What to Bring Back | Page 2 of 2
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.
What to Bring Back from Bulgaria?
From Bulgaria I mainly bring back sirene, the white cheese that is my favorite local ingredient, and cured meats to go with it: sujuk sausage with its coat of noble mold and spicy pastarma. The cheap spice blends, led by colorful salt (sharena sol), really do get used at home, and a cream made with Damask roses from the famous Rose Valley has been a hit as a gift.
What to Bring Back from Turkey?
What I bring back from Turkey is mainly sweets: sesame halva in small bars and the version with dried figs and walnuts, plus chocolate with pistachios from around Gaziantep. I also packed Turkish Earl Grey in a metal tin, green tea with sakura flavor, black mulberry jam and, just to try it, instant lentil soup - you can pick all of it up in an ordinary supermarket.