Think in taste, appreciate the ordinary

Funky Fruit

funky fruit

1. (Walking on the) peaches

How funky does fruit get? You haven’t tried a peach till you tried a Sicilian one. Yellow and white flesh, big and small. No less than six cities proclaimed themselves as ‘Peach capital‘. Look for the ‘tabacchiera’ peach. Called so for the resemblance with a tobacco box. You can call them Saturnina if you please. Little Saturn. How sweet.

pesca tabacchiera, a funky looking peach

2. Loco Loquat

loquat, Sicilian pride

This fruit originates in Japan. The scientific name Eriobotrya Japonica hints in that direction.

This juicy fruit is known a Chinese (and Japanese) plum, pipa and in Italy as nespola.

These golden nuggets are amongst the first fruits of the season. And they are much awaited as such.

Pessimist say there’s more stone than flesh. Optimist eat and enjoy.

Sampolo 246 - Cultori del Gusto

3. Funky Oranges

Sicily has a vast variety of oranges. They grow all over the island. And they have long been a major export product. When the sun shines on the groves, they turn golden. 

Oranges are winter fruit. They gather sunlight during summer and store it. For a rainy day.

Juice, marmalade or fresh. Start your day with an orange! Taste, smell, energy and vitamins all in one!

blood oranges from Sicily

4. Pretty Persimmon

persimmon, a funky fruit indeed

Funky fruit indeed. They mature around November, together with olives. When autumn colours the leaves. The unripe fruits used to be stored and eaten all through winter time.

How do you eat a ripe persimmon? Commonly with a tea spoon. Unless you purchase the non-astringent persimmon. You simply peel and slice them.

Fun fact. Dried persimmon scares away tigers. In  Korea it does. While some Indian tribes in the USA use them to predict the hardness of the winter to come.

5. Funky but prickly pears

Although not native, they are one of Sicily’s symbols. Some go as far as saying the fruit personifies Sicilians. They grow without any assistance.  Even in dire conditions. They have nasty prickles on the outside, but are sweet on the inside. A pretty lame analogy.

The prickles on the fruit are the biggest downside. No worries, they arrive polished to your table. Or ask your local dealer to clean them for you.

The ‘trees’ or cactuses are used to fence terrains. A natural substitute for barbed wire and apparently more effective.

the prickly pear is so foolishly funky

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Sampolo 246 - Cultori del Gusto
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Further more

Vini Cassarà - Kilim
Frolla Divina cookies, three categories
Feudo Mondello
Vini Cassarà - Sicilian Mastery

man sleeping on a bench with a typical Sicilian hat

From dusk till dawn

From dusk till dawn

An arbitrary selection of the finest place to stay overnight
Porta maqueda
silhouette of a man eating, wearing a typical Sicilian Coppola

Dig in

Dig in

Feeling peckish, hungry or ravenous?
waiter, please
banner il Sicilano, the best aperitif place in the old town