L'oste Del Borgo, Modica - Review

Today I made my second visit to L'oste del Borgo in Modica Bassa. My first was some time ago with my friend Lucy, who sadly no longer lives in Modica, so today I decided to suggest somewhere different to Totó for our special lunch (today is a public holiday in Italy and therefore an opportunity to slot some extra time together into our very busy lives), so we wondered through a very crowded Modica, filled with lots of people enjoying the Chocolate festival, which has been going on all weekend (very entertaining and enjoyable it has been too).

The restaurant is in one of the side streets, a very pretty little stairway, just a few minutes walk from the main streets in the centre of Modica Bassa. It's a pretty place with lots of interesting decor and local artwork.

There is the option to have four courses (either a fish menu or a meat menu) for €25, we decided to opt for this option today and had a few fish choices to select from. A lot more food than we would ordinarily order but the price was good, my previous visit had been grand, it was a festival day and, well, why the hell not?

For our antipasto course, we ordered a dish of Polpo é Patate (Octopus and Potato) and Baccalá (Salt Cod) to divide between the two of us.

The Octopus and potato dish was beautifully delicate, used a good olive oil, a little lemon juice and, my favourite ingredient, saffron. While the baccalá provided us with a fuller taste, crispy batter and a wholesome, homely feeling. A lovely start.

We both opted for the same primi, a seafood ravioli with the meat of small crustaceans that have a similar taste to the sweetness of lobster.

Fabulous handmade pasta, stuffed with lovely fishy meat and served in a fragrant broth with the beautiful sweet meat. An absolute delight. And served with a nice little batch of focaccia bread.

Then on to our main courses, Totó opted for Pesce Spada (Swordfish) Palermitana with a tomato and caciocavallo cheese from Ragusa. While

I went for Ricciola (Amberjack) pieces with a typically Sicilian, orange and fennel salad. Totó's dish was well cooked, tasty and the cheese on the salad was amazing but I think i definitely made the right choice. My char-grilled fish was so, so tasty and the salad was a refreshing accompaniment. By this point we were both feeling pretty full, we made good attempts to finish both dishes, tried each other's but neither of us were able to completely empty our plates, so much food!

After a short, much needed break, we ordered dessert. A mixed chocolate plate in honour of Modica's famous chocolate.

We were treated to a gorgeous piece of Modica chocolate, a refreshng jellified chocolate pudding, one of Modica's traditional mpanatigghi - a pastry filled with chocolate and meat, yes actual meat! They are a delicacy around here, however, Totó had to eat both of ours due to my abstinence from meat. And finally, a wonderful, yet potent shot of chocolate liquor. Totó order a second lot of dessert, it really was THAT good!

Slightly unusual for us to opt for the house wine but we did just that this afternoon. And a litre of lovely local insolia left us lavishing in peachy tasting goodness. A great decision.

A fantastic meal, such good value, pleasing atmosphere, jazz playing softly in the background and friendly service with a smile. Just perfect.

L'oste Del Borgo
Scalinate di Pozzo Barone, 30
Modica

Delicatessen, Ragusa - Review

Thanks to my lovely friends living in Ragusa, I recently discovered this fabulous little gem of a place.

Half-deli, half-canteen style eatery, Delicatessen is a great place to stop for a bite to eat, day or night. You can enjoy one of the great freshly made sandwiches which offer plethora of fillings on a variety of breads or one of the homemade hot dishes from the kitchen, which includes pastas and soups with fresh, seasonal vegetables. There is a lot on offer here for vegetarians and vegans, with clear indications of which dishes are suitable, something which is still rather unusual in Sicily.

The decor is very modern and stylish, you could be forgiven for thinking this place might be better suited in one of Barcelona's fashionable districts or Manchester's Northern Quarter and so on.

Yesterday, my friend Emily and I popped in for a spot of lunch.

We both opted for sandwiches. Mine was mackerel with lettuce and black pepper while Emily went for prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and pesto. Both huge sandwiches arrived after a little while and we delved in with eager anticipation (and significant hunger). The mackerel was a delight, really fresh tasting and beautifully seasoned. Emily thoroughly enjoyed hers and despite us both having started to feel quite full before finishing, we both made sure to finish every last bit in acknowledgement of such extreme tastiness.

