TR AVE L
PALE R M O
N CHAOS AND
HARMONY Surrounded by the aroma of tempting street food and scenes from a tempestuous past, Nicola Edmonds loses herself in the bustling market squares and back streets of Sicily’s main city, Palermo. Words and photography — NICOLA ED M OND S
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o words are spoken between Nino and his clientele at the Ballarò market. The young maestro knows exactly how his customers like their calves’ guts. With the speed and grace of a surgeon, he slips handfuls of warm offal from the mysterious depths of a tightly wrapped wicker basket into a plain white panini or a few squares of grease-proof paper. A quick douse of pepper or a spritz of lime juice and the customer is served with a flourish and a smirk. The surprisingly delicious frittola are a speciality in the city of Palermo. The culinary tradition dates back to the 15th century, when the frittularu strapped his basket to the back of a donkey. At that time, Sicily’s capital was said to be one of the finest cities in Europe; a reputation it had held for centuries. Al-Edrisi, an Arab geographer to the Norman king, Roger II, once described it as “the largest and most sublime metropolis in the world, whose praises never end,” adding, “The city has an abundance of fruit and her buildings and elegant villas defy description… To look at this city is enough to make one’s head spin.” Palermo is still dizzying today. But it is the city’s grit and verve, rather than fine architecture, that is overwhelming. Bombs gutted most of the historic centre in 1943, during World War II, and, due in great part to mafia interference, the rebuild process was haphazard, with little regard for preservation.
Today in Ballarò, three-wheeled Ape vans have replaced donkeys and although the market has a scruffy reputation, it’s a magical place. Like the souks of Sicily’s close-by North African neighbours, there’s an exotic sprawl of vendors selling almost anything you can imagine and possibly more you can’t. The voices and music of two continents mingle in the morning crowds. Beside trestles stacked with gleaming piles of fresh fish and seafood are Day-Glo displays of fruit and vegetables that include small hillocks of the freshest, squeakiest brassicas imaginable. There are large steel bowls of babbaluci (tiny snails nestled among finely chopped parsley) and the scent of oregano beckons shoppers to stalls selling baked ricotta encrusted in herbs. The market is a wonderful place to start to explore Palermo’s many street food stalls – rated as some of the best in the world. The abundant fried delicacies originate from the 18th century when food was rationed. Many Sicilians couldn’t afford to cook in their own homes. Street food, which was cheap, filled the gap. Some dishes are familiar, such as deep-fried rice balls, succulent squid and octopus, croquettes of mashed potato with egg, and the Palermo version of a chip butty: chickpea flour fritters wrapped in a bun. Others are less so, like a cheesy spleen sandwich or skewers of barbecued goat intestines. It’s easy to devote whole days to the consumption of offerings from countless oil-filled vats.
OPPOSITE PAGE:
Locals enjoy thickcrusted slabs of sfincione pizza for morning tea.
ABOVE, FROM LEFT:
The tranquil courtyard of Palazzo Lanza Tomasi; Nino di Ballarò draws daily crowds to feast from his frittola cart. The wicker basket conceals refried morsels from somewhat gruesome origins.
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“Like the souks of Sicily’s close-by North African neighbours, there’s an exotic sprawl of vendors selling almost anything you can imagine and possibly more you can’t.”
