Posted by pietro on Thursday, May 11, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

Since we are living in Sicily for an entire month, I will not be able to afford to eat at a restaurant for every meal.  Additionally, I enjoy cooking and wanted to make use of the fresh ingredients that can be found on the island.  My roommate, Matthew, and I decided on our first morning to go to the supermarket and buy some food.  Upon walking into the store a stand of fresh strawberries demanded my gaze.  They were red and plump so we decided to buy a box.  Next, we headed to the deli to buy some deli meat and cheese.  In Italian I asked for two hundred grams of salami picante, one hundred grams of turkey (tacchino), and one hundred grams of cheese.  There were many options of cheese and I did not know which one to try so I ordered the same one as the lady before us.  After that we got rolls from the bakery to make sandwiches, bottles of water, and a bottle of nero d’avola red wine.  Everything tasted much more flavorful and fresh than what I would eat in America, as I had expected and experienced on previous visits to Sicily.  However, in previous visits I was with my family so I would either be eating dinner with them or a dinner that they cooked.  At Vanderbilt, I live in the dorms and do not have a kitchen in my room.  I am on the meal plan and am not able to cook at all.  Next semester, I am in a suite with a kitchen and will be able to cook so it would be valuable for me to develop cooking skills on this trip.

Next, I want to visit smaller individual markets like the fruttivendolo, macellaio, and pasticceria, to buy ingredients.  I believe these may be of higher quality than the supermarket.  Although there are many fantastic restaurants in Sicily, I will try to only eat out a few times a week.  In this way I can save money and practice cooking more with the abundance of fantastic ingredients around me.  We have a stove and oven in my villa so I am planning on cooking pasta, steaming vegetables, continuing to make many sandwiches with the fantastic local deli meats and cheese, and possibly getting the ingredients to bake my own pizza one day.  While at markets and restaurants I will ask chefs and owners cooking tips.  I am excited to return home more capable of cooking my own meals.