh-squeezed orange juice, an arancina with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese, an a mini-cannolo filled with almond flavored ricotta,
Wandering thjrough the market is a study in sensory overload. The food is beautiful. The aromas wafting from the food service stalls are enough to make any normal hungry human swoon. People push by on all sides, dodging the motorcyclists and — early in the morning — the three-wheel tut-tuts delivering the produce to the stalls. Even the fish stalls, with their dripping crushed ice, smell fresh and enticing.
This stuning octopus sat inches away from a broad tray of sea bream and another of sardines. (After all, pasta con sarde is a signature dish of Palermo.)
When we finally couldn’t take it any more, we stopped at I sapori di Ballaro, a little eatery with an incredible display of traditional dishes. It’s at Piazza Ballaro, 10. We indulged in torta of eggplant, grilled vegetables, fried artichokes, and the most unusual but truly local dish, a spleen sandwich. Below are the pretty food — and then the spleen sandwich. For the uninitiated, spleen tastes like very mild, very tender liver with some of the same kind of stringy bits between the soft meat. The lunch was a great introduction to Palermo street food. We’ll be having everything else again (and again). Except the spleen sandwich.
