I recently saw an image on Facebook from a supposedly Italian restaurant in Australia. I was reminded how different perceived Italian cuisine is very different from authentic Italian food prepared and consumed in Italy. For example, Italians would never put pasta together with crumbed meat on the same plate. You will never see meatballs on…
Continue reading ➞ How to eat like an Italian
My Sicilian grandparents have passed away, and their absence from my life has left me with a great sense of emptiness. Their stories and their Sicily is a comfort to me as my family’s connection to the island is vital and goes back many generations. I married a Sicilian, a distant cousin in a…
Continue reading ➞ A lifetime of Sundays
I’m not sure how it happened, but it was a gradual transformation. I didn’t even notice it. After many years of living in Sicily, I have become accustomed to its rhythm, to small-town living, and at times it infuriates me, yet I find I have achieved a certain comfort with life on the island. I…
Continue reading ➞ Living a Sicilian life
During my first days living at Sinagra, I noticed people had a strange way of treating me. It is as if I’m a novelty. I am a new plaything, a foreigner whom people regard with curiosity. I quickly became the subject of local gossip. Walking out into the main square in town with my husband,…
Continue reading ➞ First Days living in Sicily
The arrival (Catania, August 2002) Arriving at Catania airport, my husband and I are hit by the blistering heat of August in Sicily. We are two sweaty zombies after an eighteen-hour flight from Perth, Western Australia to Rome, followed by another hour from Rome to Catania. It is hotter than hell. Our clothes are wet…
Continue reading ➞ Arriving in Sicily
The Sicily of today is very different from the one my grandparents left behind; it has gone through a tremendous economic boom which saw it move from an agricultural-based economy to one based on industry, all in one generation. People in contemporary Sicily live as well as anyone else and barely recall the hardships of…
Continue reading ➞ Moving towards Sicily
My Grandparent’s generation in the 1950s wasn’t the first to have left the island; the inhabitants of this region have immigration in their blood. Sicily’s ancestry comprises generations of colonising Greeks, from conquering Romans, to tyrannical Normans, cosmopolitan Arabs and imperial Bourbons. Sicily’s timeline is made up of a long succession of dominations, thirteen different…
Continue reading ➞ Immigration in their blood
The last time I was back home in Perth, Western Australia for a visit I suddenly became a victim to reverse culture shock. A bizarre affliction for an expat living in Italy as every day you are battling tiny little moments of friction between yourself and your new home, but slowly you begin to adjust…
Continue reading ➞ Italian coffee shop culture
I recently saw this image on Facebook from a supposedly "Italian" restaurant in Australia and was reminded of how different food consumption is in Italy. Yes, the photo does look delicious, but this is in no way an authentic way of serving Italian food. Italians would never put pasta together with meat on the same…
Continue reading ➞ How to eat like an Italian
I am probably the worst gardener in the world, name a plant, and I've probably killed it usually by forgetting to water it. Strangely enough, both my parents and grandparents were (and still are) fantastic green thumbs. Our family always had terrific vegetable gardens. In the summer we never needed to buy tomatoes, basil, eggplants…
Continue reading ➞ Reflections on a summer garden
You must be logged in to post a comment.