Palermo

While the Vucciria is home to the most famous market in Palermo, I don’t much care for it (read: super touristy), preferring the Capo and Ballaro’, two of my favorite places on earth. They are large, rambling affairs where vendors sell produce, meat, and fish. Butcher shops display the skinned heads of recently slaughtered animals in the manner of North African and Middle Eastern bazaars; fish are stiff with rigor; produce is ripe and (mainly) local. You’ll also find stalls selling Palermo’s street food there.

While the Vucciria is home to the most famous market in Palermo, I don’t much care for it (read: super touristy), preferring the Capo and Ballaro’, two of my favorite places on earth. They are large, rambling affairs where vendors sell produce, meat, and fish. Butcher shops display the skinned heads of recently slaughtered animals in the manner of North African and Middle Eastern bazaars; fish are stiff with rigor; produce is ripe and (mainly) local. You’ll also find stalls selling Palermo’s street food there.

And if you want an amazing fish meal in a clean, enclosed environment, head to Piccolo Napoli. This family run establishment serves outstanding fish dishes in Borgo Vecchio. It is open Monday to Saturday for lunch and Thursday to Saturday for dinner. Booking is essential on the weekends, as palermitani flock for polpo bollito (boiled octopus), spaghetti con i ricci (with sea urchin roe), and involtini di spatola (filets of scabbard fish rolled around breadcrumbs, pine nuts and currants). Save room for a few buccellati (the original fig newton!) and cassata brought in from Pasticceria Oscar.

Since opening in the Kalsa in 2017, Quattro Mani has brought super fresh fish and produce and traditional flavors to Palermo’s well-heeled locals and visitors. Watch their insta feed for nights they serve couscous with fish.

The place for a Sicilian pub food, ie horse and donkey burgers. Great wine list and beer, too.

It’s hard to beat the Convento di Santa Caterina for sweets. The convent housed cloistered nuns from 1311 to 2014. Since 2017, the cloister has been taken over by a group of professional baking women who make the most spectacular cassate and fill cannoli studded with ground pistachios. GO THERE.

I love ricotta in all its forms: as stuffing in ravioli, in its salted and grateable version, and especially as the sweetened filling of desserts. When I visit Palermo, I usually stay near Mazzara, which does delectable ricotta-filled cornetti (as well as every other imaginable pasty).

I have been known to travel across town to Oscar on Via Migliaccio for my cassata.

Costa is also quite awesome.

I would’t turn down a cannolo from Alba.

When visiting Monreale with public transport, take the AST bus from Via Calatafimi (at the moment the 389 bus is suspended). Beforehand, take a detour to two nearby pastry shops, Cappello and Massaro. Their setteveli, seven-layer cakes, are insane

When visiting Monreale with public transport, take the AST bus from Via Calatafimi (at the moment the 389 bus is suspended). Beforehand, take a detour to two nearby pastry shops, Cappello and Massaro. Their setteveli, seven-layer cakes, are insane.

Sliced sesame seed rolls are filled with slices of spleen cooked in lard. Even if you are squeamish, please give this sandwich a chance. Pane ca’ meusa is served all over town but the place that does it best is aptly names Pani ca’ Meusa di Porta Carbone. It is located on Via Cala and you can grab a sandwich and a beer and sit at the tables on the sidewalk that look across the street to the port and beyond to Monte Pellegrino.

Pane con panelle is another classic streetfood that you can find absolutely everywhere. I am partial to the stall in Piazza Ballaro’, where the vendors (a husband and wife team, I believe) drop panelle into a bubbling cauldron of oil to order. They stuff each sesame seeded roll with 5-6 of the piping hot chick pea fritters and can even add stuff a few crocche’ (potato croquettes) in there with them.

My favorite place for breakfast pastry or a quick slice of cake in the afternoon–plus excellent coffee any time of day–is Casa Stagnitta near San Cataldo.

For crudi (raw fish), take Foro Umberto, the long road that follows the coast southeast, past the Orto Botanico where fishermen sell ricci di mare (sea urchins) and cozze (mussels) straight out of the sea. Magic.

This historic wine shop on Via Marconi, 36 has a vast selection of Sicilian vino.

Newer Bocum is a kinda fancy cocktail bar but has a great selection of natural wines.