(Pictured is Emily with her sandwich)

We have both had different sandwiches from here before and due to the high quality and wide variety on offer, we have challenged ourselves to try a different one each time.

The café offers a great selection of fresh juices. On this visit I went for a large glass of orange, carrot, celery and ginger which was revitalising as well as incredibly tasty. Emily had her usual glass of apple and pineapple, a favourite that never disappoints her.

Also on offer is a good range of local wines, ideal for evening visits.

You can also visit the deli where local cheeses, meats and fresh vegetables, along with a variety of specialist local produce is on offer.

The staff are incredibly friendly, though the service is true to the slow-food philosophy, so it is best not to go when you are in a hurry, as I have previously learnt from experience.

Slow service aside, it really is a treasure of a find, great food, great atmosphere and great times.

Delicatessen
Via Archimede 32-34, Ragusa

https://www.facebook.com/DelicatessenRagusa

Pasticceria Chantilly, Modica - Review

A little break from the usual reviews of bars and restaurants to talk about a lovely little pasticceria in the centre of Modica Bassa.

At Chantilly you can find a lovely range of cakes and biscuits, as well as Modica chocolate and a variety of local liquors and wines. Always beautifully presented and freshly made on the premises, whatever you choose, your sweet-tooth is sure to be delighted.

In the warmer months, you will also find a small selection of home-made Italian ice cream and some frozen desserts.

This weekend we celebrated Totó's 40th birthday with a little dinner party at home. While I love cooking, I'm not hugely into baking so Chantilly was my first choice of where to order a special cake for a special celebration. The lady in the shop was so accommodating, chatty and helpful. We agreed on a lemon cake with cream and for the decoration to include a picture of a camera, since Totó is a photographer.

So Saturday night arrived and after our dinner, the cake was served along with some celebratory champagne. Fabulously decorated, the birthday boy was incredibly happy with the design. When we tucked in, all of the group were thrilled with the lovely, moist, lemony taste. A triumph!

The cake was ready 24 hours after I ordered it and cost just €17 for a cake that could easy feed eight people as a dessert.


La Pasticceria Chantilly
Corso Umberto I, 76, Modica

http://www.pasticceriachantilly.org/

La Bottega, Modica Bassa - A Fond Farewell

No review this weekend but rather a sad goodbye after hearing that one of my favourite places has closed for good.

I tried to make one of my (quite regular) visits to La Bottega in Modica Bassa about a month ago but found it to be closed. It is not unusual that at this time of year, some places close for a holiday but the third week of the continued closed shutters I did start to comment on what a long

holiday they were having and after a month it became something of a joke to think how long they would be on their break for. Due to La Bottega's constant popularity, it never crossed my mind that perhaps they had gone out of business but just a few days ago, I was told that they had indeed put the shutters down for good.

La Bottega was a little place that sold the most delightful sandwiches and salads, they served arguably the world's best chips and their local red wine in winter was always a welcome warming delight, while in summer I would often sit outside with a chilled, pleasant glass of white. the food was simple but always a delight.

All of this, along with the lovely staff and the reasonable prices, made La Bottega an extremely regular hang-out, especially for me and fellow ex-pats living in Modica. Many of us would finish work in the evening and so when we arrived back in Modica Bassa rarely would we want to go home to cook, so this would be the place where we would sit down to eat and to unwind after a hard day teaching, or working as an au pair and so on. It was a home from home, we could use the WIFI, sit long into the evening outdoors in the warmer months or enjoy the warmth from the open kitchen in the wintertime. It was always somewhere that felt welcome, somewhere we felt comfortable.

So I write this fond farewell not just from me but also from the two Lauras, from Aminah, Katy, Nadine, Lucy, Natasha, Mike and many others who benefitted from this lovely little place.

La Bottega - you shall be sadly missed!

Trattoria Basilico - Modica Bassa - Review

Trattoria basilico opened just over a year ago and quickly became a favourite place to eat for my fellow ex-pat friends and I. It's very close to my house so it is our usual place to dine at the times when I don't feel like cooking, in recent times, Totó and I have visited at least once in every fortnight. The restaurant offers a small menu of fresh produce, which changes daily and all dishes are prepared in the open kitchen. the restaurant is owned by simply the loveliest couple and is decorated in a unique, bijoux, mediterranean style... an amalgam of vivid colours, quirky artifacts and, last but definitely not least, a tribute to traditional Sicilian puppet theatre. In addition to this, you are always treated to a wonderful soundtrack of jazz or blues, a perfect accompaniment to a relaxing dining experience.

