Dining in Italy: Lo Stuzzichino

Lo Stuzzichino is just around the corner from Don Alfonso in Sant’Agata Sui Due Golfi. It is an osteria that has been recognized by many guides as one of the best trattorie in Italy, including tre gamberi by Gambero Rosso. … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Lo Stuzzichino

Dining in Italy: Locanda Mariella

We like eating at simple but good restaurants, called trattoria or osteria in Italy, as much as eating at gourmet restaurants with degustation menus and Michelin stars. The Gambero Rosso guide awards there highest rating of “tre gamberi” (three shrimp) to only 32 trattorie in all of Italy, and we will be eating at three of them during this trip. The first is Locanda Mariella, located in the middle of nowhere in the mountains near Parma. It is called “locanda” instead of trattoria/osteria, because it also has rooms to stay the night. (We however stayed in our RV (camper) on … Continue reading Dining in Italy: Locanda Mariella

Dining in Sicily: Tischi Toschi

Gambero Rosso is an Italian gourmet magazine that amongst other things publishes a guide with their reviews of restaurants in Italy. It is similar to the Michelin Guide, but I find that for Italy I tend to agree more with Gambero Rosso’s judgements than those of Michelin. Restaurants get awarded one, two or three forks (forchette), whereas trattorie may receive one, two or three prawns (gamberi). Only 16 trattorie in all of Italy have received 3 gamberi in the 2013 guide, and Tischi Toschi in Taormina is one of them (when I visited Tischi Toschi, it was still located in Messina). We make a point of eating at trattorie with tre gamberi and even before going to Tischi Toschi last night we had already eaten at 6 out of the 16.

Tischi Toschi is a small restaurant, run by Luca Casablanca and his son. For Luca, who was trained to be a jeweller,  food is a passion and it clearly shows. The restaurant serves authentic Sicilian dishes. Continue reading “Dining in Sicily: Tischi Toschi”