It’s easy to fall for the markets of Palermo: sundrenched side streets filled with lemons so bright, ricotta so creamy, capers by the basketful, and, let’s not forget, street food like nowhere else. Vendors in the Ballarò market howl, competing for the attention of hungry shoppers from tables spread with freshly cooked octopus and smoking grills loaded with offal. Stand after stand offer a paper cone of crispy battered and fried seafood, but you can also sit down for a plate of homemade eggplant caponata, studded with pine nuts and raisins. If a thick cut of grilled swordfish doesn’t tempt you, then, carry on, there’s probably a man sitting on an overturned bucket shucking fresh sea urchins just around the corner. Though the visceral pleasure of Palermo’s edible delights are always close at hand in the colorful street markets of the city, the city has so much more to offer beyond the markets. In the eateries of residential neighborhoods and cafes of modern business districts, in small hidden places where Palermitani gather, the dimensions of a real working and eating city, in all of its beautiful complexity, come into view. On this 5-hour culinary tour of central Palermo, we will explore the city through its iconic dishes and lesser-known traditions, from humble street food to high-art pastries, contrasting the bustle of market life with calmer neighborhood dining culture. We will begin with coffee and pastries in an elegant cafe, absorbing the daily life of Palermo’s upper crust. We’ll then stop by the kitchen of one of Palermo’s best-known female entrepreneurs, greeting the chef and trying her famous anchovy panzerotti. From there we will munch our way through the lively Capo market, stopping by a favorite fish monger to taste a traditional salad made from just-caught seafood, on the way to visit the workshop of one of Palermo’s last puppeteers to see how he brings Sicilian history to life through his craft. Before leaving the Capo district, we’ll have a streetside picnic with some delicacies picked up in the market, washed down with an anise-flavored drink served by one of the last vendors still selling this classic Palermitan refreshment. Then, as we move on to the Ballarò market, we’ll go from stall to stall as local shoppers do, learning about Sicilian agriculture and sampling local pistachios and other nuts, candied fruits and Sicilian dessert wines and liqueurs. No visit to Ballarò would be complete without a bite of stigghiola, grilled lamb or veal intestines, a humble but delicious snack. Once out of the market, we’ll walk through Palermo’s historic Jewish Quarter and into the charmingly scruffy Kalsa neighborhood, which in the Middle Ages was a predominantly Arab district and still maintains traces of that fascinating past. Here we’ll stop in a neighborhood institution for two of Palermo’s most iconic bites: panelle and the spleen sandwich. Having made our way through two markets and contrasting districts, learned the history behind our bites and met the warm people upholding local culinary traditions, we will finish our time together in the Sicilian fashion, with an artisanal gelato, the sweet finish that unites this city.
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