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| Restaurant Guide to Sicily: Modica |
| This small city is a jewel of Baroque architecture
and is gastronomically important because it maintains the ancient
Aztec traditions of chocolate manufacture, learned from the Spanish
occupation of southern Italy and Sicily from the early 1500s, when
Spain was discovering the New World. You’ll find Modica chocolate
sold in the regional food shops of the Autogrills on the autostradas,
as well as in fine food shops all over Italy. The best brand is
Bonajuto with a shop in the center of town. Modica is well worth
a day trip from Catania or Siracusa.
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La Sirenetta
Ristorante Pizzeria Bar
Sorda Sampieri, 79
Tel. 0932-454904
The pizza is quite good, but the other food was not wonderful, although
the fish I ordered was very fresh. I am not recommending this place
to tourists. I was taken by friends whose country house is nearby,
and they wanted me to see the local scene, which was, indeed, enlightening.
So, on the other hand, if you are in Modica, in want of pizza, and
are curious about the normal life of modern Modica, this restaurant
fits the bill. Proving how small the world is now, it could easily
have been an Italian-American family restaurant on Long Island. It
is a slick and contemporary place frequented by, on a Saturday night,
couples on dates, middle-aged couples dining in large packs, and families
with misbehaving children. |
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Scaccia de Spadara
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L'Arte della Focaccia
da Spadaro
Via Risorgimento, 113
Tel. 0932-453519
Closed on Tuesdays
This is a bakery, not a restaurant, in the modern section of Modica,
not the Baroque historic center. We stopped here to buy scaccia,
the local savory pastry, to take home with us. It is to die for.
I thought so when I ate it, my first experience with this pastry.
And I thought so after a week of eating it at other places, from
other bakeries. |
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Osteria dei Sapori Perduti
Corso Umberto 1, 228-230
Tel. 0932-944247
E-mail: info@osteriadeisaporiperduti.it
www.osteriadeisaporiperduti.it
In the kitchen is a young woman, a self-taught chef. In the dining
room is her charming husband. They couldn’t be nicer or more
adorable. The rooms – there are several – are decorated
with antique farm and kitchen equipment, which should prepare you
for the food, which follows the old ways of Modica. You will definitely
feel the need to order one of the dishes that come in tall terracotta
pots, just to have one of these vessels on your table. But don’t
order pasta in broth in the pot. It tastes mainly of salt. We ate
very good ricotta ravioli with sugo di maiale, pork-based ragu,
and some other heavy-ish dishes, but this is, indeed, the old-time
food of Modica. One dish, lolli, is a chewy pasta made in thick
ropes and served with brown fava beans. Apparently, it is a very
hard dish to find these days, unless your grandmother makes it.
It is definitely one of those things that you would have to have
grown up eating to enjoy, as many people in the dining room seemed
to be doing. For me it was more a gastro-anthropological experience
than something delicious. Still, I’d come back here to delve
more into this recherché repertoire. Truthfully, I can’t
wait. And you won’t spend more than $35 a person, all told. |
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| Sicily Guide: Palermo
- Sferracavallo - Catania
- Taormina - Modica
- Siracusa |
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