What to Eat Around the World | Page 54 of 70
Za'atar: The Levantine Spice Blend with Sumac and Sesame
Za'atar is a spice blend of dried Syrian oregano, tart sumac, toasted sesame, and salt - all across the Levant, you mix it with olive oil and dip bread in it. The same word means both the herb and the finished blend. It is eaten mostly in the morning, on manakish flatbread or on labneh, and in Jerusalem you even get it in a little bag with your kaak al-Quds bagel.
What to Bring Back from Israel?
Israeli cuisine pulls together Jewish flavors from all over the world, so I'd already tasted plenty of these treats in the countries they came from. In the end I brought home three specialties: pasta-shaped bisli snacks, peanut bamba, which holds a quarter of Israel's salty snack market, and ptitim pasta nicknamed Ben Gurion's rice.
Pani Cunzatu: The Bread of Shame
It looks like a pizza, but don't expect one: pani cunzatu is a halved loaf of Sicilian bread, drizzled with olive oil while still hot and piled with tomatoes, anchovies and pepato cheese. They call it the bread of shame - it used to be the food of people who couldn't afford anything better. Today Sicilians line up for it.
Pizza Secca: The Dry Pizza from Catania's Bakeries
Pizza secca is Catania's "dry pizza": a sheet of dough rolled out to a few millimeters, brushed with tomato paste, oil and oregano and baked until crisp. The bakeries of Catania sell it cold and by weight, and nowhere else in Sicily will you find it. This piece explains why a dry flatbread is called pizza, how it differs from sfincione and where I bought mine.
El Camino Tapas Restaurant: Chef-Driven Spanish Cooking in Prague
El Camino Tapas Restaurant on Prague's Jagellonská Street serves Spanish tapas with a chef's signature. It was founded by David Böhm, who had spent eleven years in Mariánské Lázně running the first tapas restaurant in Czechia. A report on an evening that worked its way through much of the menu at a single table - from bread with grated tomatoes to wild duck in escabeche.
Isai Ramen Restaurant, Prague
A review of Isai Ramen, a Prague restaurant that specializes in ramen, the Japanese noodle soup. Both the Miso Red and the Thick Broth Miso ramen were absolutely perfect: strong broth, noodles with just the right bite, tender meat and an egg that wasn't overcooked. Plus a glass of calpis, the Japanese drink made from fermented milk. Most of the guests were Japanese - the best endorsement you can get.
Pizzeria Timilia: Pizza from an Ancient Wheat in Palermo
Pizzeria Timilia on Palermo's via Maqueda takes its name not from a family but from tumminia, an ancient Sicilian wheat that goes into every dough the place mixes. What it bakes is pizza in teglia: in a tray, sold by the piece and by weight, warmed through just before it reaches you. What that format is, where it came from, and what the two pieces I picked out of the display case cost.
Frutta Martorana: Sicilian Marzipan Fruit
Frutta martorana is Sicilian marzipan fruit and vegetables you can't tell from the real thing from a meter away. They're named after a Palermo convent whose nuns weren't allowed to make them, and on All Souls' Day dead relatives leave them for the children. What the almond paste is made of, why it's softer than the marzipan we know back home, and how to tell hand-painted from spray-painted.
What to Bring Back from Sicily?
From Sicily I bring back busiate and caserecce pasta, cheeses from small local producers and grainy Modica chocolate with its protected IGP label. Add candied orange peel, anise cookies made just outside Palermo and a small bottle of bittersweet amaro that even makes it through airport security. And cheap ceramics with Sicilian motifs make a gift that always lands well.
Bar Touring: The Genovese Family's Palermo Bar for Locals
An Italian bar is not a place for a night out but a daytime institution - and Bar Touring, by the Villa Giulia park in Palermo, has been one since 1959. From early morning until midnight the Genovese family sells coffee, cornetti, cannoli and the flagship arancina bomba, all 400 grams of it. Plus a tiramisu that shouldn't have stood a chance in a temple of Sicilian sweets - and won anyway.