Today's November Sunday in southern Sicily was not unlike a good spring day in my native UK... temperatures in the low to mid twenties and when the sun was shining, it felt like more, it may be November 20th but it was pleasurable to sit outside in the sunshine, minus jackets, so after a leisurely morning, Totó and I decided to dine al fresco at one of our usual haunts.

Our starter was a shared plate of moscardini, little octopuses in a tomato and garlic sauce. It was the first time that I had tried this dish and I was really thrilled with the acidic sauce and thoroughly enjoyed the tiny whole octopuses.

This was served with warm, fresh bread, some toasted and some served warm from the oven. It was a lovely little opener and one plate was quite satisfactory for the two of us.

For our main courses, we both opted for Tagliolini Bottarga - pasta with tuna roe. I am a big bottarga fan and whenever I see it on a menu, it is usually my favoured choice. Today's bottarga was beautiful and served with a lemon and parsley sauce which tasted so wonderfully refreshing. We both made all the mmmmm-ing and hmmmm-ing noises possible on the first taste.

It was really a delightful dish and one that did not last very long at all!

Today's choice of vino was Hauner - Salina Bianco. This 60% Inzolia and 40% Catarratto mix from vineyards in Salina and Vulcano is a prefect accompaniment to fish dishes. It is crisply acidic with a sharp, tangy citrus aftertaste and hints of juniper and herbs (perhaps sage, I am still training my palate). A really enjoyable drink, which was recommended by our host as a good accompaniment, the gentleman of the casa has always been spot on with his wine suggestions, this guy knows his stuff!

No desserts for either of us today as Totó and his mother have filled my house with sweet treats so none were required... however, previous visits have included delicious rustic chocolate cakes and fantastic pistachio mousse. Always accompany with the Passito di Noto dessert wine!

Another lovely lunch, served by two of the loveliest people in Modica. A favourite place and somewhere you must visit if and when you come to Modica!

Trattoria Basilico
Corso Mazzini, Modica

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Trattoria-Basilico/194486314058346?fref=ts

Domus - Modica Bassa - Review

Today's lunch has been a firm favourite of mine for a while but was the first time Totó has visited Domus in Modica Bassa. I have been many times with friends and family and have yet to have anything less than fantastic experiences in the dining room. Domus opened some months ago, I was pleased to hear that the former chef of a restaurant I had once regularly frequented (but had gone downhill since his departure) had opened a place of his own. The Venezuelan family who own and run the restaurant have never failed to be anything other than extremely accommodating and hospitable and the food has always been of the highest quality. We are very fortunate in Modica, in that we have a plethora of fine places to eat but Domus offers something quite different to the other places in town.

Situated close to San Pietro on Modica's main street, Corso Umberto, Domus is a rather small but subtly elegant restaurant decorated in brilliant white and has a small outside eating space for the summer months.

The restaurant always serves warm, fresh home baked bread in various flavours, today we were treated to foccacia baked with rosmary, bread with porcini mushrooms, mini dough balls and bread with cumin and dried fruit. We ordered an appetiser of calamari served with puréed potatoes, it wasn't the first time I had had this dish and, as it has always been previously, it was delicately flavoured and just enough to whet the appetite.

For our main course, we both opted for grilled sword fish, served with prawns and (more) calamari with a side order of potatoes baked with paprika. It is precisely this type of main course which makes Domus different to the other places to eat in town,

it is less wholesome, traditional Sicilian food and more of an exoticly spiced, experimental dining experience. The huge slab of sword fish was cooked to perfection and the large prawns and calamari offered something tantalisingly tasty in between mouthfuls of the main part of the meal. Served with a tomato salsa and a creamy dip, the spicy paprika potatoes were just the perfect accompaniment to this lovely main course.

We usually opt for Sicilian wines but today we decided to go for a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc on the recommendation of our host. Los Vascos is a sharp tasting white that was able to cut through the spices and various fishy tastes perfectly. A great choice to go with our meal and a wine we will both endeavour to drink again in the future.

