Every summer since I was a toddler, my family travels to a small, fisherman village called Pozzallo in Sicily, where my mom’s side of the family originally comes from. And each year, all my cousins, grandparents, aunts/uncles – each from different countries – come together under one roof. With narrow streets and the beautiful Mediterranean […]
I’ve been getting more and more into pasta lately – maybe it’s because I’ve been living with my Italian grandparents over the summer or because I’m feeling melancholy of my summers in Italy. It’s come to the point that I’ve even begun listening to cringey Italian music (shout out to Fedez). Anyways, it got me […]
Amidst coronavirus, I’m sticking to what I – and a lot of other people – love most: cooking and baking. One challenge I’ve presented to myself is to make a dish (or dishes) of international cuisines every week, learn some words from the language, and e-visit some of the country’s landmarks. Some of these dishes […]
Every Christmas, two things will always be on our table: Sicilian sciacce and cubbaita. What is cubbaita, you may ask? Cubbaita is a toasted sesame, almonds, and honey Sicilian brittle with hints of orange. It was originally an Arab specialty that Sicilians have since adopted. Like the making and slicing of sciacce, cubba’ita is serious […]
Sicilian summers are known for their blazing temperatures. Yet, despite this, Sicilians manage to cook hours on end in this weather. And for the most part without air conditioning. I’m not at their endurance level, so when there was a cool day, I jumped on the opportunity to bake – I hadn’t done so in […]
This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach English of some children in a small fisherman village in Southeast Sicily called Pozzallo. I wanted to approach this task innovatively, and, as always, food came to mind. How could I weave in English and cooking together, and what are some of the benefits of doing […]