Palermo’s Street food

If you plan to go to Sicily a good reason to visit Palermo, together with the beauties of the city, it’s a gastronomic tour. This region, but mostly the city of Palermo, is known for being the capital of street food. I will walk you through some of the best street food you can find in the city and the not-to-be-missed dishes you absolutely have to try when you come into town.
Keep the list on your phone and, once you hit the streets of Palermo, you will realize from the smell that in every corner of the city there is kiosk, where the food is cooked fresh right on the spot, with something you may take away while walking. Very important to remember, if you are under diet, please postpone your trip otherwise you will not be able to enjoy those goodies.
The typical dishes of Palermo‘s street food are the result of historical contamination and the mix of different ingredients and habits brought into the island by different cultures like Normans, Greeks, Arabs, Phoenicians, Bourbons, etc.. The local markets, active since the Arabs, are the pulsating soul of the city’s street food. There you can find fish, fruit, vegetables and “take away” at good prices, to be savored when walking from one food stall to another while the vendors scream trying to catch buyers’ attention. Capo, Vucciria, Ballarò and Borgo Vecchio are the four main historical open-air markets where street food among the stalls is a must. Let’s talk about some of the most important and famous dishes:

1– Pane e panelle, bread with panelle, crisp fried chickpea fritters on soft sesame-seeded buns. Sometimes they squeeze a bit of lemon on panelle’s top.
2– Pane con la milza, basically a sandwich stuffed with spleen of veal cooked over low heat in a copper pan with lard, lung and trachea. It comes in two versions: Schietta, which only contains the above-mentioned ingredients, or Maritata (married) that adds grated hard salt ricotta cheese inside the bun.
3– Arancina, fried rice balls.
4– Stigghiola, are grilled lamb intestine that has been seasoned with parsley and onion. After grilling, stigghiola vendors add a bit of lemon juice, and then cut the long tubes into small rings.
5– Sfincione, somewhere in between a pizza crust and bread. Very soft it’s seasoned with tomato sauce, onion, caciovallo cheese, anchovies and olive oil.
6– Brioscia col tuppo and gelato, no meal would be complete without dessert, basically sweet bread filled with lots of ice-cream or granita. These for me are the once cannot be denied, although I could go on with many others, My personal suggestion it’s to organize, with a local guide, a street food tour and enjoy them all.

For any further information contact me at
stefaniamontalbano@carlozucchetti.it

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