Palermo is a relatively easy city to explore with four main quarters in the central city, including the Ballarò area, Capo, Vucciria and Kalsa districts. The Vucciria area of Palermo, which stretches back from the harbour, once hosted the city’s most famous market. But today it is all but gone. By day, the district is a mass of rubble and derelict buildings, crisscrossed with graffiti, murals and washing lines. But at night, the quiet piazze come alive. Lively bars bump elbows with tiny family-run restaurants, and street vendors fire up their grills to tempt passers-by with an array of kebabs and seafood to take away. Cambria is the place to go for the best in mezzaluna (a knife consisting of a single or double-curved blade with a handle on each end). The tiny shop is in one of the wending laneways that comprise what’s left of the original Vucciria market. The storefront is hard to spot behind stalls selling souvenirs, but inside is a small Aladdin’s cave, jammed with every kind of sharp-edged tool and implement. Like many Palermo locals, the proprietors don’t speak English but are eager to please. In the Kalsa district, a few blocks from Bar Touring – one of the tastiest places in town to try a softballsized arancini – is the gracious Palazzo Lanza Tomasi. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa chose this seaside property when his family’s palace was destroyed during the war. It was here he wrote The Leopard, one of Sicily’s best-known novels and where he spent his final days. The building has been fully restored by Lampedusa’s adopted son, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi. Gioacchino’s wife, Nicoletta, more formally known as the Duchess of Palma, oversees her own small empire to help fund the ever-present cost of repairs. She also runs cooking classes for her guests and invites me to join one. We begin with a visit to another of Palermo’s wonderful markets, in the Capo area. The vendors are in fine voice extolling the virtues of their wares. The calls are known as abbiannata, an art established in Northern
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Africa. If there’s nothing better to boast about, they will even yell about the weather. Nicoletta points out gangly zucchini, as long as trombones, which are in season. A special soup, Minestra di Tenerumi, a Sicilian delicacy, is made from their delicate tendrils. At another stall, Mimmo Isgrò, Nicoletta’s fishmonger slices up thick steaks of swordfish. Nicoletta has a special relationship with this stall. In Palermo the idea of “belonging” is integral to understanding the people and how they identify themselves. Sicilians belong first to the family and then to friends and subsequently to particular stallholders and vendors. The result is respect between buyers and sellers. Back in the Palazzo, installed in the large and beautifully tiled lilac kitchen, we set to work to prepare a five-course lunch. The menu includes another streetfood favourite – panelle. Initially these snacks were cut in the shape of a fish and flavoured with vinegar – a cheap substitute for the poor, to replace the fish they couldn’t afford. The Duchess’s cookie-cutter versions of the chickpea fritters are light and dainty in comparison with those I’ve sampled on the street. In between fortifying breaks for espresso and biscotti, some students peel the skins off roasted capsicum for a black olive salad; others assemble a mousse of pink watermelon decorated with fragrant jasmine flowers and dark chocolate chips. The dinner plate-sized swordfish steaks are marinated with a fragrant paste of pink peppercorns, parsley, mint, pistachio and anchovies. Gioacchino joins us for lunch, seated regally at the head of a dining room table of aristocratic proportions. Our banquet meanders Italian-style through the afternoon. Later, as a soft salty breeze slips through lofty windows looking out to sea, we admire our delicate dessert. It seems almost sacrilegious to break the spell with a spoon.
OPPOSITE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): Babbaluci;
Capo market; a vendor prepares stigghiola – roasted goat intestines. ABOVE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT):
Platters of freshly caught octopus; stallholders stuff soft white buns with deep-fried chickpea fritters and croquettes; Nicoletta, Duchess of Palma, chats with Giuseppe – her chosen greengrocer at the Capo market.
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PALERMO HIGHLIGHTS
BALLARÒ MARKET: Piazza Ballarò. CAPO MARKET: Via Porta Carini. BAR TOURING: Piazzetta Porta Reale
(Via Lincoln). Excellent arancini; try “La Bomba” (one-pound size). Also great for Sicilian patisserie and all come beautifully wrapped with box and bow. PANINERIA FRIGGITORIA CHILUZZO:
10 Piazza della Kalsa. Best place to feast on panelle and crocchè. PIAZZA KALSA: Via Torremuzza. Visit this avenue in the evenings for its carnival atmosphere. Eat outside at one of the no-frills street-side trattorias. The fish is fresh and cheap and and the hectoring restaurant hosts provide an amusing sideshow. CAMBRIA (KNIFE SHOP):
30 Discesa Maccheronai. ANTICA FOCACCERIA SAN FRANCESCO: 58 Via A.
Paternostro. A good place to go for those who prefer to sample Palermo’s street-food specialities within an indoor cafe setting. Renowned for the owners’ stance against local mafia. afsf.it FORO ITALICO: Take a seat to watch the sunrise from one of the polka dot-covered benches that line the harbourside promenade. BUTERA 28 APARTMENTS:
Self-contained apartments within the historical Palazzo Lanza Tomasi. butera28.it
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The narrow
backstreets of Palermo are watched over by a colourful assortment of balcony dwellers; fresh jasmine adds fragrance to a simple summer dessert; the portrait of a former prince of Lampedusa looks on from the walls of the gracious dining room of the Lanza Tomasi palace; golden panelle, one of the most irresistible street snacks in Palermo.
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