Palermo, Sicily

[weinoo]

What must we not miss? What should we avoid?

[teonzo]

Best thing to do in Palermo is to taste all the traditional street foods. The 2 most famous are "pani ca meusa" (bread with beef spleen) and "arancine di riso" (fried rice balls with various fillings), but there are a lot more. So I think it's better to go there with a "tapas tour" mentality than with a "fine dining" mentality.

Some addresses:

Bar Alba - Piazza Don Bosco 7/c

Bar Massaro - Via Basile Ernesto 26

Antica Focacceria San Francesco - Via Paternostro Alessandro 58

Mercato della Vucciria - Via dei Cortellieri (this is the market, with a lot of different stands)

About fine dining, there is only one restaurant which is talked about outside Sicily, it's Bye Bye Blues, and if I'm right it has a Michelin star:

http://www.byebyeblues.it/

If you like sweets, then Palermo is literally full of pastry shops that produce the traditional Sicilian pastries (cannoli and so on). The 2 most famous are:

http://www.accardipasticceria.com/

http://www.pasticceriacappello.it/

If you come also to Venice during your trip, feel free to pm me.

Teo

[Nyleve Baar]

In Palermo, I found the Ballaro market better than the Vucciria - with more stalls and more street food to sample. When we were there - admittedly 2 years ago - there was a stall set up more or less in the middle of the Ballaro that sold those chick pea fritters as well as some murderously good baked or fried (can't remember now) sardine sandwiches. You should also definitely eat one of those ice cream sandwiches made with brioche rolls (ridiculous). We enjoyed dinner at Sant'Andrea (I'm messing up the spelling, I'm sure, but I'm too lazy to dig up my notes) which is located pretty much in the Vucciria market area. Great vibe at night if you sit outside with the 6-year-olds racing their motorscooters up and down the street around you.