The meal at Porta Marina was unplanned. It happened whilst we had a ten hour stop in Siracusa, before heading to Rome. Why 10 hours? Because we decided to catch the overnight train service from here to Rome. More significantly, it is the first time we are having a break since the last lockdown and anxiety levels still exist.. we are still in a pandemic people!
That said, the joy of being out again.. ouuu… I cannot put into words. We rammed everything we could into those 10 hours – flea markets, famous sites, art and of course the incredible lunch at Porta Marina!
We arrived quite early as we took the first ferry from Malta to Sicily, (it’s under 2 hours or so),come lunch time (which felt like ages to us), we were hungry and Porta Marina served up with their taster menu. One thing is for sure, if we thought Maltese portions were sizeable? Ha! Let’s just say the Italians have a very different idea!
The menu degustazione at Porta Marina comes as two options – Dammuso (2 starters, 2 first courses, 2 second courses and dessert). Yup, you get TWO of each like 😱 The Templi option, on the other hand is 3 starters, a 1st course and dessert which we went with (thank God) because these portions? Phewww! We started with squid that was filled with ricotta cheese paired with chenin blanc! Interestingly this was a warm dish that (we thought) looked like a chicken kiev! It was good!
The sword fish layered with aubergine, looked like a giant meat ball ha! With crispy parmesan on top, it was yum! Next came the fried octopus with paprika and parmesan. It had an intense smoky aroma, that we literally could not wait to taste it.. the flavour? 😋
Sea food pasta aka spaghetti with smoked sword fish, prawns, almonds and cherry tomatoes. when you mixed it up, the aroma.. laaawwwdd! It had flavour, texture, bite, the spaghetti was el dente err… duh Sicily right? It was truly delicious, perfecto!
The piece de resistance has got to be the pudding – almond semi fredo pared with local pudding wine! Chef had me at almonds but jeez! It was sinfully goodt!
Ahh Siracusa, grazie! Ten hours and you gave me culture, art and food.. A whole vibe
Cheers
Ndidi
p.s. more randoms