No dessert at the restaurant today, as I was a good little Sicilian girl this morning and popped out to a pasticceria for us to have something sweet once we returned home. That said, I have had dessert a number of times at the restaurant before and can highly recommend the chocolate fondant or the raspberry and prosecco jelly. My fellow ex-pat and former colleague Lucy and I have regularly talked each other into having a dessert here and marvelled at how cheap the bill would be in light of the quality of food we had experienced... if this restaurant were in our native England, neither of us would be able to afford to eat there, we are talking serious quality for a very low cost.

Very highly recommended for anyone visiting Modica, I will probably see you there!

Domus Restaurant and Grill
Corso Umberto I, 156, Modica RG

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Domus-modica-food/470829306382743

Dirupo Rosso - Ragusa/Giarratana - Review

After a late, relaxing morning, my personal guide to Sicily decided to take me to a restaurant that he had visited many years ago for a wholesome, Sunday lunch in the countryside. On this island, the problem with visiting places that you just vaguely remember or have been given directions for, is that the country roads here are largely lacking in significant landmarks and road signage in Sicily is something of a mystery to locals as much as anyone who visits here... with this in mind it took us almost two hours of u-turns and advanced level reversing before we finally arrived at our destination, with the help of two lots of people by the roadside along the way (the journey back to Modica took approximately 15 minutes, as by then Totó (my boyfriend, who I have decided I do not want to repeatedly refer to as 'my boyfriend' every time he appears in a post)* had remembered the way he had been before).

Once we finally arrived, I realised that the journey had been worth our while. We were by a lovely lake, surrounded by hills that glistening in the November sunshine and the old country farmhouse that greeted us looked so warm and inviting. Inside, we were seated in one of the three dining rooms that overlook the lake, beautifully decorated and with tables dressed pristinely with white table clothes and elegant glassware. The only thing not in keeping with the understated elegance of the room and the tranquility of the outdoors scene was the awful pop music being played throughout - restaurants not choosing appropriate background music is a huge annoyance to me, the whole atmosphere is affected.

We ordered a mixed antipasto to begin with. Which was delicious, it included the most wonderful fresh ricotta, that had been slightly baked in the oven, sliced sausage (I'm not a meat-eater myself but Totó enjoyed what I couldn't), Sicilian focaccia (wrapped pasta with tomatoes), a spinach and pancetta dish, olives, peppers and some lovely bread made on the premises. We enjoyed the baked ricotta so much that we asked for some extra before our main course.

Neither of us can really manage the full antipasto, primi, secondi and dessert courses, so we usually opt for antipasto and either a first or second course. Today we both ordered pasta, I had been told that this area was prolific in wild mushrooms and so I thought while in the area I ought to try some. I ordered tagliatelle with local mushrooms, aubergine and tomato sauce, Totó ordered the same dish but with pancetta. The fresh pasta was delightful and the mushroom recommendation lived up to all expectations, a thoroughly pleasing Sicilian pasta.

After a short break, I didn't need much convincing to share a dessert. I had no idea what bigne was, so Totó felt it only right that he order this. What arrived were two delicate balls of choux pastry, one filled with sweet ricotta, the other with sweet cream. They were gorgeous, scrumptious, adorable and gone in two minutes. It was suggested we order another round of them and I feel I practised an enormous amount of self-control and strong will by refusing.

Our wine choice was Mandrarossa (2012), a Sicilian Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine has a beautiful colour, lighter than many of the regions red wines. While there is a distinct fruitiness about it, the wine is dry and has a pleasing pungent taste. With desert we had not one, but two glasses of one of my favourites, Passito di Noto. A combination of fruit and honey flavours, this is a perfect accompaniment to any Sicilian dessert.

Our waiter was courteous and attentive and the extra ricotta we had asked for with our starter was offered by the house. All was reasonably priced (as with most places in our area), absolutely no complaints regarding food, service or cost.

We spent a little time enjoying the views of the lake before returning (at a faster pace) home to Modica. I loved our lunchtime visit and would really like to return again, perhaps when friends or family visit from abroad.

Diruppo Rosso
Located on the road for Correndola 194 for 7km from Ragusa heading towards Gerratana

http://www.ristorantediruporosso.it/index.html

*I am aware that this is brackets within brackets, even as an English language teacher, I am not sure if this is officially allowed.