Eat Smart in Sicily: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure - Softcover

Peterson, Joan; Croce, Marcella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977680118 ISBN 13: 9780977680115

Publisher: Ginkgo Press, 2008

Synopsis

Find the heart of Sicilian culture through its sumptuous cuisine
Rich with seafood, citrus, olives, and almond sweets, the cuisine of the sun-drenched island of Sicily reflects the influence of Greeks, Norman French, Tunisians, and Italians, among others. Unlike guidebooks that sweep Sicily into an overview of Italy, this latest addition to the award-winning Eat Smart series focuses solely on the cuisine of Sicily.

Eat Smart in Sicily provides an historical overview of the peoples who have lived there and their contributions to Sicilian cuisine, with attention given to the fare distinct to the villages and urban centers of Sicily's four regions. A helpful guide to Sicilian menus, with English translations of Italian (or Sicilian) words, makes ordering food in Sicily an easy and immediately rewarding experience. Highlighting regional recipe mainstays, Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce provide tips to shopping for traditional ingredients in Sicily and at home. The book also includes a comprehensive glossary of foods, kitchen utensils, and cooking methods to prepare authentic Sicilian specialties at home or abroad.

About this title

About the Author

Joan Peterson is an experienced world traveler and the author of the EAT SMART guides to the food of Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Sicily and Turkey. Each book has been designed for travelers and food lovers like her who want to navigate menu and market with confidence.

Marcella Croce was born in Palermo, Sicily, and is a journalist and author. For almost twenty years she has been a teacher and coordinator of Elderhostel Programs in Sicily organized by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Review

Eat Smart in Sicily is a travel book that you can enjoy in your kitchen long before you tuck it into your suitcase. Authors Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce survey the rich history of Sicily and its culinary influences, offer tips on finding the best local foods, and include glossaries and restaurant guides that ensure successful dining experiences while visiting. One chapter shares more than 25 authentic recipes that can be savored as a preview or a reminiscence of a remarkable and culturally significant island. --Fra Noi Newspaper, Chicago

Sicily is the melting-pot of the Mediterranean, having Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arabic, Norman, Germanic and French influences, and sitting down to a meal in Palermo is much more than stopping in at the local fast food franchise. Learning more about the food and history of Sicily will make your visit so much richer. It's what Epicurean Traveler is all about, and it is where the EAT SMART guides excel.

EAT SMART IN SICILY by Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce, is much more than the translation of a typical Sicilian menu. The first 20 pages of this 145-page guide are devoted to the history of Sicily, with the particular focus on how various conquerors affected (or didn't affect) the cuisine.

Whether it is an indictment of the way history is taught in college, or a validation of the fine writing provided by the authors, EAT SMART IN SICILY explained more about Sicilian history and its various occupiers, than I had gleaned from reading travel guidebooks, or taking History of Western Civilization in college.

Other sections explain local foods, provinces within Sicily, shopping the food markets of Sicily, helpful phrases to use in a restaurant, and an extensive menu guide. You will also find 28 Sicilian recipes here, so you can get a flavor of the island before you go there.

... if you're going to Sicily, you need this guide your visit will be the richer for it. Part phrase book, part cookbook, part travel book, each EAT SMART guide is the perfect guide for the Epicurean Traveler. --Scott Clemens, Epicurean-Traveler.com

Sicily is, of course, not only a place of romance, but home to its own particular cuisine, distinct from cuisines of the Italian mainland. To help travelers navigate this culinary landscape, Joan Peterson has added one more culture to her extremely useful EAT SMART series, this time co-authored with native Sicilian Marcella Croce. They provide a culinary history of the island, describing local foods, dishes, recipes, and food markets. The lengthy glossary and menu guide give readers significantly more information than does a general traveler's dictionary. Anyone who loves travel as much for food as for all its other pleasures, will find this an invaluable guide to a realm where food is such an important part of the life and culture of the people. Highly recommended for public libraries. --Library Journal

Edition details

• Publisher: Ginkgo Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0977680118
• ISBN 13: 9780977680115
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Chwae Susan